Picture Day gives us the most disturbing photograph EVER ... plus some other ones

I promised last week that I would publish the most disturbing picture ever today, and I will not back down! I'll save it until the end, however, to build the excitement!

We wound down our cruise by stopping near Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, and hanging out for a day. Early one morning we took a small launch out so that we could all take pictures of the Mandalay, our home for the week. They came out well:

Now that's a good-looking ship!

We also got to "drive" the boat for a while. I can't help but think of Kramer driving the bus when I look at this picture. I didn't wreck anything, so that's something.


We went into town one day and checked it out. We found a shrine to the Virgin Mary, which freaked us out a bit (not the presence of a shrine in a ridiculously Catholic country like Venezuela, but the way the shrine looked). This isn't the disturbing picture, but it is a bit weird:

That's a freaky shrine!

We also took a trip up into the mountains to visit a "traditional" village. Venezuela is typical of many Third World countries, in that there are very few rich people and the rest of the population is very poor. However, in the mountains, it's possible to live a marginally decent life without being rich - they've done it for centuries, after all. It makes one wonder why they all went to the cities. But sociology aside, the town we visited was very nice. We met a pottery maker named Humberto who was actually rather well off - his parents were rich and his pottery is in demand! He had a nice view from his terrace:

I'm sorry it's not brighter, but you get the idea. I could eat breakfast looking at that view, I tell you that much!

Of course, back down in the city, we have the evil Yankee influence!


I wish this picture had come out better. We flew back to Grenada to get our plane to the States, and in the terminal, this sign hung from the ceiling. If you can't read it because it's too dark, "Way Out" is written on it. I just found that so bizarre - it's not an exit, it's a way out! - that I took a picture of it. But the sunlight was so bright behind it I didn't compensate for it. That's the other thing - I think we can figure out where to go!


Finally, the most disturbing picture ever ... Avert your eyes if you're easily scared!!!!! One night on board they had a costume party. None of us were exactly prepared for it, so we all had to improvise. I came up with ... well, an award-winning costume, I'll tell you that much:

Yes, it's true - I won a prize! But at the cost of ... my dignity!!!! (Such as it is.)

So that was our vacation to Venezuela. When we returned, Zoe our cat was crying at the window, and we realized she needed a friend. So we got Smokey. Yes, not only did we have a cool vacation, we got another cat in the bargain. It all worked out!