Stuck at Lil Wayne's House

This title may seem good but it's really just the opposite. Yesterday around 4pm a group of us head out for what was the X-star's maiden voyage. Jenny (my gf!!), Nate+Melissa, Phil+Nicole, and me. Champaign sparked off the trip along with a brief, if not well interrupted, speech. Not my finest moment but there was just too much on my mind, from striking floating debris to checking the depth meter. After 20mins though (and plenty of dranks), the Bay became a vast space in which to play.

We went fast, we went slow. Busted out the chips, spilled a fair share of beer/wine all over the boat. Reality struck when we reached the Haulover Sandbar and almost ran aground. After we got a better grip of the situation we anchored up and hung out for a bit. Well into the party, conversations sprung up on the fact that Lil Wayne lived just south of us. The mission was decided, find Lil Wayne's house.

The sun was just setting but on the way Phil jumped at the idea of wakeboarding the now-calm waters. A short run in the frigid water but I admire the will to try. We came around Normandy Isle on the south side and headed toward La Gorge, where Wayne's abode supposedly stood. At idle speed, the darkness filled the sky but the well lit house stood out like a star. You could even see people watching TV throughout the house (floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere). With Nate and Phil screaming the famous line "...got 10 bafrooms so I can shit all day..." (Steady Mobbin - Lil Wayne) while dancing on the back platform, it was the peak of the day.

Things changed real quick, though. As we swung around in front of Wayne's house, I put it reverse and the boat wouldn't react. The engine was rev'ing but that prop wasn't engaging. What was most concerning was a subtle ringing sound I never heard before. The transmission failed somehow and I could see from the motor the prop shaft was not moving (meaning we didn't just loose the prop!). I switched into emergency mode, as we drifted without much to paddle with. I called Nereydo, a veteran of these issues, for advice. Sea-tow would cost $300 and we were close enough to the house to conceivably paddle back. He offered to meet us with his kayak and figure it out. While he drove up, we paddled towards the house using the wakeboard and an engine panel. We reached the King Cole building once Nereydo arriving with the kayak paddles. At that point we went a lot faster with 4 people paddling and Jenny driving the boat. We reached what was the only unknown in the plan, the height of the 71st+Bay Dr. bridge. The boat's tower was 2ft too high.

Rowing all the way around Normandy Isle was not an option, so bringing down the tower was the only way. Nate phoned into Henry a master-handy man of sorts who surprisingly had the proper tool to get the tower down. As we waited, Nicole's bladder was bursting so Phil decided they should exit the vessel by way of climbing onto the bridge. Bad idea. In what was perhaps a drunken stuper, he lost grip of the bridge pipe and splash. Yes folks, full clothed and now soaking wet (sorry about the phone). It was all in good fun, but it was scary to see.

We rowed to a nearby dock and properly moved Phil+Nicole off and Henry on. In what was the best gesture of good grace I've seen in a long time, Henry successfully solved one problem after another until the tower came down. We then were finally able to paddle back home.

Now will be the task of assessing the transmission problem and managing the challenge of paying for a fix for it... the saga continues... :(

Postmortem: Once upon an X-star...

I didn't get a post out in 2010 because I was extremely preoccupied with realizing a dream. I'm glad to say the ordeal is finally complete. In true Mastercard fashion, this is how it breaks down:

Casa Bahia Slip Assignment---------- $30,000

2005 Mastercraft Xstar (182hrs)----- $35,900

Boat Delivery from Virginia to Florida- $333

Modifying Boat for Saltwater Use---- $7,484.59

Miscellaneous Maintenance/Repair--- $2,496.99

10k lb Boat Lift----------------------- $3,499.00

USACE/FDEP/DERM/CMB Permits- $2,099.16

Boat Lift Installation----------------- $4,617.18

PTO to Manage Project-------------- $2,880

Miami Beach H2O Skiing Anytime--- Priceless

The dream came to be after moving to Florida in 1999. Friends I made from work invited me to a water ski park in Deerfield, FL. I started out knee boarding which was ok, but once I put on a wakeboard I was hooked. It was a 30min drive from my house and $25/visit, but I would go 3X/wk. About a year later I met another coworker, Mark Boerger, who had his own boat and lived nearby. Skiiing behind a boat was more fun - although equally time consuming and costly - so I started riding regularly with him. Then I moved to South Beach and Boerger had a couple kids, so getting out on the water became all-the-more challenging. My addiction to wakeboarding persisted. I mean it's Xtreme fun, physically challenging, and get's me outside. Can't beat that.

