Venezuela

God and Federation

BZ - 25

- Elder Pino of the 70 is a Venezuelan native. (and my mission president)

- Venezuela signed agreements with Russia to buy weapons recently.

- The large rodents -- capybara -- can weigh up to 100lbs.

- Street food stands are very common in Venezuela. They often group together to form a Calle del Hambre or a "Street of Hunger."

MoMa/MS - 20

Kerepakupai-Meru is the native name for Angel Falls.

Angel Falls was the inspiration for Paradise Falls in the 2009 Walt Disney full-length animated movie Up.

Venezuela, which sits at the crossroads of South America and the Caribbean, has a wonderful and varied cuisine. Especially Arepas, Empanadas and Pabellon Criollo - the national dish.Pabellón criollo is a plate containing seasoned shredded beef, fried plantains, black beans (see below) and rice. The meat is slow cooked until tender, shredded and then cooked again in a tasty sauce that includes any combination of onions, garlic, peppers, tomato and spices. It’s available at most restaurants and should not be missed!YUM!!!From drumming with its roots in Africa, to Spanish-influenced guitar and harp music and the indigenous contribution of maracas, Venezuelan music is largely unknown outside the country.DID I WIN!!!!

DP - 20
- Was once a country called Gran Colobia that incompassed Columbia, Ecuador, and Panama as well.

- About 30 % of the population of the country live on less than US$ 2 per day. Yeikes I say Yeikes.

- Their second largest national park (Canaima) is as large as maryland

MP - 20

- I had no idea that it was named after Venice. Cool.

- Their Orinoco crocodiles can get up to 22 ft in length. Look out Dundee!

-The Joropo: As the national dance of Venezuela it is performed throughout the country. Lively, merry and syncopated, it is Spanish in origin and Venezuelan in feeling. It is a dance for couples and has as many as thirty-six variants of the basic steps. The musical accompaniment is provided by the cuatro, maracas and counter pointed by a harp.-The arepa is perhaps the most popular food in Venezuela. It is eaten hot as a kind of bread to accompany a meal, or by itself, stuffed with meat, bologna, cheese, scrambled eggs, or anything one wishes. It is old days, arepas were prepared from freshly husked and ground corn, but today, the pre-cooked white corn flour has eliminated this lengthy process.Ingredients:2 teaspoons of salt2 cups of corn flour2 ½ cups of warm waterPreparation:Put the corn flour in a bowl and add the salted water little by little, mixing with the flour until has become a dough. Let it rest for five minutes. Now, shape the dough into round rolls about 3 inches in diameter and 1-2 inches thick. In a lightly greased skillet, slowly cook the arepas until a crust forms on each side. Now place them into a casserole and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes, until the arepas sound hollow when tapped.

Little Venice

I am fascinated as I travel back in time here, the indigenous Indians live along the river in thatched roof huts on wood planked decks. They use canoes to travel the river. They live just like they did hundreds of years ago. The country was so named by its explorers, who saw houses built on stilts in a lake here, reminding them of Venice.

This place is very biodiverse, which means after canoeing with the indigenous Indians I can then can go to the highest peaks here, at over 5,000 m. Then I can go to one of the largest lakes in the continent. And then, I can go to one of the most beautiful and famous and highest waterfalls in the world - Kerepakupai-Meru.

Not wanting to to be small in any areas, they lay claim to one of the largest rodents of the world. Ain't she perdy? Well, no worries, they wont leave the looks to rodents. The women here have more Miss Universes and Miss World titles than any other country

Did you know there was a place before Middle East took the trophy? The folks here was the largest oil exporter in the world in the early twentieth century.

Most of the country here has only two seasons; Hot and Dry, and Hot and Wet. The theme I'm getting is HOT. Luckily, there are lakes, beaches, rainforest's, and other ways to cool off, specifically showers. Ready for a cold one? cuz hot showers are very rare here. After your refreshing shower, pretty much all options are open. Snorkel, scuba, hike, canoe, kayak, paragliding, sailing, cruising, deep sea fishing, and oh yea, snow skiing. Very unique here is tropic skiing, go from the beach to the powder in one day, but it is pretty hardy so don't go lightly. Again not to be out done, the make sure all aspects aer covered, there are savanna's, islands, jungles and beautiful beaches.

Remember those early mornings you had to get up for school? Well they don't have to worry about that here. School children can chose between morning classes (7am—Noon) or afternoon classes (Noon – 5pm) . Older children can even chose night classes (5pm—10pm).

Guernsey & Channel Islands

At the start, we tried to be calm and objective, but that soon fell away, and the purpose of the speakers was to goad the listeners into wanting to read the book themselves. - GL&PPPS

MoMa/MS - 30
- part of Princess Bride was filmed in the Channel Islands... love that movie!
- they have a thriving financial industry because they are an off shore tax haven for companies looking for such a place.Finance houses have replaced greenhouses, and today the sector employs the biggest chunk of the workforce.
- Lonely Planet Magazines best-kept travel secrets is Sark and Alderney saying Sark is a little like England would have been 50 years ago.
- Alderney is one place where the Nazi's held prisoners.

