medregal village, haulout and Spain.
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Sun 15 Aug 2010 18:04
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It's been a while since I wrote on my blog, I did
try a couple of weeks ago, almost finished when my computer crashed, so I
lost everything. The computer expert says I didn't integrate the
power supply at source. (Plug it in!)
So lets try again.
We have had some difficult times, one way or
another, problems in Spain, things not happening as they should. We wanted to
try and sell a house and that was causing problems due entirely to the corrupted
authorites in the town concerned, but I won't go into details. The final bad
news was Yvonnes Dad was taken ill, so we said she should use our remaining US
dollars to fly back to UK, then she could go onto to argue the problems with the
house in Spain. We couldn't both go, US dollars are not easy to obtain in
Venezuela, you can't draw from a bank like most other countries.
Yvonne flew out on June 1st, and she is still
there! Her Dad was in hospital when she arrived, but he came home after 4 or 5
days, he is ok now. Yvonne then flew to Spain to visit Rob and Susie and our
grand daughter Evie Marie. While there attempting to solve the house selling
problem. One delay after another and buyers backing out because of the bribery
and corruption. Finally the sale is completed and Yvonne is due back on 18th
August, except that our daughter Susie has been taken ill and is now in hospital
with head and neck pains. The doctors have apparently completed many tests, for
the serious things Menegitus, tumors, etc etc. and they have all proved
negative, so thats the good news. All in Spain have been suffering with a severe
virus and sickness.The doctors now think the virus caused Susie to violently
vomit which badly pulled a muscle in the neck. It will take a time to heal, but
hopefully that is all the problem is. The update is Susie is back home, all
is ok, it is a pulled tendon in her neck, she'll survive.
So all being well Yvonne flys to the UK to check on
her Dad then from London to Madrid and onto Caracas on 18th.
So you may think me being alone for three months,
I would have plenty of time to write on the blog etc, but with the worries
of Spain and UK I haven't had the enthusiasm to do too much, apart from the
maintenance of Chaser, the house and garden, cooking and cleaning,
fixing the car, generator, shopping, washing, and feeding the baby. a womans
work is never done!
So, the news here in Venezuela, well, Medregal
village and the haulout yard are moving from strength to strength, the
restaurant has new tables and chairs, flat screen TV just outside the bar area,
(in time for the world cup too). many of the rooms needed repair etc and that
has been done. The trailer for the haulout of multihulls is complete. Jean Marc
now has his original Toyota 12 seater landcruiser back, and, last week
bought a 9 metre Pinero boat that can seat 15 with a fly bridge and two 115HP
Yamaha outboards.
His plan is to have the car for tours into town and
or local sightseeing. That is more for the cruising people because the hotel
guests have generally got their own car. The boat will be used for touring up
and down the Gulf of Cariaco, beach barbeques or shopping trips for hotel guests
and anyone interested. Jean Marc is himself a happier person too, and our old
dispute with him has been forgotten.
Unfortunately there have been few cruising boats
visiting this year, everywhere has been quiet, Grenada, Trinidad and many of the
Islands. This is mainly due to the financial crisis that supposedly hasn't been
too bad, but in actual fact has hit all countries worse than stated, America
probably harder hit than anyone. Consequently fewer people taking time out
sailing.
Venezuela has the added disadvantage of receiving
bad publicity from foreign countries. Much is propaganda, and travel companies
are being advised by Foreign Offices not to visit or avoid certain areas because
of high crime rates and murders.
Well, Venezuela does have its problems, and the
current government appears to do little about it. The US has similar problems
too, but there are no adviseries not to visit the States. So it is political.
The crime rate in Venezuela is high, but most of that happens in the slum areas
especially in and around Caracas. For the sailing community that is here or
anyone reading this thinking of coming, there really isn't too much to worry
about, no more than in any other Isalnds within the Caribbean.
Prices are still quite reasonably for us
foreigners, because of what is called the black market or parallel exchange
rate. Hence the reason why you cannot draw money from a bank. The bank would
give you 2.6 Bolivares to 1US$ where as now the parallel rate is giving 8
bolivares to 1 US$. Everyone who knows the system changes money this way, even
I'm sure the government. The government does not allow venezuelan people to buy
many US$ in a bank, Anyone who buys abroad or imports has to pay in dollars.
Hence the existance of a blackmarket rate.
For the local people prices are rising quickly, but
that rise is wiped out for us foreigners because we have dollars.
I have just left the Gulf of Cariaco and Medregal
village for Puerto De La Cruz, a marina for a change. The sail was quite good,
though had to motor half the way, one of the good things is you can sail all
year in Venezuela. It is hurricane season now until November but often any
serious weather coming across from Africa sucks the wind out of this area. The
weather forecasters have been saying this year will be a bad one regarding named
storms.So maybe this will bring a few more boats our way, it would be nice to
meet a few new cruising people.
To run through the fotos, (may not be in this
order) Evie our Grandaughter is growing fast, here in her Spanish football gear
during the world cup, and with her Mum in the Moors and Christians fiesta in
Moraira. We have a new photo on Google earth taken Feb 14th 2010, showing our
house, and Jean Marcs, (the owner of Medregal Village) when you look
close you can see Chaser laying at anchor just offshore.
It has been Sardine season, here we see the
local fisherman who laid there nets just astern of Chaser. They trawl
their catch then circle their nets, dive and tie them closed so the fish are
trapped. They then use a second net within the circle to bring the sardines to
their boats. They fill the boats so full they barely have their gunwhales
above the water. The sardines are taken ashore to awaiting trucks for market.
Sometimes though the bigger fishing boats come to buy the sardines,'live'. In
the photo you can see the second net has been dragged over to the larger boats
and they lean in with wicker baskets to scoop out the fish. They seem to take
about 20 baskets of live bait fish each.
And, our latest crew member, Captain Ron, he fell
out of a tree, and a neighbour asked if I wanted him. He was about 5 weeks old
in the foto, and they found him when he was 2 or 3 weeks. They hand fed him and
I took over from them. He is very tame, whether he'll stay that way we'll see. I
still have to feed him now, he can eat a little himself but e dribbles most, but
hopefully he's getting the hang of it, hand rearing a parrot is a pain..The last
photo is Jean Marcs'new boat! Not bad, I hope all works out for him now, it has
been a bad couple of years.
So all for now, hopefully we'll soon get to do some
sailing and diving. Our friends from Tradewind return in October, so it
will be good to see them again, our plans to visit them in UK didn't work
out. Hopefully the next blog will have some more of our sailing
adventures, though we won't be going as far this year as we had previous years.
We also want to travel more inland, Venezuela has a lot to offer, and South
America, well it's huge, Peru would be good to see.
Fair winds to all
These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google. Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/ |
