Thursday, July 29, 2010

Choroni

Welcome to my country!
David had a Math conference in Venezuela right after the one in Barcelona and we couldn't pass the chance to see my home country.

Ok guys, I know it's a lot of pictures but it is easier for me than writing clever posts right now. I promise that after I get home and settle I'll bring my cleverness back!

Girl's favorite spot, the hammock right out of our door.


There two guys can sing the Venezuelan National Anthem!

Star fruit!!

Victoria's eye after her nap the very first day. We don't really know what happened but she reminded me of the guy in "The Goonies" you know with the crazy face.
Meals were served here and my girls LOVED the food.
Arepas and pancakes for breakfast every morning.
 
Right outside our room was this beautiful mango tree.
The first time Elena noticed it she said to me "Mom, who put those mangos up there on the tree?"

My poor little american child (aka gringa) didn't know where fruit comes from ;-( reminds me of her daddy.
 
I asked the nice people in charge and they agreed to get some down for the girls.
And they lived happily ever after!
Elena later told me that was THE best mango she's ever had.
and it was SO true!
One of the days of the conference the organizers prepared a trip to a near by beach. 

The guy in yellow was our tour guide.
These pelicans were every where! So fun to watch them eat.
Here is the island!,isn't it beautiful?
This beach is right next to some cocoa farms, and we, as part of the trip, were taken to see the farms.
This is how we were transported!!!
Good thing I had the girls, they let me and them ride in the front seat with the driver.
Bad thing, that the handle to change gears was right next to Victoria's hands.
First stop!
The truck couldn't go over this little path because it was covered in water and there were too many people in the truck, so everyone got down and crossed on foot.... and had their pictures taken :-)
Very blurry, but here is the cocoa!!!
The girls were slowly realizing that fruit grows on trees, they saw banana trees and plantain trees.
Here we are in the area where they lay the cocoa to dry. It was raining and the girls were catching the rain with their tongues.
Read the sign... look at the guy. 


On our way out we passed by this sign...

Ir reads, " Love is beautiful"

"but planning if necessary"
The part that I didn't a picture of was the same couple, looking crazy with about 4 kids around them.  
and... the road going home.
yes, it is blocked.
yes, by bamboo trees.
yes, those men are just neighbors cleaning everything up so cars can go by.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Barcelona day 2

Welcome to my past!!!!

Hey, I think I'm doing pretty good for being on vacation without a computer of my own :-)

So, on day 2 my mom the girls and I went solo to explore the beautiful city. David had to actually WORK!! weird , I know.


Anyway we asked Elena where she wanted to go and she said to the "CASTLE"
We took her to Montjuic.Not only is it a huge castle but the way to get there is pretty cool.

This is only half way!
Here is my pretty Mami, at the entrance of the Castle. 
We walked around and just enjoyed the breeze and the scenery. There were little museums inside about he military and the history of Montjuic but the girls just wanted to play.

Funny story.
On the top of the castle there were these little towers on each corner of the field. The girls liked them because they were more their size. The adopted one and started playing there. At one point some big guys come in and start looking inside and Victoria came in and started screaming "THIS IS NOT YOUR HOUSE THIS IS OUR HOUSE!! YOU GET OUT!!! RIGHT NOW!!!!"
He looked at her and walked away, then he said "this is not your house" and she looked at him, looked around and told him "I want that rock!" -a big rock she had wanted inside the tower but couldn't carry it- 
He brought the rock in and then he was allowed to come inside the house.


After we left the fun Castle we did what tourists do. We walked up La Rambla and saw a bunch of animals, flowers and these guys
 Pulling out her coin, hoping to get him to move.
He didn't!
La Sagrada Familia
My sweet little cutie pies!
 "modelame asi... pose pose...pose pose.."
 One way to tour the city.
 Superman, Bam Bam, Mr Incredible and guest.
 This is SO cool! too bad we didn't get to go inside.
Or maybe it was a good thing...
look! she doesn't look very happy :-(
 There were tons more of these guys that the girls LOVED!
Mr. Paella.
 
Someone got his picture taken with this guy, just right under him!!!
Mr. faceless. I asked Elena "How does he do that?"
to which she did...
 La boqueria,
This nice man explained to my baby that "that" is meat from a cow, and it could never be a chicken!
What does the pig look like?
The ferry kind
Creepy princess
And last but not least.
Overcoming their differences for a better cause.

I guess we can all learn from that pair!

And, we left all sad that we couldn't stay forever there, in beautiful Barcelona.
No, worries there is more from the South...
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Saturday, July 10, 2010

Barcelona day 1

WOW!!!
I didn't remember that I couldn't really upload this post in Venezuela. Sorry :-( I didn't know I was SO behind.
I guess when you're having fun you forget to blog!

Here it is a little bit of it.
Barcelona, Spain. We LOVED IT! I fell in love with the beauty of the city and cool weather. Elena fell in love with the fashion.
Seriously, she kept telling me "Mom, can we move to Barcelona? everyone dresses very nice!" or "Mom can we go see that store, I like their clothes. I didn't know how much this kid likes fashion!

In no particular order here are some sites we visited the first day.
I could organize them but the laptop and I don't like working together in this manner.  Sorry smokey.


Top view of Tibidabo. We were right by Jesus Feet.


The enormous church at the top of the hill. Notice Elena copying Jesus. She did this the entire time! 



Here we are at Gaudi's park "Parc Guel"


On our way up to Parc Guel. Victoria found this cute little line of working ants and stayed there for about 20 minutes, laughing at the guy that worked SO hard to get the biggest piece of leaf to his hole and  then finding out that it was NOT going to fit.

The escalators to go the "Parc"

For dinner we went to a little restaurant called "FLASH" can you tell why? They made Spanish tortillas...yum!

Elena has been wanting to ride a Ferris wheel and up at Tibidabo was her chance, we just had to make sure that Victoria could enter as well.

Ohh she is going to miss her Chocha when we get back home :-(

The Ketchesons 2010!! in "Parc Guell"

On our down from Gaudi's park we found HUGE bubbles!!

Aren't they the cutest girls you've ever seen???!!