ome
Ondas del Lago
Contributed Content
Steve Sleightholm
Steve's Venezuela Memoirs
The Trip To Mérida
Steve Sleightholm's Venezuela Memoirs
The Trip To Mérida
I loved to go to Mérida. It was such a nice clean and cool city -- nothing
along the lake that I ever saw held a candle to it.
In the late 50's I think after Dad transferred to Lagunillas I came back for
summer vacation from high school. This would be my first summer in Lagunillas
after the transfer and low and behold my childhood friends the Norsworthy girls
were there (Sandy, Shari and Nancy). We hit it off immediately and became very
close and I think still are. I spent many evenings over at their house playing
Monopoly or Canasta. By this time Dad would let me drive the jeep out of the
camp during the day but he still had night restrictions on me because of the
unrest caused by Fidel's boys pushing communism among the workers. I would load
the girls in the jeep and we road up and down every square inch of land within
the camp boundaries all summer long including the dike. They were thrilled to
ride straight up or down the dike which I did with the jeep placed into 4-wheel
drive. We used to talk about everything under the sun while riding around.
Well, one day their parents invited me to go to Mérida with them over the
weekend. And off we went in Nor's sedan - Fay was their mother's name a
wonderful person. We drove up to pass at Pico Aguila and stopped to have hot
cocoa at the inn there. It was so cold and we were starved for oxygen and just
sat still by the large fireplace to keep warm and half nauseated. Then away we
went down the other side of the mountain and eventually reached the jewel of the
Andes, Mérida. We stayed in a nice hotel run by a German couple. I had a bottle
of army surplus Halizone tablets with me which we used to purify the drinking
water at the table. We were very careful.
This also was the first time that I saw pureblood Spanish and they were not
darker skinned like the Creole people who lived along the lake instead they
looked white just like me but they spoke Spanish--amazing!!
The first evening there, Nors took us out to eat on the town and I wasn't too
hungry and just had a fried meat sandwich of some kind with a little lettuce as
I recall later. A fantastic evening.
The following morning after breakfast at the hotel we headed for the new
Teleférico which was still under construction by a French contractor -- it was
their system, you see. You could take a gondola to the top and back. The top
station was completed but the midway station was not. You could get out there
and hike but there was no structure in place, just a concrete floor exposed to
the elements.
Up we went and I laughed as the girls shrieked when the gondola rocked back and
forth as we passed each of the cable tower arms. What a fantastic view and the
day was bright and the sky clear. We finally reached the top and got out and
walked outside of the building and into the snow. There was a clear view of Pico
Bolivar that day and I photographed it. (A copy of the photos is on Randy
Trahan's website.)
We wandered around the area for a while and then I began to experience a
little abdominal discomfort which grew in intensity. I could not locate a
bathroom and began to break out in a cold sweat. I told the Norsworthys that I
had go back down immediately and I got onto the next gondola heading south. “Oh
my God -- I don't think I can hold it” and the cramps set in without let up. The
gondola stopped at the unfinished way station and I jumped out. Where to go,
where to go??? Not a bush in sight and I am bowled over with cramps and I wait
until the gondola is out of sight and I search for a place to go and decided
that it had to be off the platform. About the time I had my pants down and butt
stuck over the end of the platform and let loose the gondola from the top and
bottom came into sight as they began the next cycle. “Oh, geeze” I thought, “I
am in view of people in both gondolas.” Thank God my back was to them as the two
gondolas passed within feet of me and my butt was still over the ledge.
How bad is that -- total humiliation??
Well, I made in back down to the base and was sitting with my back to one of the
towers not feeling quite as bad when the Norsworthys came down. We attempted to
find Paregoric in town but no luck -- another mistake. We headed home from there
and I remember little of the return.
I did not tell them of the humiliating situation I was in until I met Shari and
Sandy again almost 40 years later at the reunion in San Antonio and of course
they died laughing -- see kids, even after they are grown can be cruel.
It was the lettuce you see -- I forgot my parent's rule regarding fresh
vegetables -- don't eat unless soaked in bleach.
And that's the way it was.
Previous
Page Next Page
Index
