June 23, 2024 • 49 mins
Ever wondered what it feels like to stand at the base of the world's tallest waterfall or witness a natural light show that rivals the Northern Lights? Join us for an immersive adventure through Venezuela as we team up with Daymar, whose intimate knowledge of the country brings its stunning landscapes and vibrant culture to life. Our journey begins with the awe-inspiring Angel Falls and the mystical tepuis, including the iconic Mount Roraima. Daymar shares fascinating insights into the sustainable practices at these natural wonders, painting a vivid picture of an experience untouched by modern distractions.
The marvels don't stop there. Prepare to be captivated by the Catatumbo lightning phenomenon over Lake Maracaibo, known as the most electric place on earth. We delve into the cultural significance of this natural spectacle and its potential to become a major tourist draw. Comparing it to the Northern Lights, we discuss why Catatumbo lightning should be on every traveler's bucket list. The conversation then shifts to Venezuela's pristine beaches, with practical tips for making the most of your visit to Los Roques archipelago and Morrocoy National Park.
No exploration of Venezuela would be complete without indulging in its culinary delights. Get ready to savor the flavors of traditional dishes like arepas and pabellón as Daymar guides us through her favorite recipes and cooking tips. From the significance of Carnival to the melodies of popular music genres, we uncover the rich tapestry of Venezuelan culture. We also offer crucial travel advice, such as the best times to visit and practical tips on currency use. This episode is a treasure trove of stories and insights that will leave you eager to experience Venezuela’s wonders for yourself.
Map of Venezuela
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with
Kristen and Carol.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I am Kristen and I am Carol, and we're two long-term
friends with a passion fortravel and adventure.
Each episode, we interviewpeople around the globe to help
us decide where to go next.
Today, we meet up with Daymar,who is a citizen of Venezuela
and now living in the US.
To be frank, we discuss whycurrently, this is not often on
(00:42):
many travel lists.
With that in mind, it's a greatarmchair tourist destination.
We learned about some of thebeautiful natural landmarks of
Venezuela, including the world'stallest waterfall and a lake
that puts on a daily lightningshow.
We also discussed the awesomefood, and we get some great
cooking tips.
Enjoy.
(01:03):
Okay, welcome, tamar.
Thank you for joining us, and Iunderstand today you're going
to talk to us about Venezuela,which we have never talked to
anyone about yet, so we're superexcited, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Thank you for inviting me and for having me in
here.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Excellent, so we will talk about my country Wonderful
, so start with how long did youlive there?
When did you come here toNorthern California, and do you
go back often?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I lived there like almost all my life.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
My childhood.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I studied there my career and everything.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I came here six years ago, excellent, and then you
were going.
If I'm remembering correctly,you're going to college not only
to just learn, but also toimprove your English.
Wasn't that part of it too?
Yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Your English is great .
Yeah, well, it was actually mybrother's idea because I was a
little bit bored about the.
The same class, same way.
So my brother told me why youdon't pick something that make
you feel patient or excitedabout it, and and stood it and I
was like, okay, so I pickedpsychology and I'm getting
(02:19):
better.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
that's fantastic.
And no, I remember you weretalking about that.
Yeah, english is not my firstlanguage, but you understand it
well.
You sound great.
Yeah, that's big.
I know, and I'm traveling indifferent languages.
It's you want to?
So bad.
I want to communicate with them, but I don't know the language.
Yes, yeah, exactly so.
(02:43):
So, venezuela, I'm looking.
It's on the Caribbean Is.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Trinidad and Tobago part of Venezuela.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Yeah, it's too close, it's too close.
It's not part of my country,but it's too close.
Okay, venezuela is one of thecountries that has tepuis I
don't know if you have heardabout it.
The flat rocks, they are likemountains, oh yeah, and they are
(03:12):
so big.
We have the longest waterfallcalled Angel's Fall.
I don't know if you saw themovie.
Up yes, oh, up, sure.
Well, that's the scenario.
That's that one, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That's where they go to right.
Is that waterfall at the end?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, that waterfall is called Angel's Fall and it's
the longest one.
Oh nice Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's interesting howclose Venezuelaenezuela is
actually to florida, like, yeah,it seems about just as far from
belize to miami.
Well, maybe not quite, no, yeahit's still, but still it's it's
yeah, all.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Like every island, the caribbean island just runs
dead ends into venezuelainteresting yeah, and one, one
interesting thing that I wouldlike to talk about that place,
the Roraima, is that wheneveryou go there, uh, the, the
locals keep like so to clean theplace.
(04:19):
They, they don't allow you touse shampoo or soap or anything
with chemics chemicals oh yeah,with chemicals, exactly so you
need to take shower withsomething like so natural, yeah,
and you are.
You don't have phone signsignal, so you don't have you
(04:41):
can call you.
There's no phone and you haveto walk like three days to get
there and where is this?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, when?
What is it?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
The Tepuy Roraima.
How do you spell it?
R-o-r-a-i-m-a Roraima.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, and that is R-O-R-A-I-m-a, venezuela.
Okay, it's popping up here,mount, oh my gosh.
Oh wow, you saw the flat ones,right?
Yeah, I'm looking at images.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Oh wow, so it's like one oh, wow, it's like a step of
rock, it's like it's not amountain by itself, but yeah, oh
, it reminds me of somethinglike from the wild west and you
can find some natural jacuzzison top of it so that, uh, it
says, uh, paradise falls is fromup, and it looks like it's the
(05:37):
exact same picture is that true?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
where it's like there's uh, the cliff there and
there's a waterfall.
Almost looks like, um, upperyosemite falls like a big fall
and then it drops down.
And then is there really thatpillar, or is that made up from
up?
Like, is there really like thepillar?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
it's exactly like actually actually uh, where it
says they it is the longest fallof water in the world.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Oh, wow, yeah, it's, it's beautiful, and it's not
called paradise falls, right, oris that?
No, it's called angels fall.
That's what I remember yousaying.
Yeah, I think they're justcomparing it to the movie up
right and this thing, but um, itis very it says awe and most
awe inspiring, and with theclouds it's like above the
(06:27):
clouds in the pictures that it'sshowing here.
So is it, is it?
And it's not an island, it's onland, right, right right, they
are actually rocks.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
They are not um land or mountain, normal mountains,
they are rocks.
They are like a big steps.
The name is tepui and this is.
There is a chain of tepui.
I mean, it's not just one, theyare a couple of them, uh-huh,
and we share those with uhbrazil and gujana okay oh, wow,
(07:06):
I'm trying to see.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
uh is that is?
I've never I have.
It says um tipui is a tabletop,mountain or mesa found in south
america, especially venezuelaand western guayana, guayana, um
, yeah, yeah, guay.
And it says Tipui means houseof the gods.
Yeah, oh, wow, it's really,it's magnificent, it's beautiful
(07:31):
.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, it's an amazing experience, because even I
don't know if it's the water,because if it's cold water, my
skin and my hair got beautifulwhen, I was there.
Yeah, it was so shine and myskin was like so beautiful.
(07:53):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So it's like the, it's a fountain of youth.
We all need to go there, right?
Yeah, and and so, and you saidto get it takes three days to
get there.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Well, it takes three days walking to get in the top
of it, but from the city that Iwas it's like five days to get
there because you need to get acity and after you need to get
like a kind of bus or a truck.
It's like six or eight hoursdriving and after that next day
(08:29):
you start walking and every dayyou walk between seven or eight
hours oh, my goodness, oh yeah,so do people like backpack and
things like camp and to go upyou can pack as much as you
really need, because you are theone who's gonna carry
everything, so you make surethat you are um with what is
(08:49):
necessary, totally right, and soyeah, and then so takes.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Is it does it take seven or eight hours a day,
three for three days to get tothe top right?
Yes, you have to, I'm assumingit.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Is it set up for backpacking, for people with a
tent and a sleeping bag and no,well, it depends, because I I
got some company that they dothat like they do the tours,
okay, so they, they bring allthose stuff.
Oh god, even food andeverything I just had like kind
(09:25):
of groceries or snacks, yeah,but good snacks because of the
quantity of hours that you walkand things that are like yeah,
that that will sustain you.
Yeah, exactly uh, they have theplace in the one we can get
water, and it was so good.
(09:47):
They bring everything, even thebathroom, no, even the restroom
, funny.
But you are like in the middleof the nowhere yeah right, yeah.
Yeah, on the stars.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And what's the elevation?
How high does that get it's?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
pretty high.
Yeah, it's pretty high.
I don't remember right now theI just google it, yeah yeah, I'm
.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I'm doing the elevation right now, oh okay
cool yeah, because it's not, asyou know, because there's um but
it's the tallest waterfallthough yeah yeah, yeah, but
(10:34):
that's still like, uh, likeboulder isn't what?
Yeah, we're like, we're like55,000 that's my figured, but
this thousand or like nine.
She lives in colorado so that'syeah.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So the ski mountains are that high yeah okay, okay,
but then they go even higher,like 14 000 or something.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Yeah totally wow yeah , well, it's a nice experience,
like because you have a aroundyou nature, and like it's
delicious about.
The weather is amazing too.
It's mild weather, so it's youknow.
Sometimes, uh, when you are inthe snow, there is some stuff
(11:17):
that I heard.
This one was okay, a little bitsunny, but like good weather
yeah, you're pretty close to theequator yeah yeah, and actually
we have.
