We finished up our South American trip on Friday,
a week early. Everyone was ready to go home. This has been
quite an adventure for us
first timers to South America. There was certainly some
excitement that we don't
usually get on these trips. We are content with just being able
to do some
good sightseeing. This trip started for me with a call from my
manager who knew I didn't care to go to South America. She asked
me to consider making the
trip because she was really in a bind from a skills standpoint.
She
also joked that I was "limiting my experience" by not going to South
America. It
was hard to say no given that she has always treated me OK and went to
bat to take
me back onto this audit team. So this was a loyalty thing.
Payback
time. If you have read the notes I have sent out during this
trip, you can probably tell
that I got more than I bargained for and I have certainly 'broadened my
experience'. ;-)
To be sure, there were some good memories, funny memories,
exciting/scary memories, such as:
1. the mustard people of Buenos Aires, which caused, and is still
causing,
my colleague lots of grief due to stolen credit cards, license,
etc.
It will be months before all that settles down. It was a bit
disconcerting
when, a week later, he got hit again, this time with Diane and I
along. We
started joking with the other three team members that it was their turn
to walk
with Merle the next time we go touring. ;-) It was humorous
to see these lowlife thieves
turn on a dime and head the other way when I pointed my video camera at
them.
2. then there was the bus #93 night. That one was amusing from the get-go because I think we didn't feel threatened given there were six of us. I'm sure we'll all remember that one for a long time.
3. it will be hard to forget the taxi
drivers, all of which were very
aggressive, but very competent, drivers. This must be a common
phenomenon
because they drove almost the same way in Caracas. What was funny
was one my
colleagues, Carol, who would bury her head after a driver did something
a bit
scary and she would mumble in jest "I'm not going to look
anymore". Made us
all laugh every time she did that.
4. I know I'll miss the great beef and red wine in Buenos Aires, although we do have that in the USA, too. What we'll miss is Las Nazarenas and Fernando, our regular waiter. We there no less than six times. It may be harder to find the medialunas we had every morning for breakfast in the hotel lounge and the empanadas that were served to us automatically as a starter in many restaurants at the dinner meals.
5. and then there was the LEGUI, a 'licor fino' that they would give to us after we paid our dinner bill. A couple of nights they brought a bottle of champagne for our table and gave that to us - gratis. Nice touch. The legui was so good that I'm bringing two bottles home with me.
6. the trip to Montevideo on our first
weekend in South America was pretty
forgettable, but the fast ferry was nice.
7. the day trip to the estancia La Cinacina was a great day and the video of the horse racing and games came out great.
8. the stay in Caracas was pretty boring and that is why we are glad to have ended early. The weather is like living in paradise, but the crime and fear factor put a real damper on our stay. The hotel was a marvelous way to have to spend being hotel bound, but cabin fever was starting to set in.
9. the thing I will remember most about Caracas is the Tamanaco Hotel and the views of the mountains and the view of the city from up on the mountains.