Semana Santa

Semana Santa, the week of Easter, most businesses are closed and people take time off from work, for a week or more if they can. Many leave the city and visit other parts of the country or if they are rich they travel abroad.
This put a kink in my progress. No interviews were possible, the people in La Vega took off for the river for eight days, no one else was available for interviews until the week after. I really wanted to start doing more outside of painting and Spanish, it is frustrating sometimes how much things shut down for holidays, especially when I want to be getting things done.

4/13/07
Five years ago there opposition attempted to unseat Chavez with a Coup on April eleventh, and by the thirteenth he had been returned to power by the demands of the people. This Wed. there was a large gathering in downtown Caracas. There were speakers and Chavez also appeared and spoke. There were various community events on Thursday, and on Friday people gathered in front of Miraflores, the presidential palace, where they had gathered five years before demanding the return of their president.
I attended the Friday rally, which was like a giant party that filled the street and stretched for three blocks or more. Most people were in the red T-shirts that the government gives out, and many with the matching hats as well. People were simply partying in the street, drinking beer, eating pop corn and meat kabobs, waiting for Chavez to appear and speak. When he finally did arrive on the giant stage that could be seen from a few blocks away, he led a song, and his voice was projected over many speakers along the street. I was one block away, but could see him on the stage behind a giant red podium, distinctly shaped torso and head, waving his arms up in the air at times. I stayed for a while and then left, but Chavez spoke for at least three or four hours. The guard of my apartment building was watching him speak a few hours after I left the rally.
Myself and two gringo friends were flagged down by a small group of middle aged lawyers, who kept chatting with us and offering us beer for over an hour as we all waited for Chavez to appear. The warmth and hospitality of people always surprises me.