he llegado

Finallllllmenteeee he llegado. Ahora estoy in caracas en Hotel Catimar para una noche, y manana vamos a Higuerote.

I'm relieved. I feel a warmness and comfort here already that I hadn't expected whatsoever. The only way that I can describe it is to compare it to my time in Saudi Arabia: it's a feeling of being in a place that you could never recognize or identify with before, yet you walk into it feeling at home and completely in your element. I feel this way already, conversing with people in the airport, playing around with little kids, joking around with the hotel maid in the hallway...there's a warmness in all of it, and I appreciate it.

Although I arrived in Caracas at night, the city still felt very much alive to me. As soon as I stepped outside, I heard music, I saw people chatting and selling things on the street. The women are beautiful, with bodies that could only be sculpted by the most skilled artists, and Venezuelan men have already captured me with the attitude that could only be described as that quintessential machismo. ayyyyy venezuela, yo he llegado.

At night, the initial view of Caracas from the airport is deceiving. What may appear to be hills upon hills of stars is your first taste of los barrios de Venezuela, and they unfold for miles farther than I can imagine. The development that I see in Caracas is also displayed against a backdrop of urban poverty, with tall hotels, PDVSA signs, graffiti and stray cats. It's all beautiful, just as it is.