Various Reflections

The People Of Venezuela

Thanks to any lord, since I'm in Venezuela, the most interesting stuff for me are the inhabitants. In every cities and villages where I pass, people are always friendly and offer any help possible when they see that I'm looking for something. Several time, the people warned me about dangerous places to avoid and what to see, etc... I just can thanks them for all the support i received yet. Many people stopped by car when they saw me, and began to talk, and ask many questions. A man helped me in Maturín to find the bike shop. A woman helped me in Puerto Ordaz, when she saw i was searching on my map on the side of the street. Some men stopped around Upata, with their pick-up, and gave me support about distances and places to stop. It's fun to talk with them, and wait to see when they will begin to talk about Chavez. They are 100% with him or totally without. There is no middle but it is always fun to see them get involved in the subject.

I enjoyed a lot my night in Santa Fe, with the group of people at the house of the "Captain", on the beach. We were sit at the table, 6 people, drinking (in an always full) glass of rhum & coke, that the captain was carefully filling up each time it was at the middle. There was crabs everywhere around us, the waves at 2 meters from the table, under the shinning stars. Lots of salsa music (funny this time). Moments like this are unforgettable.

The lawless country

Here the cars are reaching incredible speeds, especially on secondary roads (where i bike most of the time). The police here don't make prevention nor gave penalty tickets. They only make some control on fixed places on the street. They stop the cars, sometimes look inside to verify for suspicious stuff. But you will never encounter any patrol doing speed verification or control. This weak system make the people drive like insane childs, without any judgement posible. The car, trucks and buses reach impossible speeds, like 150km/h on very small and curved roads. I remember while i stayed at the firemen stations, the boys there explaining me that every nights they went out and pick-up dead corpses along the highway and secondary roads, on accident sites. Every nights! The mortality due to car accident is very high, and i can understand it. In any good society, you have to put CONSTRAINTS, RULES, PENALTIES to make the people respect an order and stay mentally sane. Once you remove those rules, the people become like animals and stop thinking. The same for roadside pollution or music control in cities. Here you have no penalty for throwing shit by the window, so every people get rid of the beer when driving. There is no control for the music too, so you can hear damn salsa until 2-3am in the night. LAWLESS country. I begin to understand that even if we always complain in Canada about rules and government control of everything, it is the best way to keep the society in a decent way.

Pedro Juan Gutiérrez

I recently finished to read one of the most amazing book I've read for a long time : "Trilogie sale de la havane" by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez. I recommand this book for any people that like the "Cartman" style of talking from South Park, mixed with the tropical flavor and dirt of Cuba, sex, drinking and cigars. This man is simply funny to read, but the content is pure-raw, dusty and direct stuff. He writes shorts stories about his everyday life and anecdotes from the people of the Cuban society. So excellent and probably one of the only book i laughed a lot while reading it. I am just impatient to get the next one from Gutiérrez, "Animal tropical". Probably the best book I bought in my life with "Sur la route" from Jack Kerouac.