BTW, I was wondering...

Have you owned a Smartphone previous to what you're using now?	If so, what did you do with it?

Anyway, in the summer of 2008 while searching for an apartment for my mom, I came across Casa Bahia. A small condo in a kick back area of Miami Beach with great potential. Best asset: an unclaimed 30ft dock slip. I jumped on it and got us a good deal (back then) at $195k, 165k for the apartment and $30k for the slip. Since I didn't have a boat, I figured I would just rent it out. Soon found out this was not an option per the condo rules, so that wasn't cool. I got around it somewhat by getting on my buddy Nereydo's boat registration and having him use the slip. No real kickbacks though so I had to my own vessel soon.

At the end of 2009 the recession was in full swing and even rich people were struggling for cash. I found someone on Craigslist selling a 2005 Xstar for $45k. With all the research I had done, I knew it was the best deal I was gonna find. It was still way above my cash pot so after over a month of negotiating, I got it down to $35,900. It helped to have discovered that the seller's town of Franklin, VA was loosing it's major employer (thanks Alex E./Google!!). Franklin wasn't close to any major airport, so to save money I scored a road trip with my BFF, Rod Gomez, and his family from their home in Charlotte, NC (good times!!). With some total clutch planning I also found a guy on uShip.com that would agreed to meet in Franklin and take the boat down to Miami for $300! He'd never been to Miami Beach so it was a way for him to pay for his gas. :)

Everything was gravy up until this point. While the boat was still in route I heard from my dentist that owning a boat was no joke. I had some to-dos in mind already - retrofitting the boat for salt water use, getting a boat lift, and some maintenance items - but she highlighted the permitting process required for any installations on water. I fifured it couldn't be so difficult and that last-resort I could just get a drop-in SunLift. Oh was I wrong.

Permit Saga

...to be continued...

Installation

...to be continued...

Deployment Day

...to be continued...

Key Take-Aways

...to be continued...

Haven't posted in a couple years... I thought I would share this little video I made.

Down time at Story's phat pad...

Saturday was a bit slow because of the high energy activities since my arrival. After returning to Story's house from wakeboarding around 2:30pm, I met up with Monica, Karen, and Victor. We kicked it for a minute watching movies, catching up, and napping. We strolled by the beach to catch the sun down and do some body surfing. Came back to the house and showered up for dinner. Michelle got in as well and we all headed over to Story's new restaurant in San Marcos. An extension of his families' Cocina del Charro, it's been Story's primary focus for the past 30 days. The place looked great and the food was delicious. We had such a yummy time that it got too late to hit any clubs or bars. We did a beer run on our way back and just chilled.

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Forty Duece

Spent Labor Day weekend on the west coast this year. The motivation revolved around visiting my buddy Vuctor who was getting transferred to San Diego with the Navy. I landed in LA and got picked up by him and Berto. The flight itself was an interesting one with a scandalous twist so I had plenty to talk about in the car. Without missing a beat we headed over to Forty Duece on Melrose. An interesting lil bar in Hollywood, it definitely had LA personality. They had a sweet DJ dropping fresh hip-hop most of the night but the highlight was the 3 piece jazz band and burlesque dancer that briefly broke the monotony every hour. The dancer combined sexy moves, impressive acrobatics and a cute flirtation with the band to hypnotize the audience. We had a good time loading up on drinks and meeting the locals. After leaving we swung by taco bell on our way to Berto's place in Studio City. I had a missed call and VM from Story telling me that his roommate, Paul, was going wakeboarding Saturday morning rather than Sunday. So I convinced Victor to drive down to San Diego right then. A risky proposition given we were tired and there was nothing quick about a 2 hour drive. I had been feening to try out the Amon's Air Nautique boat since my previous visit when I was nursing a sprained ankle. So I took on the chore of driving. I pulled it off but not without drawing a stop from the CHP. Still under debate as to the root cause, we were cited for a burnt out headlight. Vic seems to think that I was swerving between lanes but whatever, ;) We got in at 6am to Story's place in Pacific Beach. Vic opted out of the wakeboarding whereas I slept for an hour before heading out to the bay by Coronado Island. It was a great day of trying tantrums with coaching from Rodrigo, a cool Mexican dude that joined Paul, Mike, and I on the boat.

