Maturin

2nd of may: Maturin
Woke up at around 6 I think. We got ready and left for the bus/taxi station place, to go to Maturin. This was the first longish car ride of the trip with a 3 and a bit hour drive. I was in the front, with three french kids in the back, two of whom don't speak much English, so I listened to them speaking french for a while and then fell asleep for most of the trip. One strange thing that I noticed when I woke up towards then end of the drive was what looked like oil extraction tower things, on fire. And not just a few of them. For the last half hour there were at least 2 visible on either side of the road at all times. Someone I asked later said that they were on fire to check if there was oil left in the pocket, but he didn't know why there were so many. I took some photos but they didn't turn out so well, so I might or might not upload them.

We arrived in Maturin around midday, to be greeted by a small crowd of other students waiting to check into the hotel. Some of them I knew and some I still don't, but I'm talking to more people every day so it shouldn't be too long before I know everyone here. I checked into a room by myself because the others hadn't arrived yet, and went down stairs to go with the others to eat. We went to a chicken place, where they somehow have heaps of chicken despite the shortages at the moment. Then we went back to the hotel.

For the rest of the day we all pretty much sat by the pool talking, and meeting new people. Luckily most people speak English, so it's not too hard to communicate, because my Spanish isn't even good enough to have a conversation yet.

At night there was a meeting for our district, and then we went to the opening dinner of the rotary conference which was kinda boring(am I allowed to say that?? I didn't understand anything, so it was always going to be difficult) but the meal was good and the company better, so that made up for all the long speeches.

And so concludes day number 2.