My country have just like twoseasons, summer and winter, but
it's not.
It's not that cold or that hotlike it's in the middle all the
(11:40):
time we have like the rainingtime and no raining time oh,
that's gonna ask if it's that itworked that way the rainy
season and not rainy season yeah, it's weird how some places are
very much like that anotherwell, I guess california is like
that right yeah, so I mean, youknow, northern california has
more seasons than southerncalifornia.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Southern california yeah, similar actually in here.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
That's one of the things that I love is the
weather, because it's not toohard, like in winter you can
live, and summer you can livetoo, like know that you are
dying or you know totally forsure.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
So, um like, when is winter, when is summer, what are
the months of those times andwhat's the temperatures?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
It's same in here.
We talk in Fahrenheit in here,right, so it's kind of 65, 70.
Okay, yeah, and when it'sDecember, same December.
January, february, march arelike the raining time, okay, and
the temperatures can be likefive less or seven less, like 60
, but it's not.
The difference is not that hard.
And whenever rain, rain, stop,it's hot, it's same yeah it's
(12:56):
not.
It's not that hard.
Is it humid there in somecities, not all.
My city is not it mild, it'snot human.
And what city are you from?
I'm from San Cristobal, s-a-n.
Yes, one word, and the next oneis C-R-I-S-T-O-B-L.
(13:19):
Sorry, a-l.
San Cristobal, okay got it.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
I'm looking it up.
It says Tachira, tennessee.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Tachira.
Okay, oh, wonderful.
Now I'm looking at pictures, orI'm trying to at least.
Very city-like, it looks likewhat brought you to Northern
California, my brother, mybrother, my brother was here.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
My brother came to work California.
My brother, my brother, mybrother was here.
My brother came to work with aconstruction company, so I came
here, nice, oh, that's great.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Six years ago.
You've been here for six years,six years ago, yeah, and I love
it.
Oh, that's fantastic.
I'm looking at beautifulchurches.
There's a really pretty churchthere and some waterfalls and
very city-like.
I see a lake with some tentsnear it.
I don't know if there's a biglake.
(14:15):
What's this?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
No, the big lake is in Maracaibo, it's in the yeah
it kind of looks like it's inthe coast, yeah.
In the top coast.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
That's the Lago de Marsecabo, maracaibo, yeah,
there it is.
Is tourism very big there?
I don't hear a lot of peoplegoing to Venezuela.
I think it feels like Is itsafe?
Is it popular?
Venezuela is it safe, you know?
Is it popular?
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Venezuela is a place that I don't know if you have
heard about.
It's a country with a lot ofoil.
Okay, it's a kind of it's arich country, but now the
administrators are not so good.
Okay, and we have two bigemigrations to the country.
(15:08):
It was when the war, the secondwar, and when the industrial
revolution.
So we have a lot of diversity.
We have Italians, Portuguese,from South America, we have
Italians, Portuguese from SouthAmerica, Germans.
So we have a lot of differentcultures that come.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, cultures in my country yeah.
Yeah that.
Come and visit Gosh.
Yeah, there's some big lakes.
Is that where Maracaibo is?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
It looks like In Maracaibo.
Yeah, there is something superinteresting.
I don't know how to call that,but there is in maracaibo.
Yeah, there is something superinteresting.
I don't know how called that,um, but there is lake maracaibo.
Yeah, lago de maracaibo.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, lake maracaibo I was just looking at it.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
It's huge have you ever heard about catatumbo?
Speaker 1 (15:59):
lighting, lighting no , what's that?
Speaker 3 (16:04):
well, that's a, a phenomenon that occurs in
maracaibo.
How do you spell it?
C-a-t-a-t-u-m-b-o catatumbo.
Yeah, oh, my goodness,lightning.
So that's something thathappens every time, never stop.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Oh, so it's lightning bolts and it's filling
Lightning, but it looks likethousands of them.
Yeah, is it all going all atonce?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (16:41):
And if you live or if you are close to it, it's all
the time like a flash.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, wow this is on the lake that lake.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Yeah, that's on the lake.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, in catatumbos wow, these are some dramatic
pictures these are very peoplego to instagram.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
You gotta watch that it and there's um.
Are they different colors too,or is that filters, because I
see some that are purple I meanthe orange, I guess.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
I guess it depends about the camera, but I guess
it's, and you know when.
Sometimes how you say when is,oh my God, I forgot the word.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
No problem, it's just also the lighting, maybe of the
day, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, exactly, it depends about how it is cloudy
or not.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Got it?
Yeah, it looks.
There's so many.
It looks like veins, veins.
It's just like tons of veinseverywhere and it and there's
almost more lightning bolts thanthere is sky.
Um, it's that impressive.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I have that's amazing , and it is constant right, yeah
, no, it's interesting becausepeople go to, like, to Norway
for the northern lights and like, hey, this is probably
definitely more dramatic thanthat and it's kind of guaranteed
you're going to see it.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
It looks like oh my goodness wow, there's one
picture I just found.
I'm just scrolling through allof the lightning ones and
there's um and maybe they, they.
I don't know if they've addedcolor to it, but yeah, there's
multiple colors of yellow, blue,red, green, white.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
You know what happened.
Sometimes the camera's filterschange the real colors, because
I went to Alaska, to theNorthern Lights, and in camera
you kept a different color thanthe one that you see there.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I was going to say, I found something.
It says.
The most electric place onearth it's Venezuela's Lake
Maracabo holds the GuinnessWorld Record for the highest
concentration of lightning, with250 lightning flashes per
square kilometer each year, orkilometer kilometer.
The storms are the mostspectacular at the peak of the
wet season.
At this time of year, you cansee an average of 28 lightning
(19:03):
flashes each minute yeah, and isit usually like?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
raining and storming when that's happening, or is it
just a light?
No, it could be in raining orcould be in normal days.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
I mean that's happening, or is it just a light
show?
No, it could be in raining orit could be in normal days.
I mean, it's all the time, it'sa phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I wonder if they could try to like capture that
electricity.
Has anyone ever tried to dothat?
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I don't think so I don't think so.
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Maybe they tried Tesla.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I love the pictures Wow.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I don't know that's oh.
I'm so glad you told me aboutthis.
This is like I was just inArizona this past weekend.
There was this huge lightningstorm and I was in.
I was stuck in my car workingactually on Friday night.
And the light was.
It was.
I could see in my rear viewmirror and my my side mirrors,
(19:56):
all these lightning bolts behindme and also way ahead of me too
, like just all around.
And then the whole thing, likethat's, it looks like, looks
like this would still be 10times more, hundreds, thousands
more.
That's pretty incredible.
And so is it during you saidthe, or it said the wet season.
When is the best time to seethat?
Speaker 3 (20:17):
well, that's a phenomenon that happens all the
year, so anytime someone wantsto come, it's a good time?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
yeah, yeah, make sure .
I don't know.
Do they tell, like, do peopleget hit by the lightning?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I don't think so, uh, I mean, I don't think that that
people goes that close you know, like there is a civilization
close to it, but like it's notthe.
It's next to a lake, you know,but you don't need to come that
close and the lake is so big.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Where exactly is this where the lightning goes?
Is it because I see it's sortof like there's a mouth that
leads from the Caribbean Sea tothat?
Is it happen to be there?
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Let me find out in here, because it's in one of the
of the sites, like maybe under.
It is called Catatumbo River inthe place that it's showing
Okay, not in the lake by itself.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I did a Google for where it's located.
It seems like it's just likeone southwest part of the lake.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Okay, yeah yeah, it's one of the south part.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Oh, I see Catatumbo River.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Okay yeah, the River of Lightning, I guess that's
not's appropriate yeah, forsomeone who likes uh, nature, on
all those interesting things,because it's super weird yeah,
are there towns near that wherepeople go for vacation?
(21:49):
Yeah, I guess it's like uh,roraima.
Those are places that are likeso popular, where in the moment
that I went there, I foundJapanese, chinese from Australia
, a lot of people from differentcountries.
Just they come just to seethose places just to visit those
(22:13):
places, yeah there's anotherthing.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
It says the catatumbo lightning strikes 3600 times an
hour, 10 hours a day, for 300days a year.
That sounds like it's all yearround.
So yeah, unlike the northernlights that are just on and off,
that sounds like this one isyeah it's like sunshine in
california.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Huh wow, thank you for sharing.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
This is really.
It's a beautiful and scary andbeautiful at the same time.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Right again, yeah, yeah, well I'm curious and and I
like those things, yeah, me too.
I'm very curious.
And another thing that hasvenezuela is beautiful beaches,
uh-huh, yeah, uh, we have a bigcoast because it's like in all
the country we have a site thatis coast, caribbean, and there
(23:09):
is some special places, onecalled los roques.
Oh, los roques is r-o-q-u-e-syes, okay, oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
It says archipelago, which.
What small island.
So there's a whole bunch ofislands there too.
Yes, yes, I know, in swedenthere's the archipelago, so
that's a little.
Oh, it's wow.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
And it's the Caribbean seed, so it's all
turquoise and beautiful it's sobeautiful and the water is so
hot Not hot, but like you, enjoyit.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Okay, comfortable and warm.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
If I'm going to the vision here I can come out, I
don't know, like freeze frozenyes very much so here in
northern California, for sure,oh no, no, I even enjoy those
because I mean, it's what I haveright now, you know, yeah, yeah
, and I enjoy them like it'ssomething new.
