Well today started off a little bit groggy. I ended up drinking my fill at the hotel bar last night and woke up a bit hung over this morning. The phone was screaming like a drill pressed up against my temple. We got the call for the meet time, a workflow meeting on how we are going to photograph this gig. Gabe and I eventually woke up took our showers and met in Mark and Rene's room. We printed some stuff off in the business center and all agreed that the best place to conduct our meeting was on the rooftop of the hotel. Opening the door to the roof top we were all greeted by the sunshine the warm breeze and bustling hum of the city below. Caracas is beautiful, crowded and constantly moving city. This is actually a very dangerous city. The Venezuelan National Counter Kidnapping Commission was created in 2006 and since then ,official statistics have shown an alarming 78 percent increase in the number of reported kidnappings. It is a wide known fact that if you go out in this city at night your chances of getting robbed or kidnapped increase dramatically. As side from the horror stories I love the look and feel of this city. From the rooftop you see the buildings towering above the shanties and the mountains towering over the buildings in the distance. There always seems to be a heavy blanket of clouds resting just atop the foothills that gradually turn into mountains. The buildings are all a very rough concrete color some darker than others and all grouped together like some city scape from a cubist painting.
After going over equipment and getting our workflow down Mark, Rene,Gabe and I decided it was time to eat and experience a bit of Caracas. We called our Caracas contact David and arranged to have a driver take us to a restaurant and drop us off so we could explore a little. We ended up going to a restaurant about a mile and a half from our hotel our driver would pick us back up in two hours. We took a seat outside of the restuaraunt under a balcony and proceeded to watch the motorists and pedestrians in a raging war, one that rivals hyenas and lions. The cars here are constantly on the move with only one pace... fast and with out hesitation. You don't want to wander too long while crossing the street you must get your business done in an instant or be consumed by the unleashed fury of a 84' Toyota Celica . You must be an aggressive driver in this city, hesitation behind the wheel is not an option here. You also have to be an aggressive pedestrian alert at all times. After watching the happenings of the city our waiter arrives and asks if we are Americans, between our broken spanish and his broken english we a agree that he will order for us a little of everything. About 2o minutes later our first course arrives its a simple dish black beans,rice and pink tender pieces of pork, absolutely delicious. Then a waiter comes out with the steaks and sausage. The beef here tastes amazing very tender with a taste that any carnivore would kill for. Another 10 minutes later the same waiter brings us the sausage that looks like a red candy coating and tastes like an italian sausage. The last course arrives and it is another plate full of steakes. We also ordered some beers, there are only a few beers in Venezuela they are light and all tasting pretty much same.
We decide to get our bill and go explore a little. Now when the bill comes you have to do a little math. The currency here is called bolivar and the exchange rate is 2.5 bolivar to 1 us dollar. This town is really really expensive. We pay our bill and start walking I decided to lead the group into the streets of Caracas as we wonder around. Most of the women here like to show everyone how beautiful they are or think they are,granted many are beautiful. Strutting around with clothing that seems to be tattooed on their skin. I have also noticed that most of the women tend to enhance their figures with push up bras and plastic surgery. I recently asked my friend Maurin who was born and raised in Caracas and she tells me that a lot of the women here have had breast enhancement surgery because it is extremely cheap. Looking absolutely sexy all of the time seems to be a great concern for the women here. We walked around a bit then had to get back to the pickup point so we could get back to the hotel. We meet our driver and he races thru the busy congested streets with instinct of a stock car driver how he deals with this traffic on a day to day basis is beyond me. We get back directly go to Marks room and continue cleaning equipment and getting our software up to date. A few hours later we go and get dinner at the hotel and retire to our rooms day number 2 comes to a close.
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