Venezuela, Learning how to Dive

Back then I remember each summer travel to Venezuela with my parents, and being to little to start diving but big enough to understand what I was a missing every time everybody, mom, dad, uncles, brother, would go to the beach for a diving session while I was waitting for them in the surface...Until the day come...

If I am not wrong it was the year 1996 when I did my Scuba diving course, back there in Caracas Venezuela, attending to this class where they woul teach me how to read the different tables, or security issues for a safe diving... containing all my emotion and excitment until the graduation day came, doing my final exam in the beach.

The place was about 4 hours by car from Caracas, so after the long ride me and my mother got to the place where I was supposed to do my final exams along the whole weekend.

The thing is that although I didn´t make everything perfectly, and almost drown twice because it wasn´t really clear for me what to do in certain situation I received my Open water Scube Diver license, ready to start a Scuba diving way of living that would last.... just one more sumer Hollydays!!!.

Venezuela, Family is moving again

So for the time being, life seemed to be all right, going to school all year long until the summer came knowing that my friends and family living in Mexico back then where waiting for me and my family to visit them and get stuffed with some Taco´s and Chalupas.

Here is a picture of some of that incredible food, but to be honest this picture was taken when I returned to Mexico several years later to those family trips when I was backpacking. Actually this is a Tlayuda some kind of bread with meat cheese, spicy sauce, some more spicy sauce and spicy sauce.



The story starts when in 1994 the summer came, and I remember myself ready to start packing all my stuff to visit Mexico (yet as family trip, but backpacking adventures were about to come), and my parents telling me that we were going somewhere else, far from Mexico, closet to my country. Destiny: Venezuela.

This beautiful country as I remember it back then before this cover dictator called Hugo Chavez got to the government was something unique, and before anything here are some interesting links to get an insight of it.

Some history of Venezuela, and a really interesting blogs talking about the actual situation there written by Daniel who is living there.Venezuela Blog

Moving on I remember my first encounter with the Caribbean world, with hot and very humid weather all year long, and strong rains that wouldn´t calm down the heat that was almost annoying. Going to my family´s house and driving to the beach on the weekends...and I remember that by that time I was completely in Love with the Beach something that I didn´t have back at home, and would radically influence my decisions of Backpacking destinations later on.


Venezuela had this amazing people always happy, heavy beer drinkers, Baseball fans, and very nationalist back then in the good sense of the world. In there was the first time I had the chance to buy cheddar cheese (yeap, the one that goes in Mc donalds cheeseburger) in the supermarket... and I remember it was called FACILISTAS, that could be translated as Easy-Ready. I also remember being a big fun of this chocolate called Ovomaltina, that was Tube like a tooth paste tube filled with melted chocolate, something that I haven´t found since my last visit to that beautiful country, and apparently still exists there cuse I´ve found this picture.


So far this are the few memories I´ve got of my childhood plus some memories of Diving courses, visiting some Islands like Isla Margarita and attending to my family´s weekend club named Puerto Azul where there was an amazing Swimming pool with glass borders (that´s not me), and Bahia de los Piratas. But probably this are some random souvenirs of my memorie before I started Backpacking alone seeking to discover while I was already closer to be a grown up.

Mexico, first visits no Backpack...YET

Some years after my several visitis to USA, including the most importnant ones such as the ones when we visit Disneyworld and Disneyland (that for a 4 years old kid would mean the world), the first new destination was set. My mother´s sister and all her family decided to move to Mexico because of my uncle´s job so there we were all planning to change the route for that time being. So still we would make big bags, with lots of unnecesary stuff, that before starting to Backpacking wouldn´t look like that... and get started moving further north for us that we where traveling from south america, but in terms of hollydays moving south from the usual USA to the new and beautifull Mexico.

This might have been the first time in my life when I realized that besides my home town, and Mickey mouse there was a huge world out there to visit and see, sometimes a world that could be very similar to the one I was used to live in but in certain points completely different as well.


Going into the little details and the chilly culture that they have in Mexico, I remember how my cousin used to eat this sort of fruit candy called Pulparindo that it was a candy spicy as hell mixed with some salt and they were in love with this thing. And for my Argentinian standards of taste it was almost like a punishment to be given one of this and eat them as a proof of good manners from my side. The funny thing is how much we change with the years, and now I can say that I really like this candy, and even more when I got to Backpack to mexico several years later alone, I would by this stuff regulary.

Those happy years visiting mainly Mexico City or DF as people call it there lasted for the time they worked there. Now I remember some many other good stories about those trips with my family that maybe later I´ll be posting, some trips to Isla Mujeres, Cancun, Pirate´s Boats, etc.

Backpacking, just a start

Ok, here is the deal... I´ve had my time backpacking around there for a long time and now it´s on pause because of some new opportunities and all those things that you listen around about trying to see what happens trying something different,... but hopefully I´ll start moving around soon. Meanwhile my Backpack is waiting for me taking a rest from India´s Massala smell, Colombian jungles, Mexico´s spicy food,etc.


In my experience travelling since I was a little kid with mom, dad and my brother that were really into that before changing the car, or doing fancy stuff, because they had this passion inside themselves. So practically all my life I´ve been travelling, if it wasnt with my family by myself with my huge backpack looking for that thing that you can never clearly define but you know is right there in your next destination. That feeling that you share when you meet some other backpackers from other side of the world with the same sparkle in their eyes while you talk about backpacking trips around the world.


So it all started as a little kid travelling to USA, to visit some family (a long way for an Argentinian boy - South America for those that never heard of it)


DISCLAIMER
Here is a link with the basic info about my country and a cute Map
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107288.html



Well writting then about my first trips to the states, getting to understand and see how the whole thing of traveling worked, such as seen mom and dad sited on the living room of our appartment discussing about dates, prices, hotels, bags etc. At that time backpacking was only a discovery to be made. At this point my parents were trying to get me in all this things with my only interest on having their confirmation that they would take me to toys´r us to update my nintendo games collection(Nintendo like that not WII- Getting old Maybe).

So it went like this for some years until some family things happend that would change the whole concept of hollydays for me.