Here We Go

In just a few days Carolyn and I embark on a crazy journey to the strange and foreign lands of pirates and dinosaurs. While there may not actually be pirates in the Caribbean or dinosaurs in the lost world of Venezuela, adventure is a certainty. For me this marks the first time I will be leaving home soil. Neither Carolyn or I claim to speak Spanish beyond a spattering of improperly conjugated verbs and a few key phrases. Memorizing new vocabulary is practically an occupation for me so I still hold hope that I can be nearly fluent in Spanish when we touch down in Venezuela. This trip was over two years in the making and required careful planning and a great deal of work to make a reality. Carolyn first told me about her plans years ago. She had ordered a Venezuelan travel book with impressive and persuasive full color photos. For years she has been on and off working on a fiction novel in which the main character's journey takes her to Venezuela. The mythology of the indigenous people of Venezuela is woven into her novel and it's natural wonders are almost characters themselves. I remember being at our old house in Santa Barbara after having just camped out in the back yard over night. She turned to the best picture see could find of Angel Falls, "Babe, can we go there?". The thing you have to know about Carolyn is a green light is tantamount to purchasing your ticket when it comes to travel. You can't expect life's relentless gravitational pull toward keeping your feet planted on the ground to win. Pretty early on I realized that not only was this trip going to eventually happen, it had to happen. Regret and restless were destined to haunt Carolyn for the rest of her days if she let gravity win. Given this revelation, I became accomplice to this crazy scheme. I understood that she needed to see this place and finish her novel like I needed to be a vet. For years we racked up airline miles, as the flights to and from were the most expensive part of the journey. If we could save up enough miles we could book the rest relatively cheaply. For two years we dreamed and tried to leave cheaply. Carolyn read books about how to travel and what to do there. We had loose timeline of sometime soon and I had to talk her out of trying to do the trip in between our wedding and moving and starting vet school. In an odd twist of fate our friends sent out an invitation to their wedding for June 22nd this summer on the island of Aruba. Carolyn and I, being experts in geography, didn't even have to google Aruba to know that it was just off the northern coast of Venezuela. To our pleasant surprise not only was Aruba close to Venezuela, it was cheaper to fly from the U.S. to Aruba to Venezuela than it was to fly direct to Venezuela. Significantly. All of a sudden we we're actually doing this. No longer next year or some other vague future time, it was time to make this happen now. That's the short version of how this trip came to be. I can't tell you how many phone calls were made, websites searched, emails exchanged and nights Carolyn had fallen asleep scanning travel sites for perfect deals occurred along the way. Not to mention the vaccines, malaria medications, currency exchange, and passport hurdles.

Here we are. We dreamed big enough, wanted it bad enough,had a push from fate, and we leave on June 19th for the biggest adventure of our lives. One week in Aruba, 2 weeks in Venezuela, and several days journey back via the island of Curacao. In Aruba we will snorkel, relax (hopefully), and attend the wedding of Christo and Sandi. In Venezuela we will take a dugout canoe up the Amazon river to see the world's tallest water fall. How tall is it? 19 times taller that Niagara falls or roughly two Empire State buildings. Along the way we will interact with the Pemon indigenous peoples and hopefully fail to interact with disease carrying mosquitoes. The Amazon is home to alligators, piranhas, anacondas, and numerous other crazy creatures. Our next trek is to the the top of the nations highest peak: Mount Roraima. We will cross rivers, sleep in caves, and explore one the oldest rock formations in the world. Certain plants and animals that only exist in this place in the world will be all ours. We will explore the Valley of Crystals on top of the mountain where quartz crystals come up from the ground. We will feel like we're flying when we look out on top of the 9,000+ foot peak where we get to sleep for one night. The jungle we trek through is home to various species of monkeys, bats, leopards, and giant ant-eaters. Finally we will leave Venezuela for the tiny island of Curacao to enjoy some beach time relaxing and some more world-class snorkeling. We will not be bringing our phones as they most likely won't work and could be stolen or damaged along the way. We might have a few opportunities to check email along the way but it's hard to know when. We have all the bug spray, sun screen, and back packing gear we need (and then some) to ensure we do this trip the right way, which is the prepared way. I think the heaviest thing I am packing is our first-aid kit with every cream, pill, or bandage we could possibly need. We have basic travel insurance to cover well... lets just say we have it. We will arrive back home on July 10th if all goes according to plan. While we are away please don't worry about us. Be excited for us and be anxious to hear about our adventure. This kind of trip is the kind of trip that people dream about their entire lives and never take. This kind of trip will bring with it stories and pictures we can share with people for the rest of our lives. Think of it as just another crazy chapter in the Matt and Carolyn adventure storybook. If all that falls through think of it has something we had to do. Just like in the Pixar movie "Up", which is conceptually based on the Venezuelan lost world, adventure is out there. Only in our story we don't wait. We go.