It's a new experience.
(24:10):
It's different than what I know.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Oh wow, it's really pretty, so it looks like I'm
trying to get a better picturehere where it's.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I see a lot of like yeah, whitish sand beaches.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah.
Very very light turquoise color.
Is it like?
Is it expensive to stay thereor is it pretty reasonable?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
or it depends, because if you go to Los Roques
it is expensive, yeah, but ifyou pick one of the other ones,
of course it's like it's cheaperto go.
Yeah, but I recommend all thetime that you find someone who
can help you to get to thetourist place or, you know, like
(24:54):
someone who knows the placelike you, yeah we'll volunteer
your services yeah, yeahwhenever you want awesome and uh
.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
So what are some of the other beaches that you would
uh recommend to that, maybe tothe locals go to, or that would
be something that, um, you know,not as touristy or expensive,
but just as beautiful?
Speaker 3 (25:18):
yeah, uh, there is a park called morocco uh-huh and
they have archipelagos arounduh-huh and yeah, those are like
the ones that I must visit whenI was living there.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Oh, that says uh, is it um?
Speaker 3 (25:35):
called callo sombrero or morrocoy, m-o-r-r-o-c-o-y.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, oh, that's pretty too.
Gosh, the, yeah, the beaches I.
I would have never thought togo to Venezuela for the
Caribbean, but it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I guess each country has something special and
something magic.
You know, like all of them havesomething old, even the weather
, or the nature, or people,cultures, I don't know, but or
food.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Exactly Well, and also let's get to food, or I
don't know if there are.
Yeah, exactly well, and alsolet's get to food, or I don't
know any other spots that youwould highlight, I these were no
, no, we can't.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
We can't go so far.
Those are the ones that I love,oh perfect, that's.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
That's exactly what we like and what's the food like
well, we have something calledarepas.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I love arepas.
I try to make them.
Have you ever tried them?
Yes, yes, great.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
How do you say that?
I've never heard of it.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
A-R-E-P-A-S.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Arepas, arepas.
The first time I had them wasin Wyoming, at like a country
festival.
Oh really, I was like youwouldn't think we'd have
everything like barbecue beef orsomething, but it's like no, it
was like a food court or foodtruck they had like a rapist.
It was like, oh my gosh, I needto add this to my daily life
they're almost like the greek.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
What is it the, you know?
Like a like a gyro.
Yeah, like a gyro, um, but likea taco a gyro um no, the dog is
different.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
It's a warm dog, but it's different.
Yeah, no, it's different yeah,what's?
Speaker 1 (27:20):
it's a.
It's a.
Is it a tortilla, or it's abread of some sort?
Speaker 3 (27:25):
right, it's no, it's like uh, it's no bread, neither
tortilla.
The consistency is different,but outside it's like a toast,
oh okay, and inside the dough islike soft.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Oh, got it Okay, oh yeah.
Oh, here I'm seeing otherpictures of it.
Yeah, it kind of reminds me oflike a tamale.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Like a tamale is like made with like corn maize, so I
think it's kind of similar orlike a biscuit corn maze.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
So it's.
I think it's kind of similar,um, but or like a biscuit.
That's what it looks like.
The other picture is differentbecause you is you grill them?
Speaker 1 (28:00):
and it is, and so the other pictures now make it look
more like a hamburger kind ofaround.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yeah, exactly, and you fill it with whatever you
want.
Oh wow, it's watering chickenbeef, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
And then I see bell peppers um avocado.
Looks like some sort of fetacheese, but it's probably not.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Oh, reina pepiada is the name right for that one is
chicken uh-huh, it's likecheddar chicken, yeah, or yeah,
with avocado onion.
And you, you make uh mayonnaise, or yogurt, greek yogurt, uh
sauce, and you mix cilantro andgarlic.
(28:43):
It's so good, all right, andthen do you make this yourself?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
have you?
Are you?
Yeah, yeah, okay, so what'syour secret to making sure that
it doesn't fall apart?
Do you have a secret?
I'm sorry, how do you make surethat it doesn't fall apart?
Speaker 3 (28:59):
when you make it no, you cannot make sure.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Actually I'm not that good because I try to make
something like this and it justuh, you know how, how I make it.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I mean I open it and I eat half toast and half toast.
But my mom, when my mom cooked,she made it and she just opened
a little bit and she feel it.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
She figured it out.
Yeah, exactly, you need to beVenezuelan, maybe Not like me.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
So, abuela, yeah, abuela, it's a lot of magic,
right, right, did it like carol?
You tried to make it and itfell apart.
Yeah, yeah, and is it corn?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
is it?
Um, it is a corn.
Yeah, it is a card, though, butlike it's a process, it's
pre-cooked.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Oh, okay, it does make me think of um, you know,
the Spanish and the corn husk.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
The tamale.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Tamale.
Yeah, is it like a tamale?
The bread or the part of it?
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Yeah, maybe the dough it could be the same, but the
thing is you don't boil it.
That's the difference with thetamale Tamale, you boil it, you
boil it, and this one, you grillit.
Yeah, so that's why it's toastoutside.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Oh, got it.
Oh my gosh, that looks it'smaking me hungry.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
That looks really nice.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
And then what else?
What are other popular fooditems?
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Well, we have a plate called pabellón, and it is
white rice, black beans, I don'tknow, uh, the sweet plantain.
We made it like a leaf and we,I, we grill at home, but
sometimes people fry them andwith beef, the one that is
(30:50):
shredded too like.
That's the place that it callspabellon.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Pabellon criollo sounds like papa john's I know
how do you spell it.
No, it's not pizza, not at allsimilar.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
How do you spell it p-a-b-e-l-l-o-m like pabellon oh
, I see it.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, so like P-A-V-E-L-L-O-N.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Oh, is it plantains?
Yeah, sweet plantains, I think.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I just saw this on the Amazing Race.
That was their challenge.
They had to make this plate ithad an egg on top and beans and
it was like some pork rinds also, and avocados and the.
The plantains had to be cooked,grilled, just right.
I could eat that every day.
That looks amazing, oh mygoodness, yeah, yeah, that looks
(31:40):
.
I've never cooked plantains.
I think that would be.
Have you cooked plantains?
yeah okay, yeah I love them Ican't it doesn't seem like it'd
be that hard right Just peel andthrow them in the pan.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Well, it depends, because, for example, I can
bring plantain for my office andI don't peel it.
I put it in the microwave, Icook it for two minutes and when
it comes out I peel it after itcooks, so in that way it
doesn't get dry.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Oh wow, that's smart.
It cooks so in that way is itdoesn't get dry?
Oh wow, that's okay that soundsgreat.
Yeah, yeah, I was gonna ask youwhat do you fry it?
And you fried in butter, oliveoil or avocado oil, but you put
it in the microwave, no frying.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Yeah, so, and that's a plantain.
You take a plantain, you put itin the microwave two minutes,
and, and that's a plantain.
You take a plantain, you put itin the microwave two minutes,
and and that's.
And then what do you do onceyou take it out?
Do you slice it?
Do you mush it?
Speaker 3 (32:39):
I slide it and I cut cheese and I eat it with butter
and some eggs.
Oh, there's the butter.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Okay, and do you have to like open up the peeling a
little bit to let the airbreathe?
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Yeah, I cut the edges and I make a line through the
plantain and I put it like that,and after I open the peel, I
peel it.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
And do you have to go to a special grocery store in
California to find plantains?
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yeah, I just found them in the Mexican stores.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, because bananas are just like
everywhere and bananas I don'tknow if you guys know is the
cheapest food in the world.
It's going to cost you like 60cents for a whole bunch of
bananas, but I never seeplantains.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Yeah, they are good.
I like them when they are sweet.
There is another plate calledpatacon, that is with the green
plantain okay, oh green plantain.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Yeah, so it's, it's.
It's not an unripe plantain,but it's green, or is it unripe?
Speaker 3 (33:49):
it's unri, but we call it green plantain or yellow
plantain, so that's the onethat is unripe.
Is the name yes?
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Unripe.
Yeah, so it would be.
Not, it would be bitter, rightit was, it wouldn't be sweet.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
It's not sweet, exactly, it's for salty meats.
And the other one because in mycity we are in the border with
Colombia and we learn from themto to eat a lot of sweet and
salt stuff.
So we have some, some dessertsthat are cheese with guava.
(34:26):
You know what is guava?
Guava is like a sweet fruitthat you do a jam with it, yep,
and we eat like that a lot ofstuff, even a toast with jam and
cheese.
What kind of cheese?
It's a farmer cheese?
I don't know, it's not.
Is it soft, is it hard?
Is it a little bit hard?
(34:46):
And you can even grill them.
Oh yeah, yeah, it's a littlebit salt.
So the next thing is to mix thesweet with the.
Oh yeah, it's pretty nicebecause you don't eat like dove
(35:10):
or stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Do they just grow everywhere in Venezuela?
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Yeah, not everywhere, but there is a lot of farmers
that have them.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, the cheese looks like a lot of well.
It says queso blanco and quesolanero.
Queso blanco, yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Like white cheese.
Yeah, exactly peso blanco, yeah, like white cheese yeah exactly
that which makes the thing isis the most similar that I found
in here is in a Mexican store.
