eastern venezuela is a tortured, wild land. ive seen lynx, crocodiles, monkeys, sloths, snakes. there are anaconda here; the kind that grow to 100ft and can eat a man. at least they say so. i have seen centipedes up to 12 inches. the small ones of a couple inches are told to have the sting of a rattlesnake. at night the vampire bats bite whothey.
the land is all ten years fallow. there is no old growth, just weeds. the trees are choked by weeds and the weeds are chocked by mats of vines. its like walking into an old house where all the furniture is covered by sheets. no one has been here for years. one thing that president chavez has tried to do is reappropriate all this unused land to the poor. he calls it revolution. part of this revolution seems to be a shortage of goods. if you go to the store they might have flour, they might not. they might have chicken, they might not. they might have toilette paper, they may not. they might have milk...no, they wont have milk. as you might imagine there is a polarization in opinion when it coes to mr. chávez.
luckily the shortages havé not been a problem. i am always being fed. every night i am given dinner, the police always give me something. little old men stop their bicycles to feed me. one man stopped his semi in the middle of the highway, got out and without a word gave me two cans of tuna. the people here are uncommonly generous. i have been gifted almost $100 (which is a lot for me), a cell phone, more cloths than i can carry and shoes. in three years i have only been given three pairs of shoes. my aunt before i left for the mountains, the same family that gave me whothey and a family in nicaragua. it is usually the only thing i ever really need. but no one ever thinks to give me shoes. i have here been given nine pairs of shoes in three months. again it is rare for a person to invite me to stay the night with them. normally i have to solicit that type of help. here i am routinely told that i cant make it any further tonight and that i ought to stay the night and start again early in the morning.
then i turn the corner and i am told im not welcome here and i should just keep going. i have been robbed twice, i am called a spy, a mule (maria full of grace) or i am left to sleep in the ditch. i am mocked and insulted. i am often harrased by the police and was once detained by the military for eight hours. then they fed me, gave me clothes and a pair of shoes and released me. the venezuelans are an extraordinary people: they are a paradox.
venezeulans have generaly struggled to undersand what i am doing. most people can at least imagine theoretical how my journey could make sense but they seem to have no context whatsoever. because of this it has been very difficult traveling here. and yet despite a general atmosphere of disaproval they have been very generous. to me this says a lot about this people.
right now i am in tinaco. a decent sized town on the edge of the states capital. i have been here nearly a month and have been taken in again by another kind family as i seek a visa extension in san carlos. when i entered my visa was "open", in that it was not suppose to expire. the military who were certain they had trapped a spy disagreeded. immigration in san carlos hasnt taken sides but it seems as if they are going to help me get the paperwork i need to avoid further problems. hopefully i can start moving again. soon i will reach the andes where i will be walking for the next year.