BZ - 20
- The islanders have animal nicknames for themselves. Check out this one: Sark: les CORBINS ("crows" in Sercquiais, Dgèrnésiais and Jèrriais, les corbeaux in French): crows could be seen from sea on the island's coast.
- There is a popular book based on one of the islands.
- The annual "Muratti", the inter-island football match, is considered the sporting event of the year
- Cabbage loaf is the traditional Jersey bread baked between two cabbage leaves.

MP - 20
- Les Mis (Victor Hugo's exile) gave it away.
-the guernsey cow is the national animal, but so is the donkey.
-the capital is saint peter port
-At the end of World War II, the Golden Guernsey was almost extinct, due to interbreeding with other varieties on the island

High Society

A nother Island Nation, that is actually part of another island nation, still remaining independent. Previously a peninsula, these quaint little islands found water on all sides by 6000 bc, I was thrilled to find out that at low tide I could walk from one island to the next, as some islands are tidal islands. How cool is that? They have one of the largest tidal ranges in the world, and at low tide the surface area increases by a fifth!

Having their own postal system, monetary system and others makes them unique, though other coins, etc are accepted. One of the islands desperately tries to hold onto their quaintness by not allowing cars or aircraft, w/o special permission. Now that is getting away from it all! Also one of the islands claims one of the very few ‘shell’ beaches in the world, where the whole beach is made of shells brought in from the gulf stream.

Sadly some of these islands featured prominently in WWII, one island was even used for concentration camps. These camps were used mostly for laborers.

The huge..ly famous play where with you’d hear about castles on clouds, was written here while the author was in exile. AAAAND a very famous Communist came here to escape, as one of his favorite vacation spots. While these islands have been used as prisons, exile and Communist vacations, don't be discouraged. these islands can be a perfect vacation spot for all, in fact cruise ships from all over are constantly docking here. People cant get enough. I feel as free as Ann of Green Gables or Maria with her musically alive hills.

You've heard of crazy laws… well one of the islands holds a law saying a man can lawfully beat his wife with a stick, if it is smaller than his pinkie finger! Go ahead dear just try it! but to be fair, men are banned from knitting during the months of Aug & Sept. because their ancestors so loved the woolly craft that corps used to rot in the fields, unharvested. You can see why the law was needed.

Many of the older houses in the Islands have a witch’s seat in them, which comprise of stones that jut out of the house’s gables. The islanders believed that by providing a seat for passing witches to rest on would prevent them from falling foul of evil spells!

The Little Chapel on main island is the smallest chapel in the world. It was made by a French monk and is decorated with broken china and shells.

The people here think they are descendants of fairies, known on the islands as “pouques” (pronounced “pooks”)! The last reported sighting of a fairy was in the early 1900’s!

Last time I offered an extra 5 points to guess the blockbuster, but accidently gave it away to 3 teams... sorry, it didn't count if I told you. This time the blockbuster had a very famous actress in it, and it was actually quite a hit, I even own the DVD. If you guess the movie you get 5 extra points, AND if you guess my favorite line from this movie, you get TEN EXTRA POINTS! go get em.

Seychelles

MoMa/MS
- Pirate Oliver was born in Calais, France I was there the last 5 months of my mission, his last name was LeVasseur.
- The national bird is a Black Parrot.
- The movie was "THUNDERBIRDS!"
- JF = jelly fish tree..... psthe thunderbirds was not a blockbuster.. they said something about rotten tomatoes.

BZ - 25
- Thunderbirds filmed 2004
- Hosted Miss World competition
- A village in the Seychelles called La Misere is demanding millions in damages over pollution caused by the construction of a huge palace for the crown prince of Abu Dhab.
- Creole is the native language of 94% of the people4. the per capita income is $17,000

MP - 25
- the bonus is Thunderbirds (honestly, never even heard of the movie - thanks for the tip.)
- There's not just pirate loot there...it was once a pirate hideout!
-You could explore the capital, Victoria, in less than a day.
-Arab historians believe that the ‘Roc’, Marco Polo’s mythical bird that could carry off and devour elephants, lived in Seychelles. (hate to be under that one when he pooped!)


Danielle Petersen said...
Seychelles The Movie is Thunderbirds. 1 - People in Seychelles like to polka. 2 - Seychelles has no indigenous population3- The 'Festival Kreol' (a week-long celebration of Creole heritage and traditions) is held in October of each year

stay tuned... I was out of town so there will be a slight delay....

See Shell Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

It's been a while since we visited a island nation. How I love the scuba, snorkeling, sailing, nature in full bloom, white sandy beaches, sunshine, hiking and all that comes with paradise.

I just passed the TAR crew, ** And handsome Phil!** they just filmed here, the teams had a crazy time here guiding oxen, swimming between the islands, and well... getting lost a lot. The best part was hearing the contestants try to pronounce the country or guess where it was. I'm not that great at geography but I know this place!