Yeah, and it's called um cheeseto fry.
You ask it like that.
Oh yeah, cheese to fry and it'sa cheese that is kind of
similar and you can eat them.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah, that's the most similar that I found in here
yeah, oh my gosh, wow, and thendo I'm assuming lots of meat is
eaten?
Is it fish as well?
Because you're on the?
Uh, there's the caribbean,there too, they're popular, uh,
popular um meats and and fishthat you guys eat.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Oh, we have a fried fish Whenever you go to the
beach.
You get next to the beach,there is a lot of restaurants
and they give you patacon withsalad and fried fish and it's
the complete fish fried oh yourhead they clean it inside, but
(36:33):
it's the complete one.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I remember being in Costa Rica and they gave me a
fish with the scales and theeyes and everything.
Do people eat all of it or dothey just?
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Some people eat all of that.
I don't eat eyes, I just eatthe meat.
We learn how to leave all theskeletal complete wow.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
And then so when you, when you eat it, do you take
off like the I'm imagining mebeing there but um, to take off
the like, the scales and stuff,do you like have to like scrape
it off or cut it off orsomething?
Speaker 3 (37:13):
no, the thing is that you learn how to do it with
your fork and you start peel itand when you finish it's
complete.
Okay, like just the.
I don't know how to call theskeletal.
Like just the, oh yeah,skeleton it's good.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, or the bones, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yeah, so I won't look totally ridiculous if I while
I'm eating it.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
No, no, no, no, I don't know, I don't.
There is, of course, somepeople that doesn't, that
doesn't like those, because theyhave the, the, the little bone.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
but yeah, oh my gosh, oh, that's great.
And then what about like livingthere, cost of living Is it
expensive to live there?
Is it pretty reasonable?
Like if someone wanted to gothere, and how much rent would
they have to pay each month tostay there?
Speaker 3 (38:13):
even though that we have a crisis there.
Uh, it is too expensiveeverything.
There is something crazy, but Idon't want to.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
I don't want to go to the political.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Yeah, because it's too extensive.
But the thing is, yeah, nowit's too expensive.
You can, you can even expand,same as here, and you don't get
that from your work there okayyeah.
So when I was there, most ofthe people have like a goal
whenever you have two yearsworking or something that like
(38:41):
that, it was affordable to get ahouse in that moment, okay.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Now it's different yeah, how about like to stay in
a hotel?
Is like two, three hundreddollars a night, then, or?
Speaker 3 (38:54):
I'm not sure about the hotels right now, but yeah,
it's expensive.
You can go for a dinner.
An example you can go for adinner and pay 45 for one food
oh okay, all right.
Yeah, it's kind of even alittle bit more expensive than
here.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Okay, that's why I don't hear them.
It's not very popular.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
And the difference is the minimum wage.
There is not the same as here.
It's pretty low.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
So yeah, it's so expensive.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
So it looks like there's a lot of forest right.
It seems like on the top partof Venezuela that it looks like
there's I don't know if that'scities or there's a whole bunch
of lines and then there's areally big part that's on the
south part that looks very green.
Is there a lot of?
Almost like half of Venezuelalooks almost like it's.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Yeah, that's the land .
The land place is for farmersMost of all the downside.
Yeah, yeah, it's for farmerslike plantain or papaya or beef.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Yeah, and then what do people like to do in terms of
like um activities or likewhat's a typical day or a fun
weekend for families, like whatdo people typically do together
well, um, we go party.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
But it depends about it depends about the egg,
because when I was there I usedto go party all weekend and
dance and concerts, movie,theater.
No, a lot of hiking, no, a lotof nature.
(40:49):
I start like, in my later yearsthere was the moment when I
started like exploring nature,hiking, uh, stuff like that, but
I was a party girl so forpeople who would be interested
in partying.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
What would you recommend for someone to go to?
Where should they go?
To my city.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
Okay, got it.
Yeah, thank you so much.
You can go party there.
That's a city.
It's known as a place wherepeople drink a lot of beers.
Mm-hmm, we actually had.
(41:36):
Uh, whenever you graduate fromthe university, we have a party.
In the one you get boxes.
Uh, my, my tent has like 30boxes of of beer and everybody
like is showering, showeringwith the beers.
Oh, my goodness, likecelebrating, like celebrating
because we are graduate, but itwas a big, big party yeah, that
(41:57):
sounds like people.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
There was a lot of fun that that was yeah, it was
oh, that's fantastic okay, well,gosh, we are almost at our time
um we're having fun right yeahyeah, so kristen.
Anything else we want to dobefore the rapid fire question,
uh, no, I'll let you, I'll letyou know.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Okay, looking at the, uh, when uh Carol mentioned
from Cuba, and then it kind ofit's almost like circles all the
way down with all the Caribbeanislands into Venezuela, and I
didn't't notice that, but it'sso true that seems like a, it's
almost a big circle.
It's right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Yeah, yeah, all right .
Well, speaking of partying,what are one of the popular
holiday traditions there thatyou like to celebrate, or is
there?
I know some countries just havelike so many holidays.
Is there one that stands out?
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Yeah, we have one in february called carnavales.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Okay, yeah, it's like the rio de janeiro carnival
it's kind of.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
It's kind of similar.
Uh, and that's a moment in theone uh, you were customs.
We don't have halloween.
You wear customs, we don't haveHalloween.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
I mean we get it from US, but like that's one of the
in February, carnival is themoment that you wear custom and
you wet everybody with littleballoons of water.
Oh okay, it's like you startplaying with people with the
little balloons filled withwater do you throw them at each
(43:32):
other like water balloon flights?
Speaker 1 (43:34):
yeah, yeah yeah I was like oh, that sounds just like
water balloon fights is thatyeah
Speaker 2 (43:42):
you come back to your childhood oh hey, I wonder, is
it tied to like um mardi gras,where it's like right before
Lent also because it's inFebruary?
Is it Catholic there, wherethey have like the Lenten season
for Easter?
Speaker 3 (43:58):
Oh, yeah, but we call Semana Santa.
It's different, it's adifferent one.
Yeah, we call Semana Santa,it's like Saint.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Week.
Okay, I was just wondering ifthe carnival was right before
the Easter season.
It's before, it's before, yeah,yeah, yeah, okay, very good,
okay, great, um, and what's thetypical breakfast that you would
have there?
Speaker 3 (44:18):
arepa arepa for breakfast.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Okay, yes, arepa for breakfast and for dinner mostly
okay yeah, okay, yeah, nice, andlike Japan, they like fish
every meal.
Like I think I'd go for thearepa.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
I mean, we make a soup called pizca too.
It is a potato soup with um.
It's not, it's a broth, chickenbroth with potatoes, cilantro,
and you put some eggs to beboiled there that's called pizca
With arepas next to it.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
You hard boil the eggs they hard boil in the soup.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Interesting.
The food sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
All right.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Is there a specific kind of music that is very
popular?
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Pop music.
We have the Janeras, like theyeah, it calls Janeras
Venezuelan music with arpa.
Have you ever heard thatinstrument?
The harp, harp, yeah, oh, okay,we have that one and it's one
called Cuatro.
That is like a little guitar.
(45:31):
Okay, it's little, it's small.
Cuatro, that is like a littleguitar.
Okay, it's little, it's small.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Not like a Hawaiian, oh, not like a ukulele.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
Yeah, no, it's a small, but like it's different,
the sound that comes out isdifferent.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
Oh, wow, yeah, All right.
And what's the money down there, bolivares?
Speaker 3 (45:52):
Oh my gosh, how do you spell that B-O-L-I-V-A-R-E-S
?
Bolivares, bolivares, okay.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
And the exchange rate is expensive.
Okay, let's just leave that.
We'll try to figure that out.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
It's pretty low actually okay I mean you need to
get a big amount of uh coins toget a coke, okay all right, no,
it's so devaluated the cointhere okay.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Is it better, when you go to visit, to have a
credit card, or better toexchange cash?
Speaker 3 (46:32):
It depends on the credit card, because some credit
card charge you internationalfees.
Oh right, yeah.
So in that way it's better toget cash and bring it there,
because they are not going tocharge you each time that you
are paying something.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Oh, okay, yeah, All right.
And then is there surfing.
I know you're on the caribbeanside, is there?
Do people surf, like in thesurfboards in the ocean?
Speaker 3 (46:59):
no much, because we don't have big waves waves.
Yeah, we don't have big wave.
We have in some sometime, butit's not a country that people
uh do a lot of surfing yeah, Iguess we had the, the western
side always.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Okay, well, very good .
Well, thank you appreciate that.
No, thank you, it's prettyamazing really.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Uh, thank you sharing uh, venezuela, it's so neat to.
So what would be, I guess, thelast question when would be the
best time to travel, if someonewanted to go there?
Speaker 3 (47:34):
I will say summer, summer time.
Yeah, I will say summer becauseit's the moment in the one you
enjoy more.
Okay, if it's raining, you needto stop some plants, or summer
is the best time.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
And so when you say say summer is the summer, the
same months as our summer, sojune, july, or we have to, yeah
even no, you can take summersince may until september, okay
so remember we have like sixmonths, six months, six months
raining six months so that's thenon-rainy season?
(48:11):
I assume, yeah, yeah exactlythe non-raining seasons.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
Yeah, you're right, nice, definitely want that
wonderful.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Well, thank you so much, demar.