I still got it.

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Don’t be evil.

My buddy Roberto sent me this link recently from the "Letter from founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, which was published in April 2004, as the group announced its move to public ownership."

"Don’t be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served—as shareholders and in all other ways—by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains. This is an important aspect of our culture and is broadly shared within the company."

I feel this captures well the reason why I try to "do the right thing" with everything in my life. "If you don't stand for something, you can fall for anything," said Tracy Mourning as she introduced Barack Obama at the Mansion event last weekend.

I will stand for this.

Obama in Miami Beach

This event was an interesting one considering I had just left the Miami Dade county auditorium. Taking place at Mansion, a premier night club in the heart of South Beach, and asking for $100/person brought out the bling in full effect. Unfortunately, these standard tickets didn't get you close enough to shake hands with the senator, it cost another $150 for that. I was definitely disappointed since it gave a sizable pricetag to simply make contact, but I can see the need to raise funds for the campaign at this point. I guess I'll have to move to Iowa or something.

The speech was pretty informal and I was amazed at how well Barack can play off the crowd. At one point while talk about today's administration, someone yelled out "Get out of the Bush's!". This had everyone rolling including the senator...he shifted into a full breakdown of why GW has failed the American people. At another moment on the same thread, a shout of "and the constitution" came to complete Obama's sentence on how the white house has word-played with our trust. It made for a great "stump speech" that proved a solid connection between the speaker and the audience.

He closed out as a great story teller... without embellishing, I'll describe it briefly. He recalled a previous experience on the campaign trail that showed him one person can make a difference. He had made a promise to an endorser that he would visit her hometown in some place in South Carolina. Turns out it was "an hour and a half from everywhere". Arriving in the rain and after a long drive with his crew, he was grumpy and unmotivated. Walking into a city hall with about 20 senior citizens, he saw little worth in being there. Making the best of it and approaching the group, he heard someone enter the room from behind. I small old lady with a large brim church hat mustered a commanding "Fire it up!". The group reluctantly replied "fire it up...". She followed with "Gettin ready'a go" to receive a louder response. Turns out this lady was a 20-year councilwoman known to be an awesome chanter. She incessantly repeated the phrases to louder and louder replies. "Come to think of it, I was starting to feel a lil....fired up myself", Obama explained. This one lady made all the difference. "So what I can say to you is... Fire it up!"..."Gettin ready'a go"... Each iteration elicited a louder and louder response from us. After the fifth time, he shouted "Let's change the world!!!...thank youoo..." and through up a recognizable Peace Sign.

I felt like I witnessed history.

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Obama in Little Havana

Today was a great day for south florida. In the face of protests and plenty of percieved opposition, barack obama had the "audacity of hope" to come and address our community with his crusade of change. And boy was it appreicated. In a packed house at the Miami dade county auditorium, barack inspired us all with his ideals and broad ability to unify those around him. The diversity of the crowd present was a testament to that.

On a personal note, I arrived at 1:45pm to find a long line of eager supporters waiting to enter the auditorium. Meanwhile, across the street from them was a crowd of hard-line Cuban conservatives yelling atrocities in Spanish (mainly) via a well amplified bullhorn. I had made arrangements to meet with a group of supporters who wanted to counter this expected opposition for media purposes. I even made a sign of my own.

