Maracaibo - Venezuela

At the Western Venezuelan end, there is Maracaibo capital of the Zulia State, second only to Caracas and one of the country's top oil centres. It is on the coast of the lake named after the city and discovered on August 24th 1499, by Alonso de Ojeda a sailor of Columbus' crew in his second trip to America.

The city was founded three times. First in 1529 by the German Ambrosio Alfinger, who named it Maracaibo or Villa de Maracaibo. The lack of activity in the zone made Nicolas de Federman evacuate the village in 1535 and move its population to Cabo de la Vela nearby Coro. A second attempt by Captain Alonso Pacheco turned into failure. The third and definite foundation of the city, occurs in 1574 when Captain Pedro Maldonado, under Governor Diego de Mazariego', command establishes the village with the name of Nueva Zamora de Maracaibo to honour Mazariego's place of birth, Zamora in Spain. Since its definite foundation the town began to develop as a whole.

The name Maracaibo comes from the brave Cacique (Indian Chief) Mara a young native who valiantly resisted the Germans and died fighting them. It is said that when Mara fell, the Indians shouted "Mara cayo !!" (Mara fell !!), thus originating the city name. Other historians say that the first name of this land in Indian language was "Maara-iwo" meaning "Place where serpents abound".

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Places to Visit in Buenos Aires - Argentina

"Buenos Aires City Info" has a very nice page including the major monuments of Buenos Aires here.

Edward Albee Travels to Easter Island

This tiny speck of South Pacific lava can be reached by boat, of course. That's how the Polynesians got there around A.D. 700, but it's a long, long trip by water. It's a long, long trip from anywhere by any means, but is it worth it? As they say in certain parts of our Middle West — "You bet!"

It took me 50 years to get there from the time I first heard of it. I'm not certain there was any semi-sensible way to get there (from anywhere) back then, but it was on my list, along with Egypt, the Aztec and Mayan cultures, Ayutthaya (the old capital of Siam, sacked by the Burmese in the 18th century), the Roman cities of Sabratha and Leptis Magna on the Libyan coast and other essential destinations. Now that Libya is open to us and has made available the prehistoric painted and carved art of the Fezzan Cliffs, I'll get there, having accomplished the others.

Way before the movie "Planet of the Apes" showed us the Statue of Liberty half buried in the sand, I have felt the need to experience cultures which grew, fell into decadence and vanished. These are probably cautionary tales even beyond their aesthetic marvel.

Why did Easter Island take so long to accomplish even after it was feasible? Well, people looked at me as if I was crazy: "You're going where!?" "You're kidding!" "For a couple of statues!?" I got busier and busier as the years went on, and so I put Easter Island on my "someday" list, along with the Gobi Desert and Antarctica (I know, that last one has gotten easy).

As my 78th birthday approached (three months after my 77th, it seemed), it occurred to me that unless I was planning to ask St. Peter to be my travel agent I'd better get cracking. I found an architect friend who wanted to go with me, and it was arranged, and we went. Was it worth it? As I wrote a couple of paragraphs back, "You bet!"

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