It was so wonderful to get tosee you and, um, thank you,
through your experience invenezuela things I had no idea.
I am so excited to gosh.
I definitely have to go.
I want to check the lightningbolts and that mountain.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
Lightning sounds very cool.
Speaker 3 (48:36):
Yeah, yeah, that would be nice, that would be
super nice, absolutely Thank youso much Thank you for having me
have a great day.
Nice to meet you.
Bye.
Nice to meet you too, bye.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Thanks for listening.
If you enjoyed the podcast, canyou please take a second and do
a quick follow of the show andrate us in your podcast app, and
if you have a minute, we wouldreally appreciate a review.
Following and rating is thebest way to support us.
If you're on Instagram, let'sconnect.
We're at when Next Podcast.
Thanks again.
Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with
Kristen and Carol.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I am Kristen and I am Carol, and we're two long-term
friends with a passion fortravel and adventure.
Each episode, we interviewpeople around the globe to help
us decide where to go next.
Today, we meet up with Daymar,who is a citizen of Venezuela
and now living in the US.
To be frank, we discuss whycurrently, this is not often on
(00:42):
many travel lists.
With that in mind, it's a greatarmchair tourist destination.
We learned about some of thebeautiful natural landmarks of
Venezuela, including the world'stallest waterfall and a lake
that puts on a daily lightningshow.
We also discussed the awesomefood, and we get some great
cooking tips.
Enjoy.
(01:03):
Okay, welcome, tamar.
Thank you for joining us, and Iunderstand today you're going
to talk to us about Venezuela,which we have never talked to
anyone about yet, so we're superexcited, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Thank you for inviting me and for having me in
here.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Excellent, so we will talk about my country Wonderful
, so start with how long did youlive there?
When did you come here toNorthern California, and do you
go back often?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I lived there like almost all my life.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
My childhood.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I studied there my career and everything.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I came here six years ago, excellent, and then you
were going.
If I'm remembering correctly,you're going to college not only
to just learn, but also toimprove your English.
Wasn't that part of it too?
Yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Your English is great .
Yeah, well, it was actually mybrother's idea because I was a
little bit bored about the.
The same class, same way.
So my brother told me why youdon't pick something that make
you feel patient or excitedabout it, and and stood it and I
was like, okay, so I pickedpsychology and I'm getting
(02:19):
better.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
that's fantastic.
And no, I remember you weretalking about that.
Yeah, english is not my firstlanguage, but you understand it
well.
You sound great.
Yeah, that's big.
I know, and I'm traveling indifferent languages.
It's you want to?
So bad.
I want to communicate with them, but I don't know the language.
Yes, yeah, exactly so.
(02:43):
So, venezuela, I'm looking.
It's on the Caribbean Is.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Trinidad and Tobago part of Venezuela.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Yeah, it's too close, it's too close.
It's not part of my country,but it's too close.
Okay, venezuela is one of thecountries that has tepuis I
don't know if you have heardabout it.
The flat rocks, they are likemountains, oh yeah, and they are
(03:12):
so big.
We have the longest waterfallcalled Angel's Fall.
I don't know if you saw themovie.
Up yes, oh, up, sure.
Well, that's the scenario.
That's that one, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That's where they go to right.
Is that waterfall at the end?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, that waterfall is called Angel's Fall and it's
the longest one.
Oh nice Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's interesting howclose Venezuelaenezuela is
actually to florida, like, yeah,it seems about just as far from
belize to miami.
Well, maybe not quite, no, yeahit's still, but still it's it's
yeah, all.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Like every island, the caribbean island just runs
dead ends into venezuelainteresting yeah, and one, one
interesting thing that I wouldlike to talk about that place,
the Roraima, is that wheneveryou go there, uh, the, the
locals keep like so to clean theplace.
(04:19):
They, they don't allow you touse shampoo or soap or anything
with chemics chemicals oh yeah,with chemicals, exactly so you
need to take shower withsomething like so natural, yeah,
and you are.
You don't have phone signsignal, so you don't have you
(04:41):
can call you.
There's no phone and you haveto walk like three days to get
there and where is this?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, when?
What is it?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
The Tepuy Roraima.
How do you spell it?
R-o-r-a-i-m-a Roraima.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, and that is R-O-R-A-I-m-a, venezuela.
Okay, it's popping up here,mount, oh my gosh.
Oh wow, you saw the flat ones,right?
Yeah, I'm looking at images.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Oh wow, so it's like one oh, wow, it's like a step of
rock, it's like it's not amountain by itself, but yeah, oh
, it reminds me of somethinglike from the wild west and you
can find some natural jacuzzison top of it so that, uh, it
says, uh, paradise falls is fromup, and it looks like it's the
(05:37):
exact same picture is that true?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
where it's like there's uh, the cliff there and
there's a waterfall.
Almost looks like, um, upperyosemite falls like a big fall
and then it drops down.
And then is there really thatpillar, or is that made up from
up?
Like, is there really like thepillar?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
it's exactly like actually actually uh, where it
says they it is the longest fallof water in the world.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Oh, wow, yeah, it's, it's beautiful, and it's not
called paradise falls, right, oris that?
No, it's called angels fall.
That's what I remember yousaying.
Yeah, I think they're justcomparing it to the movie up
right and this thing, but um, itis very it says awe and most
awe inspiring, and with theclouds it's like above the
(06:27):
clouds in the pictures that it'sshowing here.
So is it, is it?
And it's not an island, it's onland, right, right right, they
are actually rocks.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
They are not um land or mountain, normal mountains,
they are rocks.
They are like a big steps.
The name is tepui and this is.
There is a chain of tepui.
I mean, it's not just one, theyare a couple of them, uh-huh,
and we share those with uhbrazil and gujana okay oh, wow,
(07:06):
I'm trying to see.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
uh is that is?
I've never I have.
It says um tipui is a tabletop,mountain or mesa found in south
america, especially venezuelaand western guayana, guayana, um
, yeah, yeah, guay.
And it says Tipui means houseof the gods.
Yeah, oh, wow, it's really,it's magnificent, it's beautiful
(07:31):
.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, it's an amazing experience, because even I
don't know if it's the water,because if it's cold water, my
skin and my hair got beautifulwhen, I was there.
Yeah, it was so shine and myskin was like so beautiful.
(07:53):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So it's like the, it's a fountain of youth.
We all need to go there, right?
Yeah, and and so, and you saidto get it takes three days to
get there.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Well, it takes three days walking to get in the top
of it, but from the city that Iwas it's like five days to get
there because you need to get acity and after you need to get
like a kind of bus or a truck.
It's like six or eight hoursdriving and after that next day
(08:29):
you start walking and every dayyou walk between seven or eight
hours oh, my goodness, oh yeah,so do people like backpack and
things like camp and to go upyou can pack as much as you
really need, because you are theone who's gonna carry
everything, so you make surethat you are um with what is
(08:49):
necessary, totally right, and soyeah, and then so takes.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Is it does it take seven or eight hours a day,
three for three days to get tothe top right?
Yes, you have to, I'm assumingit.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Is it set up for backpacking, for people with a
tent and a sleeping bag and no,well, it depends, because I I
got some company that they dothat like they do the tours,
okay, so they, they bring allthose stuff.
Oh god, even food andeverything I just had like kind
(09:25):
of groceries or snacks, yeah,but good snacks because of the
quantity of hours that you walkand things that are like yeah,
that that will sustain you.
Yeah, exactly uh, they have theplace in the one we can get
water, and it was so good.
(09:47):
They bring everything, even thebathroom, no, even the restroom
, funny.
But you are like in the middleof the nowhere yeah right, yeah.
Yeah, on the stars.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And what's the elevation?
How high does that get it's?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
pretty high.
Yeah, it's pretty high.
I don't remember right now theI just google it, yeah yeah, I'm
.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I'm doing the elevation right now, oh okay
cool yeah, because it's not, asyou know, because there's um but
it's the tallest waterfallthough yeah yeah, yeah, but
(10:34):
that's still like, uh, likeboulder isn't what?
Yeah, we're like, we're like55,000 that's my figured, but
this thousand or like nine.
She lives in colorado so that'syeah.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So the ski mountains are that high yeah okay, okay,
but then they go even higher,like 14 000 or something.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Yeah totally wow yeah , well, it's a nice experience,
like because you have a aroundyou nature, and like it's
delicious about.
The weather is amazing too.
It's mild weather, so it's youknow.
Sometimes, uh, when you are inthe snow, there is some stuff
(11:17):
that I heard.
This one was okay, a little bitsunny, but like good weather
yeah, you're pretty close to theequator yeah yeah, and actually
we have.
My country have just like twoseasons, summer and winter, but
it's not.
It's not that cold or that hotlike it's in the middle all the
(11:40):
time we have like the rainingtime and no raining time oh,
that's gonna ask if it's that itworked that way the rainy
season and not rainy season yeah, it's weird how some places are
very much like that anotherwell, I guess california is like
that right yeah, so I mean, youknow, northern california has
more seasons than southerncalifornia.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Southern california yeah, similar actually in here.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
That's one of the things that I love is the
weather, because it's not toohard, like in winter you can
live, and summer you can livetoo, like know that you are
dying or you know totally forsure.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
So, um like, when is winter, when is summer, what are
the months of those times andwhat's the temperatures?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
It's same in here.