Regardless, we were somewhat unprepared to go up againt this experienced opposition (45 years and counting). This prompted some tense moments. Coming up with good chants to energize us was a challenge, but overall we accomplished our goal and drew a good amount of the media attention. The main organizer,a harvard student named giancarlo, held the spotlight.

Once inside, though, the spirit was completely different. People were assembling in their seats and in the process of finding one for myself, I got plenty of photo ops due to my sign, LOL. I guess I'm meagerly creative after all. Anyway, i had a good feeling about the whole thing. I finally found a seat beside an interesting black woman named wanda. She had a calm and collected demeener about her, although her bleached blond hair screamed "statement". We made small talk, about how she was from Baltimore and curious about obama. I have been very impressed lately about how politically engaged people from the north east are. So much as to spend $30-$100 to see a candidate speak that you might not even vote for? That's somewhat of an investment in government, I would say. The community I was raised in never really taught me that value. I guess they were more cynical about government than I thought. The feeling was that we don't and can't make a difference... THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE!

Just before barack began to speak, my friend Mariah joined us. I was worried that she would miss him. She did miss the parade of local leaders talking about themselves which was ok. It was a little forced fed, but I can see the need to leverage a big name to help grow the base. Once obama spoke though, the crowd went wild. The experience was surreal for me...after following his movement for over a year, reading his book and absorbing just about anything the national media would put out about him, it was awesome to see his reality. I won't get into his speech since I'm sure it in youtube but his way of interacting with the crowd was flawless. Every shout out was adressed I detail, somewhat of a challenge given the formal speech he was proly following. It gave you a great sense that his words weren't reherssed at all and were coming straight from his core beliefs. Yet another piece of evidence that he is the "realist" candidate I've ever been aware of.

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San Diego visit...

Well it has been a long time since I've posted anything to this blog mainly because of the interrupting effect myspace, facebook, orkut, and other online networking sites have had on my free time.

Anyway, this picture was taken at Story's new restaurant venture in San Diego. It was a great time hanging out with him, Mo, Jose and Pablo over 4th of July weekend. We chilled on Pacific Beach most of the time, watching surfers over cold Coronas. The laid back nature of southern Californians is so contagious I found it difficult to leave.

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Brazil 2006 Slide Show

Second Half of Eastern Europe Tour 2006

Weekend in Munich

Munich provided a good haven for fun this past weekend. All revolving around football (soccer). We focused on following the crowds to watch the games and party afterwards. Starting with the Germany vs. Sweden game, it was quite an event. An exciting game with several goals, it proved to be a great victory for Deutschland.

People all over we chanting "Berlin, Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin!!" ... translates to "Berlin, Berlin, we're going to Berlin!!" claiming that they will be in the finals. The culture is a strong one, and quite different from mine. Structured and conservative in most areas but liberal in some random ones...like below, a girl carying a guy on her back...I was like, DANG!!!

After pransing around Leopold street with the Germans we found refuge at the Hallhurer Bar to watch the Argentina vs Mexico game. I great spot that played reggaeton during the breaks...it evolved into a total party scene with a Turkish drumming group showing up thereafter.

Although the language barrier was difficult to overcome at times, it was pleasing to meet several people with a working knowledge of english. It was inevitable that I would come across as the ignorant american no matter how hard I tried to avoid it.

Our host and bomb-diggity Venezuelan pana, Michael aka el Cocker, did an AWESOME job to show us the best time in Munich. Seriously, this kid is outstanding and I can't thank him enough...I just wish to be able to host him at some point in my life. It would be an honor.

It's funny to see how people get around...like going to the club on your bicycle... :) My friend Larrence (French), showed me her styling ride and granted me a free joy ride...I'd still opt for my scooter though. HA!

Today, we watched the England vs. Ecuador game at the Fan fest in the Munich Olympic Park. It was a dull game and the hooligans left a lot of cheering to be desired, but at least I got a tan.

