Bicycle Photo Favorites

Here are a few photos about bicycles I enjoy. The one at left is from an art exhibit in a Caracas museum. The light was just right. Below, in the first row, the top left and top right photos are from the road near Hue, Vietnam in late 2007, where we ran into some fellow cyclists on their way to town. The top center photo is an interesting bike sculpture made of branches and old tools outside a coffee shop in Guanajuato, Mexico. The bottom one is of a bicycle parked in a plaza in Dalat Vietnam, with …..fish, a visual play on words from the phrase, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”

Work Tour in Honduras

From August 6-17 2011, we joined 14 other volunteers on a work tour in Honduras, run by Trees, Water and People, a Fort Collins-based non-profit. I had been intrigued for many years about their work. I met international program director … Continue reading →

Invasions and Expropriations – the Surreal Becomes Even More Strange

In a previous post (Peeling More of the Onion – 7-20-2010), I described an urban invasion I saw in an abandoned under-construction high-rise in Caracas. Above are some recent photos that show squatters living in the building (upper right photo and bottom row). This is across the way from the Sambil La Candelaria shopping center, which was under construction when President Chavez delivered a speech there, and gave the surprise announcement he was expropriating it for unspecified social use.

Other photos show another invasion.

This year, urban expropriations are four times greater than 2007. The government says it needs to do this to meet its Mision Vivienda housing program goal of building 2 million housing units by 2017. The opposition says this is silly – there are plenty of urban lands owned by the government which can be used for housing. They say expropriations are being used as a way to win votes before the 2012 elections, as a threat to property owners that “the government can roll over you and take your land whenever we want” (Roberto Ortiz; Urban Housing Association) and as a way to reduce private property ownership as much as possible.

Urban invaders apparently figure if the President says it’s OK to take over a vacant property, they risk little by doing so. No matter how egregious their actions (theft, damaging the house etc.), the law makes it very difficult to throw a squatter out. If urban invasions become widespread enough, the city moves in the direction of mob rule.

Something else has also changed since last year. Bad flooding created a brand new homeless population of around 130,000. In a political stunt, Chavez announced they would be put up in hotels, abandoned, and expropriated buildings. Victims from nearby Miranda state were brought to Caracas. The Sambil shopping center, after months standing empty following the expropriation, and still without utilities, was pressed into service as one emergency shelter for the homeless.

Some homeless were even brought into the Miraflores presidential palace for a while.

Urban invaders are becoming more and more of a permanent fixture in this strange landscape.

For a great look at the “world’s largest squat”, the unfinished Torre Confinanzas building in Caracas, the below link takes you to an exhibit by two Venezuelan artists, Ángela Bonadies and Juan José Olavarría, “La Torre por dentro y por fuera” – the tower inside and out:

http://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/the-tower-of-david/

Equal Opportunity Struggling

Life just gets harder for everyone. The middle class, the working class, the poor and sometimes even the rich – share some of the pain.

The day-to-day pressures on Caraquen~os are relentless. People were recently calling into a radio station talk show, saying now they were afraid to eat raw vegetables outside their own kitchens. Some people are now boiling drinking water as a precaution. Inflation has made the cost of food is so high, even residents who earn professional salaries say they cannot afford to eat out. It gets worse. Some employers are giving people the equivalent of food stamps to buy groceries. Still, even workers with a salary may scrimp on meals or food types to get by. Some food items remain difficult to find. When we crossed the border from Columbia, our driver made sure to pick up some cooking oil for her sister.

Then there is the crime. It is so bad that Caracas, once the city that never slept, has almost deserted streets at night. Even going for a short evening stroll is not safe in most of the city. People stay at home. Family and community relationships suffer.

Traffic has never been more hazardous; now it’s the increasingly aggressive driving of more and more motorizados (motorcyclists) and moto taxis. Caracas is not unique in its bad traffic, but the motorizados have stepped up the risk several notches, blatantly ignoring stoplights, recklessly zipping in between backed-up cars, and even driving straight into oncoming vehicle lanes.

And that’s how everyone, rich and poor, gets a chance to share danger in the streets.