We talk in Fahrenheit in here,right, so it's kind of 65, 70.
Okay, yeah, and when it'sDecember, same December.
January, february, march arelike the raining time, okay, and
the temperatures can be likefive less or seven less, like 60
, but it's not.
The difference is not that hard.
And whenever rain, rain, stop,it's hot, it's same yeah it's
(12:56):
not.
It's not that hard.
Is it humid there in somecities, not all.
My city is not it mild, it'snot human.
And what city are you from?
I'm from San Cristobal, s-a-n.
Yes, one word, and the next oneis C-R-I-S-T-O-B-L.
(13:19):
Sorry, a-l.
San Cristobal, okay got it.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
I'm looking it up.
It says Tachira, tennessee.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Tachira.
Okay, oh, wonderful.
Now I'm looking at pictures, orI'm trying to at least.
Very city-like, it looks likewhat brought you to Northern
California, my brother, mybrother, my brother was here.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
My brother came to work California.
My brother, my brother, mybrother was here.
My brother came to work with aconstruction company, so I came
here, nice, oh, that's great.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Six years ago.
You've been here for six years,six years ago, yeah, and I love
it.
Oh, that's fantastic.
I'm looking at beautifulchurches.
There's a really pretty churchthere and some waterfalls and
very city-like.
I see a lake with some tentsnear it.
I don't know if there's a biglake.
(14:15):
What's this?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
No, the big lake is in Maracaibo, it's in the yeah
it kind of looks like it's inthe coast, yeah.
In the top coast.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
That's the Lago de Marsecabo, maracaibo, yeah,
there it is.
Is tourism very big there?
I don't hear a lot of peoplegoing to Venezuela.
I think it feels like Is itsafe?
Is it popular?
Venezuela is it safe, you know?
Is it popular?
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Venezuela is a place that I don't know if you have
heard about.
It's a country with a lot ofoil.
Okay, it's a kind of it's arich country, but now the
administrators are not so good.
Okay, and we have two bigemigrations to the country.
(15:08):
It was when the war, the secondwar, and when the industrial
revolution.
So we have a lot of diversity.
We have Italians, Portuguese,from South America, we have
Italians, Portuguese from SouthAmerica, Germans.
So we have a lot of differentcultures that come.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, cultures in my country yeah.
Yeah that.
Come and visit Gosh.
Yeah, there's some big lakes.
Is that where Maracaibo is?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
It looks like In Maracaibo.
Yeah, there is something superinteresting.
I don't know how to call that,but there is in maracaibo.
Yeah, there is something superinteresting.
I don't know how called that,um, but there is lake maracaibo.
Yeah, lago de maracaibo.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, lake maracaibo I was just looking at it.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
It's huge have you ever heard about catatumbo?
Speaker 1 (15:59):
lighting, lighting no , what's that?
Speaker 3 (16:04):
well, that's a, a phenomenon that occurs in
maracaibo.
How do you spell it?
C-a-t-a-t-u-m-b-o catatumbo.
Yeah, oh, my goodness,lightning.
So that's something thathappens every time, never stop.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Oh, so it's lightning bolts and it's filling
Lightning, but it looks likethousands of them.
Yeah, is it all going all atonce?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (16:41):
And if you live or if you are close to it, it's all
the time like a flash.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, wow this is on the lake that lake.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Yeah, that's on the lake.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, in catatumbos wow, these are some dramatic
pictures these are very peoplego to instagram.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
You gotta watch that it and there's um.
Are they different colors too,or is that filters, because I
see some that are purple I meanthe orange, I guess.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
I guess it depends about the camera, but I guess
it's, and you know when.
Sometimes how you say when is,oh my God, I forgot the word.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
No problem, it's just also the lighting, maybe of the
day, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, exactly, it depends about how it is cloudy
or not.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Got it?
Yeah, it looks.
There's so many.
It looks like veins, veins.
It's just like tons of veinseverywhere and it and there's
almost more lightning bolts thanthere is sky.
Um, it's that impressive.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I have that's amazing , and it is constant right, yeah
, no, it's interesting becausepeople go to, like, to Norway
for the northern lights and like, hey, this is probably
definitely more dramatic thanthat and it's kind of guaranteed
you're going to see it.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
It looks like oh my goodness wow, there's one
picture I just found.
I'm just scrolling through allof the lightning ones and
there's um and maybe they, they.
I don't know if they've addedcolor to it, but yeah, there's
multiple colors of yellow, blue,red, green, white.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
You know what happened.
Sometimes the camera's filterschange the real colors, because
I went to Alaska, to theNorthern Lights, and in camera
you kept a different color thanthe one that you see there.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I was going to say, I found something.
It says.
The most electric place onearth it's Venezuela's Lake
Maracabo holds the GuinnessWorld Record for the highest
concentration of lightning, with250 lightning flashes per
square kilometer each year, orkilometer kilometer.
The storms are the mostspectacular at the peak of the
wet season.
At this time of year, you cansee an average of 28 lightning
(19:03):
flashes each minute yeah, and isit usually like?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
raining and storming when that's happening, or is it
just a light?
No, it could be in raining orcould be in normal days.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
I mean that's happening, or is it just a light
show?
No, it could be in raining orit could be in normal days.
I mean, it's all the time, it'sa phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I wonder if they could try to like capture that
electricity.
Has anyone ever tried to dothat?
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I don't think so I don't think so.
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Maybe they tried Tesla.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I love the pictures Wow.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I don't know that's oh.
I'm so glad you told me aboutthis.
This is like I was just inArizona this past weekend.
There was this huge lightningstorm and I was in.
I was stuck in my car workingactually on Friday night.
And the light was.
It was.
I could see in my rear viewmirror and my my side mirrors,
(19:56):
all these lightning bolts behindme and also way ahead of me too
, like just all around.
And then the whole thing, likethat's, it looks like, looks
like this would still be 10times more, hundreds, thousands
more.
That's pretty incredible.
And so is it during you saidthe, or it said the wet season.
When is the best time to seethat?
Speaker 3 (20:17):
well, that's a phenomenon that happens all the
year, so anytime someone wantsto come, it's a good time?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
yeah, yeah, make sure .
I don't know.
Do they tell, like, do peopleget hit by the lightning?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I don't think so, uh, I mean, I don't think that that
people goes that close you know, like there is a civilization
close to it, but like it's notthe.
It's next to a lake, you know,but you don't need to come that
close and the lake is so big.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Where exactly is this where the lightning goes?
Is it because I see it's sortof like there's a mouth that
leads from the Caribbean Sea tothat?
Is it happen to be there?
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Let me find out in here, because it's in one of the
of the sites, like maybe under.
It is called Catatumbo River inthe place that it's showing
Okay, not in the lake by itself.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I did a Google for where it's located.
It seems like it's just likeone southwest part of the lake.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Okay, yeah yeah, it's one of the south part.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Oh, I see Catatumbo River.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Okay yeah, the River of Lightning, I guess that's
not's appropriate yeah, forsomeone who likes uh, nature, on
all those interesting things,because it's super weird yeah,
are there towns near that wherepeople go for vacation?
(21:49):
Yeah, I guess it's like uh,roraima.
Those are places that are likeso popular, where in the moment
that I went there, I foundJapanese, chinese from Australia
, a lot of people from differentcountries.
Just they come just to seethose places just to visit those
(22:13):
places, yeah there's anotherthing.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
It says the catatumbo lightning strikes 3600 times an
hour, 10 hours a day, for 300days a year.
That sounds like it's all yearround.
So yeah, unlike the northernlights that are just on and off,
that sounds like this one isyeah it's like sunshine in
california.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Huh wow, thank you for sharing.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
This is really.
It's a beautiful and scary andbeautiful at the same time.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Right again, yeah, yeah, well I'm curious and and I
like those things, yeah, me too.
I'm very curious.
And another thing that hasvenezuela is beautiful beaches,
uh-huh, yeah, uh, we have a bigcoast because it's like in all
the country we have a site thatis coast, caribbean, and there
(23:09):
is some special places, onecalled los roques.
Oh, los roques is r-o-q-u-e-syes, okay, oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
It says archipelago, which.
What small island.
So there's a whole bunch ofislands there too.
Yes, yes, I know, in swedenthere's the archipelago, so
that's a little.
Oh, it's wow.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
And it's the Caribbean seed, so it's all
turquoise and beautiful it's sobeautiful and the water is so
hot Not hot, but like you, enjoyit.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Okay, comfortable and warm.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
If I'm going to the vision here I can come out, I
don't know, like freeze frozenyes very much so here in
northern California, for sure,oh no, no, I even enjoy those
because I mean, it's what I haveright now, you know, yeah, yeah
, and I enjoy them like it'ssomething new.
It's a new experience.
(24:10):
It's different than what I know.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Oh wow, it's really pretty, so it looks like I'm
trying to get a better picturehere where it's.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I see a lot of like yeah, whitish sand beaches.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah.
Very very light turquoise color.
Is it like?
Is it expensive to stay thereor is it pretty reasonable?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
or it depends, because if you go to Los Roques
it is expensive, yeah, but ifyou pick one of the other ones,
of course it's like it's cheaperto go.
Yeah, but I recommend all thetime that you find someone who
can help you to get to thetourist place or, you know, like
(24:54):
someone who knows the placelike you, yeah we'll volunteer
your services yeah, yeahwhenever you want awesome and uh
.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
So what are some of the other beaches that you would
uh recommend to that, maybe tothe locals go to, or that would
be something that, um, you know,not as touristy or expensive,
but just as beautiful?
