11.30ish pm, Thursday June 19, MS's ..the generousity of others

Tomorrow MS and I go to Puerto Ordaz and then on to Puerto Ayacucho to see the Amazon. I am so glad he is coming with me. I didn't feel I could stay on Margarita any longer in order to stay with him when there is so much more of Venezuela to see, so he comes too. Though of course this is a new adventure for him as well.

At night MS plays the The Wall Live in Berlin for me. But it isn't the same as, is quite inferior to, The Wall original. Itold him this, and that I would burn him other Wall albums when I got home, and last night when he put on Pink Floyd it was the real Wall. He had burned it while we were at the internet cafe. The lovely boy also downloaded Wish You Were Here and Shine On You Crazy Diamond. He keeps surprising me.

Today we slept in, aiming to spend the afternoon making travel arrangements. We breakfasted at a local panaderia. I had a guayaba (guava) 'empanada' and we shared a large round dark molassesy-flavoured cookie-like thing. The guava empanada (doughy, not fried) was delicious, the cookie okay.

MS and I went to the internet cafe, where I found no useful information about how to change my flight out of Caracas except for American Airline phone numbers, and we bought shaved ice drinks - mine with tamarind syrup. At a travel agency we found that flights to Puerto Ayacucho weren't available until Tuesday, much too late, and we still didn't know if MS would find someone - N or S - to cover him at work. Our travel ideas were looking complicated and unlikely but MS suggested I go to Merida for a few days and meet him in Puerto Ordaz on Sunday. Then his boss found someone to work and I called American Airlines and changed my flight to New York to the 28th and so we go tomorrow, winging it a bit.

Life works out because of the generousity of my couchsurfing hosts. S will pick up my e-ticket (yes, that is a paradox) for me in Caracas, a rather big ask. But nothing here is ever straightforward or easy. There is always an extra hurdle, a problem that requires solving.

MS and I went to see T to collect the rest of my money and we ended up going for Chinese food. In Venezuela, Chinese restaurants serve sweet bread rolls. There are egg rolls (absent from Australian cuisine) but aside from that the food is more Australian-style, sauces less glutinously heavy. I ordered Szechuan-style bean curd, which was like an Australian-style dish: white soft tofu swimming in a sauce of mushrooms, green capsicum, onion and... beef. Oh well, I ate around the beef. The Szechuan style was definitively not spicy, as it should be, though both the boys (J came too) thought it was too hot. Venezuelans apparently do not do chilli.

It was delightful to eat tofu again, and drinking Chinese tea felt like home. I talked most of the night to J about food and movies. J downloads a lot of movies and has seen many independents, including Pleasantville, which he also loves. J showed me the preview for Spike Jones's Where the Wild Things Are and it looks like it will be great. I am excited about it.

T paid for dinner. He has been so generous, I am glad I bought him a bottle of wine.

MS's nephew just popped in to say goodbye. Such sweet boys!