lost my tent in maracay!

hello folks,

I´m out of Caracas and spent a week camping on the beach at a place called Grande Playa, in Henry Pittier Nacional Parque. camping on the beach is a surreal experience, since you have no shower(except for the ocean), no bathroom(except for the ocean... or you could spend .25 cents to use the public bathroom), no kitchen, and no bed(except for my sleeping bag). anyhoo, i got a nice sunburn my first day out, the water is so perfect out here!

besides being a beachbum for a week, i started my spanish lessons, which consisted of me writing 600 flashcards from my dictionary and memorizing as much as possible. this plan is working, as i´m picking up words in conversations and I feel like i will be semi-fluent in 2-3 weeks.

i managed to lose my tent when i left the beach on my way to my next stop. i honestly can´t believe i did that! at least i got a good one weeks worth out of it. it was so hot in that bus, i just wasn´t thinking coherant. it must of been 101 degrees with 120% humidity!

speaking of buses, the next bus i took was a 12 hour overnite ride to Merida. it was so F"$%ing cold in that bus! it was like 30 degrees the whole way! of course i was wearing shorts, and my gear was stuffed in the luggage under the bus. anyhoo, they were having a movie marathon which included ALL of the Rocky movies! heeheh. i must say that Rocky III is the best of all. You have a guest appearance by Hulk Hogan, Mr T. pushes rocky´s trainer(Mic) down and kills him in the process, Rocky loses his title to Mr T, only to come back in the end and win it back! Netflix it today, you won´t be disappointed!... yep it was cold. so cold in fact, my brain wasn´t working correctly and i got off at the wrong stop! aih-ya!

things are looking up though, I´m in Merida now(the sports adventure capital of Venezuala). found a really cheap place to stay, have a really cool room-mate from greece,(he gave the lowdown on how to exploit the exchange rates between Columbia and Venezuala... extra moola!) and i think i´ll stay here for a week or two since there is so much stuff to do. since i have the extra cash, i´ll get to do some adventure sports.. ie. canyoning, paragliding, etc.

here´s some snapshots i took.. my place on the beach, and a museum i went to today in merida. i really like the wavy lantern, i think that´s gonna be my next lighting project when i get back to NY.

miss you all and i think of you every day!

-patrick