A New Year
I can't believe that it's already seven days into the new year. I'm already behind in posting to my blog! I can't even claim to be extremely busy - but I am somewhat unmotivated. That's what happens to me when I'm not busy.
Because there's not much going on to report, I guess I'll just record thoughts and impressions. It seems strange to me that I have been living in Caracas for four months now. I remember before I moved here I really couldn't comprehend what it would be like to live in another country. After all, before I moved to Albuquerque I had only lived in one city for my entire life, with the exception of college and I'm not sure that count
s. Now, while my life isn't exactly how I would structure it if I were living here long term, it has a routine and familiarity that I hadn't expected. I've never lived in a big city before. Albuquerque at 600,000 (mas o menos) is probably twice the size of Fort Wayne, but not large by anyone's definition. So living in a city of 4.5 million is a new experience. Not having a car makes it a different experience as well, but I wouldn't want to drive here. It's not Mexico City, but it's not Chicago either. The overwhelming sensation for me is noise. It is a very noisy city. And my neighborhood is probably quieter than most. But, as my friends and I were discussing on New Year's Eve, there are a lot of fireworks here. They have diminished this week, but I still hear them at night. At least now I'm not being awakened at 3:00 in the morning with loud bangs. I would just lay there listening for police sirens to no avail. Car alarms constantly, but the police aren't going to bother with fireworks. Occasionally I even get to see some pretty ones, but usually they are just the loud noisy ones. Maybe noise is common to big cities, but some is unique to Caracas. For example, every morning starting at about 6:00 and every evening at dusk I hear the parrots squawking and screeching. At first I thought that a neighbor had birds and that was what I was hearing. Although I maybe do have a bird-loving neighbor, I understand from the guide books that parrots live along the river that is a few blocks south of me, between my neighborhood of El Rosal and Los Mercedes. They leave in the morning to go over to Avila or Parque del Este (big park in the Altamira - more later with pictures) and return in the evening to sleep. Just a little bit of nature here in the city.
Now that it's a new year the government makes the street vendors (buhoneros) pack up and leave so they can clean the streets. I guess they start setting back up again later in January. Sabana Grande is an east-west pedestrian street that more or less parallels the metro line beginning with the Plaza Venezuela metro station, going through the Sabana Grande station and ending at Chacaito. Normally the entire length of this street is full of vendors' stalls on both sides of the street. This week I walked down there and there were no vendors. It was amazing. You could actually see the stores on either side of the street and I even discovered that there is a mall over there. Usually it is so crowded with vendors and shoppers that you can't see anything.
This morning I went to the Chacao market. Chacao is a neighborhood. It is also a municipality and the one in which I live. The market is reminiscent of those I've seen in Mex
ico, except that the meat is in refrigerated cases like you would see in a meat market and they will actually put the meat in a styrofoam container with plastic wrap if you want.
Even though December is supposed to be the beginning of the dry season, we are still having a lot of rain here. It has raining almost every day this week - a couple of days it rained all day and the sun did not appear at all. Times like those I really miss the New Mexico desert. Several days this week I noticed that the poor nuns living at the school in front of my house were trying to do their laundry, which they hang out on the roof of the building. Their sheets were out there for a couple of days because they kept getting rained on.
In addition to a school across the way I also look out over a nearly vacant lot. At the back of this lot - against one side of the school - is a "structure," actually more like a shack. A man who I guess is the caretaker lives there with his two dogs. This morning he was out there early using some kind of a pipe to break up the concrete on the lot. There had evidently been a house there. You can still see the tiles from the house. Anyway, this guy crouches down and hits at the old concrete, breaking it into little pieces and piling them up. I guess he carts them away sometime because there are not huge piles of debris there. I guess he lives there to provide some security on the property, but his home is really just a shack with electricity. He leaves the door open during the day and it looks like there is just one room. He has a lawn chair out front that he sits on and looks out at the world. It's really pretty strange. I guess just another example of life in Caracas.
Because there's not much going on to report, I guess I'll just record thoughts and impressions. It seems strange to me that I have been living in Caracas for four months now. I remember before I moved here I really couldn't comprehend what it would be like to live in another country. After all, before I moved to Albuquerque I had only lived in one city for my entire life, with the exception of college and I'm not sure that count
s. Now, while my life isn't exactly how I would structure it if I were living here long term, it has a routine and familiarity that I hadn't expected. I've never lived in a big city before. Albuquerque at 600,000 (mas o menos) is probably twice the size of Fort Wayne, but not large by anyone's definition. So living in a city of 4.5 million is a new experience. Not having a car makes it a different experience as well, but I wouldn't want to drive here. It's not Mexico City, but it's not Chicago either. The overwhelming sensation for me is noise. It is a very noisy city. And my neighborhood is probably quieter than most. But, as my friends and I were discussing on New Year's Eve, there are a lot of fireworks here. They have diminished this week, but I still hear them at night. At least now I'm not being awakened at 3:00 in the morning with loud bangs. I would just lay there listening for police sirens to no avail. Car alarms constantly, but the police aren't going to bother with fireworks. Occasionally I even get to see some pretty ones, but usually they are just the loud noisy ones. Maybe noise is common to big cities, but some is unique to Caracas. For example, every morning starting at about 6:00 and every evening at dusk I hear the parrots squawking and screeching. At first I thought that a neighbor had birds and that was what I was hearing. Although I maybe do have a bird-loving neighbor, I understand from the guide books that parrots live along the river that is a few blocks south of me, between my neighborhood of El Rosal and Los Mercedes. They leave in the morning to go over to Avila or Parque del Este (big park in the Altamira - more later with pictures) and return in the evening to sleep. Just a little bit of nature here in the city.Now that it's a new year the government makes the street vendors (buhoneros) pack up and leave so they can clean the streets. I guess they start setting back up again later in January. Sabana Grande is an east-west pedestrian street that more or less parallels the metro line beginning with the Plaza Venezuela metro station, going through the Sabana Grande station and ending at Chacaito. Normally the entire length of this street is full of vendors' stalls on both sides of the street. This week I walked down there and there were no vendors. It was amazing. You could actually see the stores on either side of the street and I even discovered that there is a mall over there. Usually it is so crowded with vendors and shoppers that you can't see anything.
This morning I went to the Chacao market. Chacao is a neighborhood. It is also a municipality and the one in which I live. The market is reminiscent of those I've seen in Mex
ico, except that the meat is in refrigerated cases like you would see in a meat market and they will actually put the meat in a styrofoam container with plastic wrap if you want.Even though December is supposed to be the beginning of the dry season, we are still having a lot of rain here. It has raining almost every day this week - a couple of days it rained all day and the sun did not appear at all. Times like those I really miss the New Mexico desert. Several days this week I noticed that the poor nuns living at the school in front of my house were trying to do their laundry, which they hang out on the roof of the building. Their sheets were out there for a couple of days because they kept getting rained on.
In addition to a school across the way I also look out over a nearly vacant lot. At the back of this lot - against one side of the school - is a "structure," actually more like a shack. A man who I guess is the caretaker lives there with his two dogs. This morning he was out there early using some kind of a pipe to break up the concrete on the lot. There had evidently been a house there. You can still see the tiles from the house. Anyway, this guy crouches down and hits at the old concrete, breaking it into little pieces and piling them up. I guess he carts them away sometime because there are not huge piles of debris there. I guess he lives there to provide some security on the property, but his home is really just a shack with electricity. He leaves the door open during the day and it looks like there is just one room. He has a lawn chair out front that he sits on and looks out at the world. It's really pretty strange. I guess just another example of life in Caracas.
posted by Sue Taylor at 5:02 PM
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