The final outcome brought a bit of prancing and some wild one running around but that was the end of it. We broke out and headed back to Leopold street to enjoy some fine Bavarian cuisine at the Haufbrahaus. Having met up with Story and his cousin Enrique, we caught the AWESOME Portugal vs Holland game on the big screen. It was a nail bitting match with a lot of great plays and crucial moments. I'm so glad Portugal pulled out the win and look forward to following them next game.

We bought our train tickets to Prague for tomorrow morning at 6:45am...right now it's about 3am and I'm definitely ready for bed. The Eastern European tour begin tomorrow and I need all my strength to make it a good one. The plan is to meet up with Ovidio at 2:30pm in the Prague train station and watch the Italy game. Doing the touisty stuff might be a little compromised to to football...but since it will be five of us, perhaps we can split up...

World Cup Game: Brazil vs. Japan

As a true testament to my vow to post daily, I'm typing away with my last once of energy; nevertheless, expect this to be brief. Roberto and I have just arrived to Munich via our original flight plan...so my plan worked out better than I expected. Yesterday was full of excitement and thus with little sleep. After gathering ourselves and figuring out how to work the train system from Dusseldorf, we made it to Dortmund and the Brazil vs Japan game.


It was sheer pandimonium all over town, with a neet red carpet that led from the train station to the stadium. Having stored all our belongings at the train station, we were free to roam. The strong German beer took it's toll on our state of mind given our empty stomachs, so it was a fun time. We scalped 3 tickets at about 200euros/ea from a cool Afgani outside the stadium...it was a lil shady since cops were cracking down on the activity.


Once inside it was clear how easy you could move around, so we basically saw the game from great Category 1 seats overlooking midfield. A great game ending 4-1 Brazil, we were ecstatic.

We continued the party at a downtown bar called Alex. It was popping with old sckool Hip-Hop, Latino, Rock..everything really. We had a blast a completely forgot about making any lodging arangements, :)

So we knocked out for a few hours in the cold ass train station with a good 100 other people. We left Ercole at 10am to his 5hr train ride to Munich while we headed to the airport. Right now it's 4:30pm and we're right on track to meet him at the Munich Central Station. Hopefully, he arrives without delay cuz I'm tired and want to catch some good Z's already.

Arriving in Dusseldorf, Germany

I've just touched down in Dusseldorf on my direct flight from Miami. As I was the first one of the group to arrive, I orchastrated a fine plan to gather Roberto and Ercole from their respective flight. Ongoing access to the web and text messaging was key in this plight. We were able to change our Munich flight to tomorrow, but because Berto opted for checking in his bag in Los Angeles, we've been waiting for a couple hours now trying to find it. It seems that the bag has continued on to Munich and so he is arranging for it's storage there until tomorrow. The S-bahn to Dortmund will cost us 5euros each and leaves every 30mins. I overheard some Brazilians talking about how much they paid to scalp tickets for the Brazil vs. Australia game...300euros/ea. Ouch! Hopefully, we can get them for cheaper against Japan, but even at that price I would take them. Ercole will continue on to Kaiserslautern tomorrow to try and catch the Spain vs. Suadi game, whereas Berto and I will most likely continue straight to Munich, arriving at noon or so. The issue of where we plan to sleep tonight is still not discussed. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking we'll leave our bags in a locker at the train station in Dortmund and party it up until tomorrow. Donno, we'll see.

Taking it back to 2001

This is an interesting little video that I put together several years ago from a trip to Seaworld. I thought that it would be a good addition to my blog in this time when I've had most of my family close to me. It also consitutes one of my first production attempts using a Sony DCR-TRV120 HandyCam. Some of the shots came out super saturated and the volume cut out a few times, so I had to cover it up with some special effects, :) Enjoy.

Rocking Rocco

Tati hooked up yet another fun VIP experience...the setting was at Pearl (upstairs from more reknown Nikki Beach). Mami and I joined in for a fashion show accompanied by a complete open bar...sponsored by a famous hair dresser, Rocco (shown above wearing the hat). It was exciting to show Mami the glamour and sparkle of the who's who of Miami.