Botanical Garden TopoTepuy

A few of the wine bottles

visitors

ferns in cloud forest

hydroponic garden

english garden section

view of caracas and El Avila

To the southeast of Caracas, at just about 1400 meters, in the area known as El Vulcan Los Guayabitos, TopoTepuy is an impeccably maintained and beautifully landscaped four hectare botanical garden. I had never heard of it before. Four of us joined a tour on a partly cloudy, breezy Saturday. The sheer number of plantings is enormous, and our guide, a biologist, was top-notch. You get a four-hour tour, refreshments, and the best view of Caracas and El Avila one could ask for.

The garden was once the property of the Phelps family, an English and an American expatriate who loved plants, birds and wine, in that order. They built a bird-watching post in the cloud forest section, and now those empty wine bottles line the path around the post.

Chaos in Caracas and Beyond

While I was in Venezuela in early June, maybe the most bizarre event was the power outage in Maracaibo.  Electrical power problems have been mounting all over Venezuela in recent years. Drought in the Orinoco River basin has threatened the El Guri hydroelectric plant on the Orinoco River, which supplies about three-quarters of Venezuela’s electricity. Since the electrical utility was nationalized, maintenance on the national grid has fallen way behind schedule.  The opposition blames the government for replacing electrical engineers with Chavez cronies.

Power outages outside of Caracas are common.  While I awaited my flight to Caracas at Santo Domingo airport, the power died for 10 minutes.

The cause of the great Maracaibo outage was the explosion of transformers at a local substation.  Hospitals, gas stations and traffic lights were down.  The city was paralyzed.  The resulting 40-hour blackout in Venezuela’s 2nd largest city, with over two million residents, and appeared to be spreading to parts of 3 states.

Maracaibo is often almost intolerably hot. It was 95 degrees farenheit with a humidity of 70% when the blackout started, making it feel like about 117 degrees.

What was most bizarre was the Federal government’s response.  First the governor of Zulia State claimed he had no information.  Finally the Feds spoke up.  First they blamed sabotage, then …… residents, for consuming too much. They said, “Venezuelans can live without air conditioners set at 60 degrees all the time.”

Well, maybe they have a point: Inflation has spurred a buying bonanza. The people who can have loaded up with more air conditioners and other appliances, TVs, stereos etc. But when something like a power outage happens, government, if they are responsible, needs to own up to it, make clear the present condition is unacceptable, and restore power quickly. They don’t win hearts and minds in a crisis by making excuses.

Then there is the bizarre prison battle. As I write, it is in its fifth day, after prison gang violence began on June 12th.   While government troops lay siege to the El Rodeo prison, prisoners were texting family, fearing a massacre.  Some prisoners who have gotten out said as many as 37 people have died, but no one knows the real number.  They are heavily armed. This is not unusual; many prisons in Latin America are controlled by gangs while prison guards keep a watchful eye from outside.

One man was quoted as saying, “I get strip-searched every time I visit my brother in there, so can you explain to me how these weapons make it inside if it is not the corrupt guards?”

Then there is the absence and complete silence of President Chavez, convalescing in Cuba from surgery. He normally can’t stop talking.  His long absence and mysterious silence during Venezuela’s worst power outage and prison battle accentuate two of his government’s biggest failures, crime and crumbling infrastructure.

El Calvario – another urban oasis

El Calvario, that abandoned large park on a steep hilside right above downtown Caracas, has been restored.  It was constructed in the late 19th century as a series of gardens at different levels, connected by winding paths.  Later, a chapel and additional gardens were added.  The park deteriorated over the latter part of the 20th century.  The landscaping was not maintained and the park became infested with criminal activity.  In all my years visiting Caracas I’d never been there.

The restoration was yet another act of political theatre by President Chavez.  A statue of Christopher Columbus was knocked down, replaced by one of Ezequiel Zamora, a Venezuelan general from the 19th century.

Regardless, it is once again a quiet and safe green space overlooking central Caracas.

Sun and shade

Creative Landscaping

Central Caracas in motion below

Archway

Presidential office Miraflores, El Avila beyond

Happy visitor

The gardens and paths are restored and park is patrolled by the National Guard.