Wednesday, November 1, 1995 - Isla Margarita, Venezuela

Better radio reception this morning. Talked with David on Mistine. He gives weather forecasts for the entire Caribbean area every morning. He recommended our waiting another 24 hours, until this tropical wave passes by and conditions settle down, so that's what we'll do. Went into Porlamar at noon to eat lunch at that good cafe we found the other day. The place is always immaculate and attractive. For dessert, we ordered strawberry ice cream. To our amazement, they brought us sundaes! There were two scoops of strawberry and one of vanilla, topped with whipped cream and strawberry sauce. Boy, were they good! The money situation here in Venezuela is getting worse and worse. The country's on the verge of bankruptcy. We were approached by one exchanger after another, each offering a different rate. The first one offered 290! But it turned out that was only if we exchanged $100; he didn't want our $20, and of course we don't want to be stuck with a bunch of worthless Bolivares when we leave here. After being offered low rates by several other exchangers, a young man eagerly accepted our $20 in exchange for 5500 Bolivares. That's the highest rate we've gotten yet. We picked up a free English-language newspaper with article after article about the corruption and crime in this country. Last year, fourteen major banks folded. The government poured several trillion Bolivares (about eight billion dollars) into the banks to pay off the depositors, but as soon as the bankers got their hands on the money, they took off with most of it and fled the country. There was an article by an expert in South American finance who compared the economic problems of the various countries. She called Venezuela "a basket case". Bus fares went up this morning from 20 Bolivares to 30 Bolivares. The extra nickel doesn't hurt us, but it's rough on working people who rely on the bus to get to and from work and whose pay might only be the equivalent of $200 a month. We wanted to see the Proveenduria Supermarket that a German couple had told us about. They said it was even better than Rattan's and had more U.S. products. When we asked the cafe manager about it, he said it was just a local market with lower prices, but he told us where it was. He didn't know which bus to take, so he advised us to take a cab, which we did. The cab fare was 500 Bolivares, or less than $2 at the rate we got this morning. We were amazed when we saw the place. It turned out to be an entire shopping mall. We walked around, looking at all the stores. Bought a small electric fan. When we finally got to the grocery store, we were disappointed. It couldn't even begin to compare with Rattan's. There wasn't even a produce section! We didn't buy anything. When we got back to Pampatar, we bought chicken for supper. Our timing was perfect. Minutes after we reached the boat, it started raining. Came down pretty good for a while, but it soon quit. Then Roy dove into the water to clean the through-hulls and scrape the propeller, so we'll be ready to leave.