Trip to Los Llanos

I thought I would post some pictures from my trip to Los Llanos, Venezuela's plains (there are more on Facebook, should anyone want to look there). I traveled with my friend Danielle who had just arrived in Caracas, and we met fellow Fulbright friends on the tour. We arrived a day early to Barinas, the jumping off point of our tour, and Chavez's homeland. I recently read that he very much has the characteristics of a llanero, a cowboy of Los Llanos. Los Llanos has amazingly diverse ecosystems, where grazing cows and horses share watering holes with capybaras (the world's largest rodents), turtles, caymans, piranas, and all sorts of different bird species. Danielle and I went on early morning runs, where we saw an elusive anteater (he was huge!), we went on safaris, pirana fishing, anaconda hunting, a riverboat ride, and horseback riding. It was quite the adventure.

There are some capybaras in the background!

In Barinas, "Chavez, te amo-Chavez, I love you"

A picture from the Carnaval parade in Guanare

This is the church of the Virgen of Coromoto, Venezuela's patron saint. It was huge, and sort of looks like a parking lot from outside. It's also in the middle of nowhere. Apparently on this spot the Virgen appeared to the indigenous people and told them to convert to catholicism.

Since then, it's been back to Caracas to teach and watch old videos. It's the 35th anniversary of El Sistema, so there have been a lot of excellent concerts-Dudamel was here, as was Claudio Abbado. In other news, I will most probably be back in Chicago with May, to work with the People's Music School in creating more El Sistema-like orchestras in Chicago (right now, there's the YOURS orchestra, with which I taught last summer). There are a lot of questions to answer before I go, but I think I will be very ready to return to the comfort and familiarity of everything there. Upcoming things here should include going to Barquisimeto, a hugely musical city, and then, Sebastian's visit.