03 July 2007

Wedding No. 1

The first wedding was this afternoon. Here in Venezuela, the civil and church ceremonies are different entities, so C. and P. had their civil ceremony today. We all travelled to a small town on the outskirts of Caracas called El Hatillo - very historic, with lots of charming architecture. We got there a few hours early in order to go shopping at a store called Hannsi, which is simply enormous and stocks a huge range of Venezuelan handcrafts. At 3pm we convened at the town hall, so that C. and P. could be married in the Mayor's office. All very nice, and afterward we went to a nearby hotel with about 30 of the bride's friends and family, where the red wine and tapas flowed for many hours. It's the best practice wedding I've ever been to, by far!

Tomorrow begins our jungle adventure. We're being picked up at 8am and will hit the road for the village of Ocumare de la Costa and the Henri Pittier National Park. It's a 3-4 hour drive through the mountains to the eco-lodge, where we'll be staying the next few days. Back on Friday evening!

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