Beaches and Political Update

I'll start off with some quick weekend updates and pictures and then delve into current politics here in Venezuela. Dereek and I went out with a friend of his and her husband, new baby and family on a boat this weekend. The family was super dramatic. The husband was going to fly back to Canada, they complained about the boat, they argued with each other, and they drank a lot. It was like hanging out with the Venezuelan version of the Kardashians. Conveniently, Dereek and I are fairly laid back so we just stayed out of the drama, had some drinks, watched the dolphins and went swimming. Since we didn't let it bother us, it was more entertaining then anything else. The beaches were gorgeous. It was awesome to have a private boat and we got to go to playa colorada (a beach I hadn't gotten to go to yet) and stop at another beach for lunch. We also got to follow some dolphins around, which was pretty cool. After the boat Dereek and I stayed in Puerto for a bit and had a nice dinner.

Dolphin Video

Dereek and I on the boat

Making some new friends

Dereek being annoying

Cute picture

Gorgeous Beach

The boat that we were on all day

Another view of playa colorada

=) 

Being cute

Beach Day

Now, on to politics. Not sure what is shown internationally, but at the moment things are a bit of a mess. The president (Maduro) recently said that prices on goods were too high and its the fault of the business owners. He said that they must lower their prices drastically or people should just take what is theirs. He has even listed an order (electronics, hardware stores, toys, etc) for people to "legally loot" from. This means that people recently have been storming electronics stores, breaking in and stealing/destroying anything in the store. If a store closes because they are worried about what will happen to themselves and their employees it is taken as rebellion towards the government and they are arrested. Check out this video of people breaking into a store in Puerto La Cruz: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm66D2891cA

What is bad about this is not so much that I'm worried about violence upon myself (I am not a store owner and live in a gated compound with security guards and a huge electric fence) and there really isn't much violence towards people only materials at the moment, but rather that our shortages are about to get far worse then they already are. There is no way that anyone is going to continue to import goods when this is happening, it simply becomes a risk to the store owner. Some of the parents at the school who are store owners have told us that they are going to stop carrying certain things to try and avoid getting robbed from. 

Other than this, the other current fear is that Maduro is seeking a decree to give him sole ruling power for over a year. This has happened when Chavez was in power, but Chavez had a little more charisma and tact then Maduro. Chavez was also in power so long that people knew what they were dealing wtih. Maduro is a completely new ball game and no one can really predict what he may do when given full power. I'm not really looking forward to living in a socialist dictatorship. This country's future is looking awfully bleak at the moment.

Just as reassurance, don't be worried. I'm still safe here. If things really ever got bad the school will send us home and according to our contracts still need to pay us for three more months. I also haven't signed a contract yet for next year and I was told that even though I said I would stay another year, no one would hold it against me or pull references if after Christmas things get really bad and I decide not to come back. 

Interesting stuff right? 

By the way, if I come home for Christmas and I hear ANYONE complain about problems in the USA I'm voting to have you deported and send you to live in Venezuela for a year. Tell me how you like when you don't even have toilet paper to wipe your butt with.