Funniest part about it was that the event took place during Game 4 of the Heat vs. Dallas NBA finals, therefore leaving the space void of males, :) I was surreal but suffucanting, like trying to exist in a vacumn...great scene to people watch, something Mami enjoys very much. In the mixup of the event, someone happened to leave their bottle of Moet Champaigne (sponsors) sitting in the chair beside me. Unwilling to let it go to waste, we popped the bubbly and enjoyed cheering to our own celebration.

I had the gal to ask for a bucket of ice and the tall glasses to make the effect as high profile as possible...it was pretty funny to see us...we had a great time!!

Feeling the love...

This past week has been a blessing for me...since I've been a bit soft lately I'll give you a *CHEESE ALERT*...THISClaimer: The following post may be a source of severe ridicule for the average Cold Hearted SOB, so please refrain from eye-rolling, gentle nodding, pointing, and flat out laughter as the comment section below is the only tool provided for feedback.

And so it's my 32 birthday and boy was it a great one. Starting it off was the arrival of Mami from Chile at the beginning of the month (June 2006). She doesn't visit that often, so it is cool to have her around. One slight mishap though was my absence at Havasu this year. Although she proly wouldn't admit it, I know skippin out to the lake that never sleeps would've been a total buzz kill for her. I got a lot of heat from the Go Dude brotha-hood and even risked missing Vic before a neverending term at sea. Graciously it wasn't so, but I'll admit they had me on edge.

Due to a missing child report sent out indirectly by Berto's mom, I called the boys up to make sure everything was ok. In the exchange I heard what were the receding waters of a tidal wave of love coming my way. Havasu stories were funny as ever, culminating with the announcement of Rod's engadgement...(I plan on making his wedding experience as seamless as ever). Their comments like "we woulda subsidized your trip" and "we voted you off the crew", were all small torture trips of my missing out. But one subtle P.S. brought it all back to love...from Joser: "P.S. So that you can't say that we forget about you. Happy 32nd Birthday." It turned everything around for me...transforming what seemed to be a collection of Grundy hating into clear messages that I was with them in spirit throughout the trip...that's priceless indeed. I'm still looking forward to the Rod's Famous Havasu Top10...one of everyone's favorite renditions of the traditional trip.

From my end of the country I spent my days building up to June 13, planning a day at the beach...going all out to gather the best of my south florida peoples. I must have gone to Target like 8 times exchanging and stocking up on supplies for an Evite list of close to 50 people. Then the rain came (and the wind)...talk about the ultimate disaster. I had preplanned for the bad weather (given Tropical Storm Alberto knocking on our door), so I had a sturdy gazebo to protect the munitions. Being the only ones at the beach along with Mami, my borther Mark, cunada Kim, and sobrinos Jonah and Ryan, it was certain that the life gaurds' evacutation alert due to lightning threats was aimed directly at us, :) So we gathered the soppinng sand covered gear and headed home in shame.

Plan B's execution was impecable...rerouting the group to Lucky Strike for a day of bowling took surprisingly little effort, thanks to Jeff and Ovi. We the hours chatting between gutter balls and drinks, all while watching the World Cup matches and the Miami Heat ass-wooping...

Then came the 13th...a Tuesday...another day or surprises. Ovi gets the win on the first one to grant me best wishes...then a flurry of emails, ecards, text messages and phone calls showered my day...a few random folks definitely caught me off gaurd, never expecting them to be aware of what the day meant to me or to get me something. I really felt special and I thank them all for it...including those reading this post, :)

The crazy part it that as satisfied as I was, there was more. Mami se paso...organizo y implemento una cena de compleanos que fue espectacular. Uno de los pocos cumpleanos como adulto que he disfrutado con la compania de tanta familia. It was awesome really, Tia Ani, Mami, Alan (hermano), Mark (hermano), Kim (cunanda), el Negro (Orlando), y yo. La pasamos conversando y hechando bromas toda la noche. They almost got away without me snagging a picture, but on my day I wouldn't allow it.

