Lessons Learned in Venezuela

Now I should start this post by saying that we are staying in a really nice hotel. We have a completely remodeled and upgraded room. Also, we are lucky enough to have our hotel connected to a huge mall that where we can go and get all types of food...Mexican, Italian, American, Fast Food, Pizza...etc. All that being said, we have learned some tough lessons in Venezuela.

Lesson 1: Don't drink the water
Ok, ok....so this sounds like a no brainer. But if you think about it that eliminates all water, lettuce, raw vegetables, fruits without peels, any drink with ice and any food that has been washed or rinsed and not cooked. So that's the tricky part...especially when we have limited options. Since we have been here both Chris and I have had an upset stomach here and there, but nothing too bad. So I got really brave a couple days ago....I was craving a salad! We had been eating pizza, sandwiches, pasta, and all I wanted was a salad. So I got one from one the nicest restaurants down stairs. Day one went by and I was fine and declared it a victory! I was wrong. Three days later I definitely suffered from my decision. I was down for a couple days and had to stay in bed to watch Chris' games. It was miserable and a lesson well learned! Sadly, I don't think I will be able to enjoy anymore salads.

Lesson 2: Cover the vents
Apparently, the filters on the air vents in this hotel are not changed that often. A lot of the guys warned us to cover our air conditioning vents to help filter some of the germs that circulate through the hotel. We kind of ignored them for the first week or so, but now Chris has a full on cold! And I definitely am starting to show signs too. But the tricky part is that the vent is on the ceiling...and we don't have any tape to secure something around the vent. So were on the hunt for some duck tape and a cheap blanket to "filter" our air. Now that may sound easy and we do have access to a very large mall....but some of life's necessities are really expensive here. And if you try and pay with a credit card forget it....thats lesson #3.

Lesson 3: Don't pay with credit card
So we decide on the second day here that we wanted subway. In an effort to save the "Bolivars" that Los Leones gave us for meal money, we decided to use our credit card. Bad idea. If you use your credit card the exchange rate it 2-to-1, but if you exchange dollars on the black market you get 5-to-1. When we bought our subway we thought we were only paying about $13 (US) with our 5-to-1 math, but when we checked our credit card it actually charged us the 2-to-1 amount which turned our subway dinner into $39 (US). That wasn't too hard of a lesson. But the Gamel's (another American family here for baseball) learned the lesson the hard way. They went down to the mall and bought their little 8 month old daughter a baby doll. It cost them $300 Bolivar or $60 US. That was expensive enough, but even worse, they charged it to their credit card and it ended up costing them $160! Big lesson learned! Needless to say, our credit cards will not be getting anymore action while visiting Venezuela.

Well I hope you enjoyed your lessons from Venezuela! Hopefully we don't have too many more of these!! LOL! Chris is playing the road today about 3 hours away. So I'm going to watch the game in our room with one of the other wives. Were going to get a bottle of wine and cheer our boys on! Go Chri He-minez! (As the Venezuelans say it with no "s" on the end of his first name!) Adios!

Day 13 down....35 more to go!!