Catatumbo!

Ok... so... Urs, Joe, and I set out tuesday afternoon towards Santa Barbara de Zulia.  We got there kinda late and paid 160 bolivar... for a super nice room.  So we split that and ended up paying as much as we were paying for the hostel in Maracaibo but this Hotel was waaaay nicer and everything in the fridge was the same price or cheaper than it was at the store.... no need to eaven leave the room.... but we still did of course....

The next day we took a bus to Porta Concha where we ate and then met some locals that took us out on a little boat tour and then took us to these houses on stilts in the middle of a giant lake (too big to see the other side....) the houses are called palofitos...(sp.?)  Anyways we stayed there for awhile... I cooked everyone dinner with some ingredients we picked up earlier at the store and then we went back to Porta Concha for a huge party.  See in Zulia they have an 8 day festival to celebrate La Chinita... (the virgin)  It was tons of fun.  Then we went back to the palofitos and watched lightning all night... from like 11 pm to 3 am it was going.  This happens all the time at lake maracaibo at the south end... they call  it Catatumbo.  Everyone says it is this unexplanable miracle.... scientists say it is the super cold air coming off the mountain from merida and coliding with the super hot humid air in Maracaibo.  There is lighting without thunder 300 nights a year.... pretty cool.

Urs and Joe were running out of money so they decided to go to Colombia without me.  I still want to go to Maracaibo for the last day of the festival.. theres bull fighting, concerts.... and tons of stuff to do.  So I am headed there tomorrow and I´ll stay with my brother in law´s sister Denis (Gustavo´s oldest sister)  Right now I am in Trujillo again staying at the Parra house because when I got to Valera the bus was only half full so the driver told us all to get off... I was the last one off so the little cars headed to maracaibo were full by the time I got to them.  But it is probably better that I travel during the day anyway.

I spent last night in a hostel in a place called Isnotu.  Isnotu is where the people I met at the Virgin Statue live.  I went up there and we made pastelitos together one night... and pasticho (venezuelans version of lasagna) the next day.  It was fun learning how to cook they way they do.  I visited this sanctuary that is dedicated to this local doctor.  So I don´t know the whole story but here´s what I got from word of mouth.  So Isnotu had this doctor named Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez... he was a good Dr. but one day he got hit by a car.  As a spirit he would appear to people and heal them... so now this guy is super famous and has been made a saint by the Diocese in Venezuela or something.... this guy is important enough to get put in stain glass windows with God... you know he´s pretty important ;)  Anyway... other than that there´s not much there... it is a touristy place for venezuelans... but not for anyone else :)