...to the best worst beach trip ever

There is enough comically bad luck in our collective Fulbright group to start a moderately successful reality show. 

With the birthday girl - best birthday trip ever!

We spent Thursday-Sunday celebrating Thanksgiving and Camille's (one of the ETAs) birthday in Falcon State at Chichiriviche, the jumping-off point for some of the most beautiful beaches in Venezuela.  Did we see aforementioned beautiful beaches?  Nooooo.  Why? Well, our trip happened to be poorly-timed with the worst storms and flooding that Falcon State has seen in over ten years.  So it rained.  And flooded. All weekend.

Yes, that's the road in front of our posada...or built-in pool, depending on how you look at it

 The seven of us (five ETAs, Carlo - a Fulbrighter in Merida - and Carlo's roommate Juan), spent the weekend eating, drinking about two liters of rum (we started at noon on Friday and finished about 12 hours later), eating, dancing, eating (really. for lack of anything else to do we ate. a lot.), and sniffing our rank clothes.  We played HOURS of cards (best 10Bfs, we've spent): gin rummy, texas hold 'em, spoons, circle of death, B.S., Egyptian Rat Screw, etc.  The Spanish deck of cards only had 12 numbers, running from one to twelve, with suits being gold coins, clubs (a massive club which looked like a pickle), daggers/swords, and cups.

Toting rum, water, and cups.  Well-prepared for a rainy weekend.

We swam in the ocean, in the pouring rain - we were determined to get some beach time in.  It felt great (after all, it's the Caribbean), and there were some excellent waves.  You just had to watch you didn't get impaled by a piece of driftwood making its way to shore.  The cayos (keys), were completely off limits because massive amounts of flooding and storms had forced Falcon State to declare a state of emergency.

Great swimming conditions.  You can see one of the cayos off in the distance!

One of the rented rooms in our posada flooded, meaning that there was about 3 inches of standing water in the room, forcing Carolyn and Jillian to get all cozy with Camille and me.  All the water in and around our posada meant that we were lunch for all the little buggies in 10km radius.  My feet are a mess.  As we walked around town, we got the pitying look of the locals who were wondering what 7 gringos were doing wandering around Chichi at the end of the rainy season (note to self: check rainy/dry season before beaching next time).

Annnnd the word of the weekend is...DENGUE!

 Adding insult to injury, Sunday morning, the day we were supposed to leave, the sun was out, there was a GORGEOUS coastal breeze and it was generally a perfect day to go to the beach.  About half our group (myself included) caught buses back to our respective towns, staring sadly out the window at the wind whipping through the palm trees.  The other half of our group swore to get some proper beach time in and, last I heard, spent a happy few hours on one of the cayos.

The trip was ridiculous - so terrible it was amazing.  The way I see it, we have seven months (knock-on-wood) of amazing, serene, beach weekends ahead of us.  This trip was infinitely more memorable.  And, assuming the universe is run like a giant balance sheet, with all the ridiculousness of the past weekend, I think the rest of our trips should be some pretty smooth sailing.  Good thing too, because we've got some crazy hiking/camping and Angel Falls coming up in December!

Excellent weekend.