Mami Wakeboarding Highlights

This past weekend I brought my mom with me on a routine wakeboarding outing...Mami se paso de emprendedora....she joined me as a fan but quickly turned into a amateur...successfully getting up on the board on the FIRST try and skiing out of the wake in the second...now I know why I have such an affinity for the sport...Mami, me haces super orgulloso de ser tu hijo, te pasaste de lanza'a! :) TQM.

Palo de Agua!

The day of the wedding reception was full of activities and memories...so many that I can't possibly cover them all here as vividly as I remember them. I will try, however. The day started slow, with a 9am early rise to hit the gym and the pool. Great chats with the grooms' parents and friends resulted in precious laughs. Being the most outspoken, I found myself the victim of the best New York dry humor I've ever heard. Frank, Joe D, and Paul pretty much tore me a new asshole but I dealt my share of zingers, so it was all in good fun. I gathered some great wisdom and advice along the way while making a strong impression on them all.

After that, Jeff, Ovi, and I did the only tourist activity of the whole trip: visit Pico Avila by way of the teleferico. At 2000m or approximately 6000ft above sea level, the view of Caracas was awesome.

On the return trip to the hotel we took a pit stop en la Plaza Venezuela to try--what according to our driver, Castor-- where the best hambugers in world...Me meti 'La Criminal' which carried an egg and an avocado as key ingredients...tasty on the way in but painful on the way out. The right choice woulda been: 'Damelo pa Pola...pa pola manana!'

The wedding itself took place at 9pm and lasted through the night...til 6am I believe...yeah, that's a party alright...the pictures to follow say it all. The formal ceremony took place in New York so the purpose of this party was simply to celebrate...NICE!!

Drinks were in full effect, although I never got faded. Why? Cuz of all the dancing!! For real, there were like 5 live band acts, and all of them were GOOD! The night began with a solo Jazz musician, then an Elvis act, followed by La Hora Loca with the Carnaval theme, later a Salsa/Merengue group that I coulda swore was Oscar de Leon, Gilberto Santarosa, and Marc Anthony all rolled into one by the close imitation of all three.

The grand finale left nothing to be desired: Tambores. Yup, the ritualistic Venezuelan high-energy folkore dance and rythm common to the coastal towns. The MC captured the audience's attention with his clever commentary and typical Venezuelan humor...he challenged the bride and groom with following his quick commands that bounced at the beat of the drum. Tuku-ruku-TA!! He would say as he swayed his finger, indicating what thier hips should be doing... it was a blast indeed.

Y pa los que pregunten a que se refiere el titulo: "Palo de Agua"... es porque le caemos a TODAS!! JA!!

Gran Melia y San Ignacio

Our arrival to Caracas was smooth and unprecedented. We found our 'secure' driver without a problem and hit the winding road for the hour drive into the city. The damage and poverty left behind by the disasterous rainy season of 2002 and the lax government was very evident along the way.

Our driver, Castor, was passionate to share his view of Venezuela and current government. An older gentleman, proly in his 50's with dirty gray hair and blood shot eyes, went on and on about the failures of the Chavez leadership.

A city plagued with crime, a 40% unemployment rate, and a transportation infrastructure that frankly is a mild step up from mideval times, Caracas has really suffered the decay of an ignorant, absent minded, and unproductive government. I could go on for paragraphs about my ever changing perception of Venezuela's reality and the options left to correct it, but in interest of the brevity I shall digress.

Once we settled in to our 3 bedroom suite at the Gran Melia 5 star hotel *SWEET*... we took the time to get to know the surroundings...mainly the hotel, pool, gym, and attached mall "El Recreo".

We hit up a sports bar for dinner and caught the US vs. Venezuela soccer game. A 2-0 loss to the US was not what the crowd was looking for, so we tried to keep our "gringo-ness" to a minimum.

Later that evening we met up with the wedding crew for a little dancing at the San Ignacio complex in El Chacao. It seemed to be the safest choice...we had a blast.

I don't know why but for some reason I was in the mood for making faces in all these party pics...see if you can find me in the one above...HA!!