Jose, Ara, and Sofi brought us to the airport yesterday. Sofi is enjoying a laugh to herself as she ponders a surprise that she has in store for her grandma.

Oops, sorry Grandma! Di is wishing that her luggage was not already check through all the way to Vancouver. Oh, well, her pants will probably be dry by the time we get to Toronto! 

Well, I guess it is safe to safe that this trip is officially over....with just a lot of great memories of a wonderful a terrific first visit with our Venezuelan granddaughter...and it will not be our last one! 

All good things have to come to an end. We demolished the paella and it´s time to wrap this up. It´s midnight, and at 5:30 in the morning we are on our way to the airport. It´s been a lot of fun!

Ara´s paella is second to none. It is worth the trip to to Caracas. Unfortunately we usually leave this special dinner to the last night of the visit and that´s it folks.

We have had a great visit with Sofi, Ara and Jose.  

Do you think that we are going to miss Sofi?? 

Then it was off to the fish market to buy a whole lot of seafood for Ara´s famous paella. We are really going to miss Caracas...or to be truthful...Ara´s wonderful cooking.

We were surprised to see this three-toed sloth in a very large tree in the central plaza in El Hatillo. They really are very slow to go anywhere! 

El Hatillo is a very old little town full of restaurants and artesanias. It used to be a separate little town, but now it is almost become a suburb of a quickly growing Caracas. 

Today we went back to El Hatillo, near Caracas, to do a little shopping in the artesanias and have lunch. It was a beautiful sunny day with crystal clear skies after the rain we had yesterday. 

Sofi is helping her grandpa post his pix onto the blog. I imagine that by the time she is three, Jose will have her doing her own postings onto the net.  

This one´s for Greg....Yes, Greg, we do tend to be around for firsts! Here is Sofi trying to gnaw through Di´s knuckle with the two teeth that burst through her gums sometime this morning...without even a whimper on Sofi´s part. We told you that she is tremendous!

This one is for you, Deani. Who do you think is wolfing his quesadilla so he can get into ´your´ carrot cake??

Jose is tying into his second piece of carrot cake. It was identical to those that you make, Deani, but the cream cheese took on a different form. Next time we will look for Philadelphia C.C.

Andre, on top, is doing a little grooming of his little sister, Miski. They are a great pair of cats and are a lot of fun in the apartment. Andre will fetch a paper ball and bring it right back to you for as long as you are willing to throw it to him! They both love Sofi and are very patient with her attempts to pat them....closely monitored by mom or dad, of course.

Jose and Rosita, Poli´s aunt, join Di and I for a wonderful coffee, a cafe marron grande, at a panaderia, or bakery, next door to Rosita´s apartment. The coffee was wonderful, and, at about 75 cents, a real steal.

Di is standing in front of a beautiful wood and ceramic piece in the museum of fine arts.  

Clouds are building on what is to become a rainy day. This is another of the museums in the Plaza de los Museos.  

Di and Rosita are in front of the Museum of Fine Arts. Here we saw some amazing works of the sculpture Jesus Soto. The gov´t of Hugo Chavez does not put much money into the museums or art, in general, as they are deemed to be toys of the rich people!

Today we visited some museums in downtown Caracas. They were right beside the building that had been the blazing inferno in October ´04. We tried to get into the museum of Contemporary Arts which is located in the same plaza as the building that burned but it has been closed since the fire. It houses an amazing collection of work from Picasso, Matisse and other wonderful artists....so sad!

Traffic hums...at times...along the freeway that cuts through Caracas 

Another pretty tropical shrub...related to the hibiscus?? 

The top 22 stories of this 80 story office building were destroyed by a raging inferno about 6 months ago. Fortunately it was early one Sunday morning and a major disaster was avoided. 

Walking through a botanical garden in Caracas, we watched an army of ants disassemble a very large tree...leaf by leaf.  

Sofi started crawling today. It was really neat to watch. She has been looking like she is ready to crawl, but today she really wanted a paper ball that the cat had and she was off! Look out, Jose and Ara...the fun has just begun!