Speaker 3 (25:18):
yeah, uh, there is a park called morocco uh-huh and
they have archipelagos arounduh-huh and yeah, those are like
the ones that I must visit whenI was living there.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Oh, that says uh, is it um?
Speaker 3 (25:35):
called callo sombrero or morrocoy, m-o-r-r-o-c-o-y.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, oh, that's pretty too.
Gosh, the, yeah, the beaches I.
I would have never thought togo to Venezuela for the
Caribbean, but it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I guess each country has something special and
something magic.
You know, like all of them havesomething old, even the weather
, or the nature, or people,cultures, I don't know, but or
food.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Exactly Well, and also let's get to food, or I
don't know if there are.
Yeah, exactly well, and alsolet's get to food, or I don't
know any other spots that youwould highlight, I these were no
, no, we can't.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
We can't go so far.
Those are the ones that I love,oh perfect, that's.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
That's exactly what we like and what's the food like
well, we have something calledarepas.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I love arepas.
I try to make them.
Have you ever tried them?
Yes, yes, great.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
How do you say that?
I've never heard of it.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
A-R-E-P-A-S.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Arepas, arepas.
The first time I had them wasin Wyoming, at like a country
festival.
Oh really, I was like youwouldn't think we'd have
everything like barbecue beef orsomething, but it's like no, it
was like a food court or foodtruck they had like a rapist.
It was like, oh my gosh, I needto add this to my daily life
they're almost like the greek.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
What is it the, you know?
Like a like a gyro.
Yeah, like a gyro, um, but likea taco a gyro um no, the dog is
different.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
It's a warm dog, but it's different.
Yeah, no, it's different yeah,what's?
Speaker 1 (27:20):
it's a.
It's a.
Is it a tortilla, or it's abread of some sort?
Speaker 3 (27:25):
right, it's no, it's like uh, it's no bread, neither
tortilla.
The consistency is different,but outside it's like a toast,
oh okay, and inside the dough islike soft.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Oh, got it Okay, oh yeah.
Oh, here I'm seeing otherpictures of it.
Yeah, it kind of reminds me oflike a tamale.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Like a tamale is like made with like corn maize, so I
think it's kind of similar orlike a biscuit corn maze.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
So it's.
I think it's kind of similar,um, but or like a biscuit.
That's what it looks like.
The other picture is differentbecause you is you grill them?
Speaker 1 (28:00):
and it is, and so the other pictures now make it look
more like a hamburger kind ofaround.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yeah, exactly, and you fill it with whatever you
want.
Oh wow, it's watering chickenbeef, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
And then I see bell peppers um avocado.
Looks like some sort of fetacheese, but it's probably not.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Oh, reina pepiada is the name right for that one is
chicken uh-huh, it's likecheddar chicken, yeah, or yeah,
with avocado onion.
And you, you make uh mayonnaise, or yogurt, greek yogurt, uh
sauce, and you mix cilantro andgarlic.
(28:43):
It's so good, all right, andthen do you make this yourself?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
have you?
Are you?
Yeah, yeah, okay, so what'syour secret to making sure that
it doesn't fall apart?
Do you have a secret?
I'm sorry, how do you make surethat it doesn't fall apart?
Speaker 3 (28:59):
when you make it no, you cannot make sure.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Actually I'm not that good because I try to make
something like this and it justuh, you know how, how I make it.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I mean I open it and I eat half toast and half toast.
But my mom, when my mom cooked,she made it and she just opened
a little bit and she feel it.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
She figured it out.
Yeah, exactly, you need to beVenezuelan, maybe Not like me.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
So, abuela, yeah, abuela, it's a lot of magic,
right, right, did it like carol?
You tried to make it and itfell apart.
Yeah, yeah, and is it corn?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
is it?
Um, it is a corn.
Yeah, it is a card, though, butlike it's a process, it's
pre-cooked.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Oh, okay, it does make me think of um, you know,
the Spanish and the corn husk.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
The tamale.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Tamale.
Yeah, is it like a tamale?
The bread or the part of it?
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Yeah, maybe the dough it could be the same, but the
thing is you don't boil it.
That's the difference with thetamale Tamale, you boil it, you
boil it, and this one, you grillit.
Yeah, so that's why it's toastoutside.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Oh, got it.
Oh my gosh, that looks it'smaking me hungry.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
That looks really nice.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
And then what else?
What are other popular fooditems?
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Well, we have a plate called pabellón, and it is
white rice, black beans, I don'tknow, uh, the sweet plantain.
We made it like a leaf and we,I, we grill at home, but
sometimes people fry them andwith beef, the one that is
(30:50):
shredded too like.
That's the place that it callspabellon.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Pabellon criollo sounds like papa john's I know
how do you spell it.
No, it's not pizza, not at allsimilar.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
How do you spell it p-a-b-e-l-l-o-m like pabellon oh
, I see it.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, so like P-A-V-E-L-L-O-N.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Oh, is it plantains?
Yeah, sweet plantains, I think.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I just saw this on the Amazing Race.
That was their challenge.
They had to make this plate ithad an egg on top and beans and
it was like some pork rinds also, and avocados and the.
The plantains had to be cooked,grilled, just right.
I could eat that every day.
That looks amazing, oh mygoodness, yeah, yeah, that looks
(31:40):
.
I've never cooked plantains.
I think that would be.
Have you cooked plantains?
yeah okay, yeah I love them Ican't it doesn't seem like it'd
be that hard right Just peel andthrow them in the pan.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Well, it depends, because, for example, I can
bring plantain for my office andI don't peel it.
I put it in the microwave, Icook it for two minutes and when
it comes out I peel it after itcooks, so in that way it
doesn't get dry.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Oh wow, that's smart.
It cooks so in that way is itdoesn't get dry?
Oh wow, that's okay that soundsgreat.
Yeah, yeah, I was gonna ask youwhat do you fry it?
And you fried in butter, oliveoil or avocado oil, but you put
it in the microwave, no frying.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Yeah, so, and that's a plantain.
You take a plantain, you put itin the microwave two minutes,
and, and that's a plantain.
You take a plantain, you put itin the microwave two minutes,
and and that's.
And then what do you do onceyou take it out?
Do you slice it?
Do you mush it?
Speaker 3 (32:39):
I slide it and I cut cheese and I eat it with butter
and some eggs.
Oh, there's the butter.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Okay, and do you have to like open up the peeling a
little bit to let the airbreathe?
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Yeah, I cut the edges and I make a line through the
plantain and I put it like that,and after I open the peel, I
peel it.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
And do you have to go to a special grocery store in
California to find plantains?
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yeah, I just found them in the Mexican stores.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, because bananas are just like
everywhere and bananas I don'tknow if you guys know is the
cheapest food in the world.
It's going to cost you like 60cents for a whole bunch of
bananas, but I never seeplantains.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Yeah, they are good.
I like them when they are sweet.
There is another plate calledpatacon, that is with the green
plantain okay, oh green plantain.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Yeah, so it's, it's.
It's not an unripe plantain,but it's green, or is it unripe?
Speaker 3 (33:49):
it's unri, but we call it green plantain or yellow
plantain, so that's the onethat is unripe.
Is the name yes?
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Unripe.
Yeah, so it would be.
Not, it would be bitter, rightit was, it wouldn't be sweet.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
It's not sweet, exactly, it's for salty meats.
And the other one because in mycity we are in the border with
Colombia and we learn from themto to eat a lot of sweet and
salt stuff.
So we have some, some dessertsthat are cheese with guava.
(34:26):
You know what is guava?
Guava is like a sweet fruitthat you do a jam with it, yep,
and we eat like that a lot ofstuff, even a toast with jam and
cheese.
What kind of cheese?
It's a farmer cheese?
I don't know, it's not.
Is it soft, is it hard?
Is it a little bit hard?
(34:46):
And you can even grill them.
Oh yeah, yeah, it's a littlebit salt.
So the next thing is to mix thesweet with the.
Oh yeah, it's pretty nicebecause you don't eat like dove
(35:10):
or stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Do they just grow everywhere in Venezuela?
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Yeah, not everywhere, but there is a lot of farmers
that have them.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, the cheese looks like a lot of well.
It says queso blanco and quesolanero.
Queso blanco, yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Like white cheese.
Yeah, exactly peso blanco, yeah, like white cheese yeah exactly
that which makes the thing isis the most similar that I found
in here is in a Mexican store.
Yeah, and it's called um cheeseto fry.
You ask it like that.
Oh yeah, cheese to fry and it'sa cheese that is kind of
similar and you can eat them.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah, that's the most similar that I found in here
yeah, oh my gosh, wow, and thendo I'm assuming lots of meat is
eaten?
Is it fish as well?
Because you're on the?
Uh, there's the caribbean,there too, they're popular, uh,
popular um meats and and fishthat you guys eat.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Oh, we have a fried fish Whenever you go to the
beach.
You get next to the beach,there is a lot of restaurants
and they give you patacon withsalad and fried fish and it's
the complete fish fried oh yourhead they clean it inside, but
(36:33):
it's the complete one.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I remember being in Costa Rica and they gave me a
fish with the scales and theeyes and everything.
