First day in Caracas

Hello everyone!

I have safely arrived in Caracas, and not without adventure. After my two hour delay, my host and friend Roy found me at the airport, where we took a shared transport van to to the city. However, it breaks down on the precipitous mountain road between the airport and Caracas. Just on the other side of a bridge over a ravine. The State Dept's travel webpage has told me that this road is very dangerous, and there are roadside huts and bands of robbers roaming the hills. When the men get behind the van to push it forwards into a shoulder, it starts to slide back down the incline at first. There are cars and trucks and buses whizzing by, and some smaller buses stop to offer us rides, but not for free. The driver has called another van to come pick us up, but then reconizes a micro driver and we go with him to the metro. Although this bus was also old and rickety, and I was worried it also wouldn't make it up the incline. But it did, and I arrived safely to Roy's. The metro here is quite nice and efficient, sometimes quite crowded, and full of publicity of how the socialist revolution is financing the future. (There are generally a lot of Chavez and revolution-related billboards.)

Today he accompanied me on an exploration of parts of the center of the city, which included some pretty buildings (the first ones I had seen, much of the other architecture seems to be 1950s utility apartment blocks and shantytowns rising into the hills to the south), likeSimon Bolivar's birthplace and museum. The buildings are lovely and well maintained, and contain artifacts from his life, even a pair of dirty socks (no offense intended, but I found this a little silly). We also saw the Teresa Carreno Cultural Complex and Bellas Artes, from the outside.

Also, I happened to run into 2 protests today (that I knew were happening from the local papers, but didn't know the routes-I guess even if I had, I wouldn't have known the streets, especially because the houses don't have numbers here, just intersections and landmarks!)-the anti-Chavista march and pro-Chavista counter-march. I saw them in different neighborhoods (which reflect where he's supported) and did not see them clash together. I did see a lot of police in more serious riot gear than I had ever seen, which is saying something.

I am hoping this week to get started on meeting the people I would like to meet and see some orchestras in action, as that is really what I'm here for. (Although I'm sure I'll do some more touristy/cultural things too.) Hopefully the music I discover will offset the ugliness of the city (although the weather is perfect, the air quality and garbage are awful).