As I mentioned in the last travelogue from Buenos
Aires I was told that it would not be safe for Diane to go to Caracas
with me and roam around the city by herself. The thought was that
being hotel bound for four weeks weeks would be a big bore.
Little did any of us know about the great resort hotel they were
putting us up in while we were in Caracas. Diane would have loved
it. You win some, you lose some.
Given that Diane wasn't with me in Caracas, I
don't have any photos of our team's stay there. I only have
video. So there are no photos for the Caracas travelogues.
We wrapped up in Buenos Aires (BA) last Thursday
and my
four colleagues and manager left on Friday to go to Caracas. I
stayed an extra day in BA
because I was not able to get Diane out of Sao Paolo (which is where
she was connecting
with a Delta flight to Atlanta) until Saturday. It was either
have her
go home a week earlier or me spending an extra day in BA. Now
that was a
no-brainer decision if ever there was one. The final week in BA
was uneventful
compared to the first three weeks...no mustard people, no bus
#93. It was almost
boring. ;-) Since I was traveling on Saturday, I took
Friday off and spent it with
Diane to go visit some things in BA that I hadn't had a chance to see,
like the cathedral and a beautiful mission church in Recoleta that was
built in
1732.
We headed to the airport on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, I
had to leave about four hours before Diane's flight left for Sao
Paolo. We
have traveled so much together that it was a strange feeling to have to
say good-bye
(and we hate good-byes) and head off in different directions.
Those are
never easy times. I was actually in Caracas after an almost nine
hour flight
at about the same time that Diane's flight took off from Sao
Paolo. I called
Delta as soon as I got to the hotel to see if she was in seat 12C and
the plane was
in the
air so that I could sleep easier that night. All went well with
the connection and our stay in Buenos Aires was officially over.
My arrival in Caracas was via Bogota. We had to deplane, but I
didn't venture too far into the airport during the hour wait. The
flight was
with Aerolineas Argentina and was great. The service was good,
the food was good,
the seats were GREAT because they reclined almost to the horizontal
position. Everything was on time and the guy that was arranged to
pick me up was standing
there with his IBM sign. Thank goodness for that. We were
told to NOT
go with anyone else. I had to go exchange some dollars for
bolivars and my
driver stayed close. There were two guys lingering on both sides
of me at the
change window and one guy asked if I needed a taxi (as he closely
watched how much
money I was getting). Now you have to understand that one gets
554
bolivars for every US dollar. I exchanged $300 and thought I had
just won a lottery
as the changer gave me 166,200 bolivars, mostly in 5,000
denominations. You should have seen the huge wad of cash I
had after that exchange. What a
weird feeling to have what seems like a fortune in cash in your
pocket. I asked
the driver how much I should tip the bellboy for carrying my bags and
he said
500. Of course, that was about 90 cents. The only other
place I remember
trading in such large denominations was in Italy with their lira.
On the way out of the hotel I noticed lots of police and
soldiers. After we exited the airport grounds there was a soldier
every few hundred yards
for miles and the each had a MACHINE GUN. :-( I wasn't sure
whether I should feel safe or be worried, but my anxiety level goes up
when I see things like
that. Although, I have seen soldiers with machine guns in the
Paris airports,
too.
The hotel we are staying at is the Tamanaco Hotel, part of the
Intercontinental Hotel chain. It is actually a resort and is
quite nice.
There must be 5-6 restaurants in the place. I haven't totally
scouted it out
yet. It is the place they put up visiting IBMers to Caracas and
is close to the IBM
building and is secure. I had a message to meet my colleagues for
breakfast at 10am this morning and we ate out on a patio area.
The weather is
GORGEOUS and a welcomed change from the constant 50s we had in
BA. It was so
great to get back into jean shorts and t-shirt. This afternoon we
all decided
that we would just lounge around the great pool. I just had to
take some video
to show how hard a life we IBM auditors have while on the road.
;-) Too
bad we have to work. Tonight we decided that we will eat at a
restaurant out
near the pool and under a thatched roof.
I was told by the manager who interviewed me for this assignment back
in 1993 that there would be times during my tour in audit that I would
be
somewhere that would elicit the feeling of "I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY ARE
PAYING ME TO
DO THIS". I have experienced that several times during my
assignment
and, although I'm not exactly ecstatic to be in South America, being at
this
hotel is one of those moments. :-)
The url for this hotel is
http://www.interconti.com/pages/t/tamica.html if you want
to check it out.