I say swam between the islands because well... there are 115 of them, scattered over an area of 1.4 million km² of ocean. delicious! There are may islands, but few residents, but unless you can tell the difference between locals and tourists, you would conclude it is a busy place.

42 of these islands are Granatic, which means they are made of granite. To be quite frank they are part of an ancient continent. ......... , This continent is so old, it makes these islands some of the oldest land in the world. The rest of the islands are made of Coral.

The society here is essentially matriarchal, that means MOM RULZ, in fact unwed moms are socially accepted. Men are expected to bring home the bacon, but mom does the rest.

PIRATES - ARGGGG MATEY, there's treasure in them thar hills. The fabulous treasure of the notorious Pirate Olivier, featured above, is today valued at $160,000,000 and thought to still be buried somewhere at on the shores here. That's a lot of pirate dough. You could probably buy this island for that kinda gold dabloons. One of the islands here roughly translated means, Pirates Cove. These islands were perfect Pirate hideouts. One island is even considered haunted... a spirit stands jealous guard over his treasure buried here.

I am in awe of the beauty here but one man (he was a general) actually went as far as to say he thinks this is the original Garden of Eden.

There is a tree here called the JF tree, look closely at the picture and you can probably guess what JF is. This tree is one of the rarest tree's on earth, no tree houses here please. Also to add to Guinness's book is the worlds heaviest wild tortoise. He's one heavy shelled dude! Wonder if he could be that rabbit in a race? And let's add one more, a tree again. A palm tree, that produces the largest coconuts in the world. It also carries a little folk lore, once thought to originate from a tree growing beneath the ocean, it fetched princely sums in the courts of Europe.

The fun facts about this island are plentiful, and if you can tell me what 2004 blockbuster was filmed here, I'll give you and additional 5 points (on top of the regular you can earn)

I'm going let you start guessing now, I am off to go swimming with dolphins...

COSTA RICA - Thank Mel!

Noble homeland, your beautiful flag

AH - 10

MoMa/MS - 20
- Costa Rica offers some of the world's finest whitewater rafting and kayaking rivers. These rivers plunge through spectacularly beautiful, largely unexplored tropical wilderness. Whether an expert or beginner, nature lover or thrill seeker, rafting enthusiast or active kayaker, there is an unforgettable experience awaiting you.However, for those of us who aren't able to go to Costa Rica for a kayaking adventure, the Layton Surf and swim will give you a thrill of a lifetime for only $5
-The Church is relatively new in Costa Rica. A U.S. ambassador who was Mormon ran the first Mormon Church meetings from his home during the years of 1943 through 1946.
-The first Mormon missionaries did not arrive until just before Costa Rica's 1948 Civil War. By 1974 membership in the Church had grown enough that Costa Rica became its own mission. In 1960 there had only been 214 members in Costa Rica, by 1970 there were 1,700 members. In 1977 the first stake was created in Costa Rica. Today there are 23,000 members in Costa Rica.

DP - 20
- Since 1999, tourism earns more foreign exchange than the combined exports of the country's three main cash crops: bananas, pineapples and coffee.
- In 2006 Intel's microprocessor facility alone was responsible for 20% of Costa Rican exports and 4.9% of the country's GDP.
- The highest point in the country is Cerro Chirripó, at 3,819 metres (12,530 ft), and is the fifth highest peak in Central America.

MP - 20
-Ancestors left as their legacy mysterious stone spheres whose meaning remains a mystery to this day.
-There are 235 registered stone spheres in Costa Rica, all of them equal in perfection, measuring up to two meters and as small as 20 centimeters.
-They have one of the most important nesting grounds for turtles in the world.
-The scarlet Macaw lives here. They are monogamous (one partner)and they only form one partnership their entire lives. So if one dies, the other remains alone (and they can live up to 50 years!)

BZ - 20
Here are some mannerisms to adopt when visiting.
- Avoiding confrontation: Costa Ricans are very courteous. In general, confrontation and accusations are considered impolite, and Costa Ricans don’t like to stir the pot. You probably won’t see irate patrons at the customer service window and if you do, they certainly won’t be screaming obscenities or loudly threatening to call the Better Business Bureau.
- “Could be” culture: Along the lines of avoiding confrontation, Costa Ricans are loath to say “no.” For example, if you ask a friend to dinner and he doesn’t want to go, he will probably say “puede ser” (maybe) instead of giving you a flat-out no. This is not an attempt to lie or mislead you; it’s simply the Costa Rican way of not hurting your feelings.
- Kissing friends: It’s traditional to greet friends, family and personal acquaintances with one kiss on the right cheek. Many times, this is a light kiss or even an air kiss accompanied by a kissing sound. Costa Ricans also say goodbye with a cheek kiss.
- Tico time: Costa Ricans are famous for their lack of punctuality to appointments, dates, and anything but the movies (to which they always line up hours in advance!). Everything is “ahora” – in standard Spanish, “now,” but in Costa Rican culture meaning “later” or “manana” (tomorrow). Your best strategy is to adjust to Tico time and always tell your friends to arrive an hour or two before you’d really like to see them.