Do people eat all of it or dothey just?
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Some people eat all of that.
I don't eat eyes, I just eatthe meat.
We learn how to leave all theskeletal complete wow.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
And then so when you, when you eat it, do you take
off like the I'm imagining mebeing there but um, to take off
the like, the scales and stuff,do you like have to like scrape
it off or cut it off orsomething?
Speaker 3 (37:13):
no, the thing is that you learn how to do it with
your fork and you start peel itand when you finish it's
complete.
Okay, like just the.
I don't know how to call theskeletal.
Like just the, oh yeah,skeleton it's good.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, or the bones, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yeah, so I won't look totally ridiculous if I while
I'm eating it.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
No, no, no, no, I don't know, I don't.
There is, of course, somepeople that doesn't, that
doesn't like those, because theyhave the, the, the little bone.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
but yeah, oh my gosh, oh, that's great.
And then what about like livingthere, cost of living Is it
expensive to live there?
Is it pretty reasonable?
Like if someone wanted to gothere, and how much rent would
they have to pay each month tostay there?
Speaker 3 (38:13):
even though that we have a crisis there.
Uh, it is too expensiveeverything.
There is something crazy, but Idon't want to.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
I don't want to go to the political.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Yeah, because it's too extensive.
But the thing is, yeah, nowit's too expensive.
You can, you can even expand,same as here, and you don't get
that from your work there okayyeah.
So when I was there, most ofthe people have like a goal
whenever you have two yearsworking or something that like
(38:41):
that, it was affordable to get ahouse in that moment, okay.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Now it's different yeah, how about like to stay in
a hotel?
Is like two, three hundreddollars a night, then, or?
Speaker 3 (38:54):
I'm not sure about the hotels right now, but yeah,
it's expensive.
You can go for a dinner.
An example you can go for adinner and pay 45 for one food
oh okay, all right.
Yeah, it's kind of even alittle bit more expensive than
here.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Okay, that's why I don't hear them.
It's not very popular.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
And the difference is the minimum wage.
There is not the same as here.
It's pretty low.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
So yeah, it's so expensive.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
So it looks like there's a lot of forest right.
It seems like on the top partof Venezuela that it looks like
there's I don't know if that'scities or there's a whole bunch
of lines and then there's areally big part that's on the
south part that looks very green.
Is there a lot of?
Almost like half of Venezuelalooks almost like it's.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Yeah, that's the land .
The land place is for farmersMost of all the downside.
Yeah, yeah, it's for farmerslike plantain or papaya or beef.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Yeah, and then what do people like to do in terms of
like um activities or likewhat's a typical day or a fun
weekend for families, like whatdo people typically do together
well, um, we go party.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
But it depends about it depends about the egg,
because when I was there I usedto go party all weekend and
dance and concerts, movie,theater.
No, a lot of hiking, no, a lotof nature.
(40:49):
I start like, in my later yearsthere was the moment when I
started like exploring nature,hiking, uh, stuff like that, but
I was a party girl so forpeople who would be interested
in partying.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
What would you recommend for someone to go to?
Where should they go?
To my city.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
Okay, got it.
Yeah, thank you so much.
You can go party there.
That's a city.
It's known as a place wherepeople drink a lot of beers.
Mm-hmm, we actually had.
(41:36):
Uh, whenever you graduate fromthe university, we have a party.
In the one you get boxes.
Uh, my, my tent has like 30boxes of of beer and everybody
like is showering, showeringwith the beers.
Oh, my goodness, likecelebrating, like celebrating
because we are graduate, but itwas a big, big party yeah, that
(41:57):
sounds like people.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
There was a lot of fun that that was yeah, it was
oh, that's fantastic okay, well,gosh, we are almost at our time
um we're having fun right yeahyeah, so kristen.
Anything else we want to dobefore the rapid fire question,
uh, no, I'll let you, I'll letyou know.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Okay, looking at the, uh, when uh Carol mentioned
from Cuba, and then it kind ofit's almost like circles all the
way down with all the Caribbeanislands into Venezuela, and I
didn't't notice that, but it'sso true that seems like a, it's
almost a big circle.
It's right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Yeah, yeah, all right .
Well, speaking of partying,what are one of the popular
holiday traditions there thatyou like to celebrate, or is
there?
I know some countries just havelike so many holidays.
Is there one that stands out?
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Yeah, we have one in february called carnavales.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Okay, yeah, it's like the rio de janeiro carnival
it's kind of.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
It's kind of similar.
Uh, and that's a moment in theone uh, you were customs.
We don't have halloween.
You wear customs, we don't haveHalloween.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
I mean we get it from US, but like that's one of the
in February, carnival is themoment that you wear custom and
you wet everybody with littleballoons of water.
Oh okay, it's like you startplaying with people with the
little balloons filled withwater do you throw them at each
(43:32):
other like water balloon flights?
Speaker 1 (43:34):
yeah, yeah yeah I was like oh, that sounds just like
water balloon fights is thatyeah
Speaker 2 (43:42):
you come back to your childhood oh hey, I wonder, is
it tied to like um mardi gras,where it's like right before
Lent also because it's inFebruary?
Is it Catholic there, wherethey have like the Lenten season
for Easter?
Speaker 3 (43:58):
Oh, yeah, but we call Semana Santa.
It's different, it's adifferent one.
Yeah, we call Semana Santa,it's like Saint.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Week.
Okay, I was just wondering ifthe carnival was right before
the Easter season.
It's before, it's before, yeah,yeah, yeah, okay, very good,
okay, great, um, and what's thetypical breakfast that you would
have there?
Speaker 3 (44:18):
arepa arepa for breakfast.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Okay, yes, arepa for breakfast and for dinner mostly
okay yeah, okay, yeah, nice, andlike Japan, they like fish
every meal.
Like I think I'd go for thearepa.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
I mean, we make a soup called pizca too.
It is a potato soup with um.
It's not, it's a broth, chickenbroth with potatoes, cilantro,
and you put some eggs to beboiled there that's called pizca
With arepas next to it.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
You hard boil the eggs they hard boil in the soup.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Interesting.
The food sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
All right.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Is there a specific kind of music that is very
popular?
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Pop music.
We have the Janeras, like theyeah, it calls Janeras
Venezuelan music with arpa.
Have you ever heard thatinstrument?
The harp, harp, yeah, oh, okay,we have that one and it's one
called Cuatro.
That is like a little guitar.
(45:31):
Okay, it's little, it's small.
Cuatro, that is like a littleguitar.
Okay, it's little, it's small.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Not like a Hawaiian, oh, not like a ukulele.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
Yeah, no, it's a small, but like it's different,
the sound that comes out isdifferent.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
Oh, wow, yeah, All right.
And what's the money down there, bolivares?
Speaker 3 (45:52):
Oh my gosh, how do you spell that B-O-L-I-V-A-R-E-S
?
Bolivares, bolivares, okay.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
And the exchange rate is expensive.
Okay, let's just leave that.
We'll try to figure that out.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
It's pretty low actually okay I mean you need to
get a big amount of uh coins toget a coke, okay all right, no,
it's so devaluated the cointhere okay.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Is it better, when you go to visit, to have a
credit card, or better toexchange cash?
Speaker 3 (46:32):
It depends on the credit card, because some credit
card charge you internationalfees.
Oh right, yeah.
So in that way it's better toget cash and bring it there,
because they are not going tocharge you each time that you
are paying something.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Oh, okay, yeah, All right.
And then is there surfing.
I know you're on the caribbeanside, is there?
Do people surf, like in thesurfboards in the ocean?
Speaker 3 (46:59):
no much, because we don't have big waves waves.
Yeah, we don't have big wave.
We have in some sometime, butit's not a country that people
uh do a lot of surfing yeah, Iguess we had the, the western
side always.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Okay, well, very good .
Well, thank you appreciate that.
No, thank you, it's prettyamazing really.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Uh, thank you sharing uh, venezuela, it's so neat to.
So what would be, I guess, thelast question when would be the
best time to travel, if someonewanted to go there?
Speaker 3 (47:34):
I will say summer, summer time.
Yeah, I will say summer becauseit's the moment in the one you
enjoy more.
Okay, if it's raining, you needto stop some plants, or summer
is the best time.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
And so when you say say summer is the summer, the
same months as our summer, sojune, july, or we have to, yeah
even no, you can take summersince may until september, okay
so remember we have like sixmonths, six months, six months
raining six months so that's thenon-rainy season?
(48:11):
I assume, yeah, yeah exactlythe non-raining seasons.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
Yeah, you're right, nice, definitely want that
wonderful.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Well, thank you so much, demar.
It was so wonderful to get tosee you and, um, thank you,
through your experience invenezuela things I had no idea.
I am so excited to gosh.
I definitely have to go.
I want to check the lightningbolts and that mountain.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
Lightning sounds very cool.
Speaker 3 (48:36):
Yeah, yeah, that would be nice, that would be
super nice, absolutely Thank youso much Thank you for having me
have a great day.
Nice to meet you.
Bye.
Nice to meet you too, bye.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Thanks for listening.
If you enjoyed the podcast, canyou please take a second and do
a quick follow of the show andrate us in your podcast app, and
if you have a minute, we wouldreally appreciate a review.
Following and rating is thebest way to support us.
If you're on Instagram, let'sconnect.
We're at when Next Podcast.
Thanks again.
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