Caracas - Day #1

Our plane landed at the airport outside of Caracas as dawn was breaking. We slept some on the plane but we were pretty tired when we finally landed. We were in first class, which allowed us to hit the immigrations lines first.

As we got off of the plane we were greeted by airport workers wearing surgical masks and gloves. Chris and I had to sign had to sign medical release forms before we cleared immigration/customs and lots of people had masks on. There were signs warning against flu and instructions on how to avoid transmission of the flu as well.

I knew that a car and driver would be awaiting us, and I imagined a young chauffeur and a sleek black sedan. Much to my surprise, a chubby middle aged man met us - his name was "Jaime" (pronounced Hy-mae) and brought us out to a slightly beat up mini-van. Once I got over my initial disappointment, Jaime turned out to be a sweetheart and we loved having him show us around. He spoke in broken English, and we spoke in broken Spanish - but managed to understand each other for the most part. The drive to Caracas from the airport takes about 30 minutes, and goes up about 3000 feet. The views are breathtaking. Caracas in in a valley and is surrounded by mountains, nothing is flat here.

The airport was very near the beach and we could see hi-rise hotels along the water as we landed. The foothills of the Mountains started just behind the airport and were riddled with 'barrios' - neighborhoods of the poor people. These meager dwellings are carved into the hills and mountains surrounding Caracas.

He whisked us to the J.W. Marriott and we checked in around 6 am. We were still pretty wired from the flight and new environment so we decided to do our P90X workout in the gym at the hotel. After that, we went to the breakfast buffet - very different than what you usually find in the U.S. First of all, the fruit was different and I did not know what half of it was. There was lots and lots of meat options, sliced, shredded, grilled, fried (yes, fried meat). There was ONE kind of milk. No skim, 1%, 2% - just plain leche. Oh, and as far as Spanish goes, everyone speaks it here. I know that sounds funny - but it is a little freaky to realize that almost no one outside of the guy checking you in at the hotel speaks any English!

After a nap, Tara Turner came to pick us up for our tour of the school, neighborhoods and potential places to live. God bless this woman. She patiently toured us for several hours stopping at grocery stores, pharmacies, the school, and an apartment. Tara is wonderful, she is a spouse of one of the management team in Caracas. She is an RN with a master's degree in public health, but now stays at home with her kids. The school was beautiful and looks like Katherine and Madeline are going to have a great time there.

We are going to live in a high-rise apartment and will have a pick of a few to choose from. We saw a couple of apartments, including Tara's that are coming available soon. After touring grocery stores, pharmacies, etc.. to get an idea of goods sold here we ended up at Tara's apartment to meet her husband and kids and hang out with them for dinner.

They are very nice and have four beautiful kids - they love their life here and told us about the good things and challenges of living here. They ordered in Sushi and we drank wine and talked for hours about life in Caracas. Jaime brought us back to the hotel and we are about to fall into bed happy, excited, and exhausted.