Buenos dias!

Buenos dias! I am now writing to you from hot and sunny Venezuela. We crossed the Atlantic without incident.

Well, what to say?

-I had a great time in Europe. In Ireland I saw New Grange, Tara Hill, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, Oscar Wilde´s house, as well as various city attractions.

-It got hotter and hotter as we left Europe. Europe was sunny and warm, but never hot. Now it´s reaaally warm and humid again. Tank top and icy drink weather.

-I think my favourite European stop was Bergen. We unexpectedly arrived there the night before, so we could go into the town at night. I went around by myself - I like to do that sometimes - and the weather was gorgeous, and the town so picturesque.

It already seems so far away from here. Bergen´s was a beauty of colourfully painted, wooden houses, a port full of yachts, people sitting outside with beers and coffees, little rambling streets. Here, it´s a beauty of tropical butterflies and frangipani... but this town itself is not very beautiful, it´s rather ramshackle and dirty. There is a lot of Latin music driving past, though. Every bus is like a nightclub. As I sit here I can hear many snatches of fun songs.

-Yesterday a big group of us went up a mountain in a couple of jeeps. Our ship is currently docked in La Guaira, Venezuela. From the ship you can see masses of green mountains. It´s all very tropical, and as you go up, you can see more rainforest. I saw a hummingbird. From the top of the mountain, we took a cable car down into Caracas. We didn´t stay in Caracas so very long, but it was interesting to see. We enjoyed a beer, sitting outside and looking at the mountains.

Venezuela is said to be very unsafe - everyone is continually warning us to be careful - and to be sure, Caracas didn´t give the impression of being a very nice place. There were lots of slums, and the taxi driver said that in traffic jams, you should concel electronics and valuables because people may be in the tunnels etc looking into the cars.

Everyone is quite World Cup mad, including several teachers on our boat, so they are very happy now, finding places to sit and watch the soccer in.

Our ship has been to Venezuela before and has quite a good relationship with this country, so last night there was a big open-air cultural exchange festival. It was rather nice. Some Venezuelan people and Japanese people did performances and dances, and some Japanese people set up booths, writing local people´s names in calligraphy, teaching the children origami, and helping them try on kimono. There was a nice vibe.

This morning I´m just wandering around the port area on my own - that´s where I am now. I just had a carne mechada, yum yum yum. Soon I´m gonna meet some friends and we´ll go to the beach. It´s very nice beach weather.

-The ship gives lots of opportunities to slip in and out of different roles. This last week I become a singer, a librarian, and an Olympic team captain. I did my own little event where people brought books to borrow or lend. We had our ´language Olympics´ on the ship, and my team won. :) And I sang a duet (in Japanese) for the grand finale of an Okinawan event they were having on the ship. I´ve sung in front of an audience a few times on this trip, actually. I really enjoy it. :)

Anyway, that will do from me now. This web connection is not very good so I can´t do anything too ambitious on here. Hope you are all well!