An Urban Adventurous and Sporty Saturday
Yesterday, my wife and I embarked in another city adventure; this time, trying to get to the Brígido Iriarte Olympic Stadium (formerly known as Paradise National Stadium).
We have been in this big city for just a year and most of it is still unknown wild territory for us. We had a two-hour frame to get to watch a kid who came from Cumaná (8-hour drive) for a national track and field competition.
This kid is the son of an ex-student of mine who I taught in college more than 25 years ago. As a visiting competitor in a big event, I figured he could use any friendly cheering he could get.
Caracas can be an impressive, modern and cool city in some aspects, but it can also be a nightmare when it comes to public transportation.
We could not afford a taxi, so we looked at a map and Metro routes (subway) and decided to give that option a try (we were not sure about the buses that passed by the stadium).
Buses in Venezuela, even in Caracas, which is the capital, are not exactly a modern service in all respects. They are old, crowded, smelly, poorly identified, no apps to track routes, etc.
We waited for a bus that would take us to the subway station at this stop, which my wife dislikes because it reminds her of a certain horror movie (🤡 🤭).
The subway station was desolate! We thought they were still closed or something.
We do not use the service very often and last time the experience was not very pleasant (crowded, no air conditioner, lots of sellers inside the cars squeezing through people, constant unannounced and unexplained stops).
We went downstairs two levels and we finally saw some people. The train arrived after a few minutes, we got inside and luckily (we thought) there were plenty of empty seats.
There were also plenty of mosquitoes and no air conditioner, again!
After 25 minutes and seeing that my wife was starting to get fidgety, I decided to get the hell out of there.
We asked around and learned that some buses on the same avenue we came down on our way to the subway station would take us to the Stadium.
It was Saturday morning, around 10 AM already and traffic was hellish.
Market day and we had the mercado de Quinta Crespo ahead of us.
One of the most annoying bottle necks in Caracas.
It took us once 45 minutes to move down 4 blocks.
Fortunally, this one did not take so long to get out of this area.
The bus left us a block away from the stadium. Aleluya!
We were a bit late, but we were hoping the relay races had not yet started.
Now, we had to look for Team Sucre and our little friend.
We went around the main entrance and located not only the whole party that traveled with the kids but also an uncle of our little friend who lives in Caracas.
We had some time to chat and get to know one another. It was drizzling and the races were put on hold for a while.
In the meantime, we watched some javelin throws and triple jumps.
Finally they kids showed up (our runner is the second from left).
We could tell he was nervous. He was running the 4x200 meters mixed-gender relays.
I could see why he was nervous. Most of the other runners looked more muscular, older (even though they were all under 18).
When the races started the stands went wild. I doubt any runner could distinguish any chant, but it was very exciting to be part of this.
Our friend's team got 5th place. Not bad considering the physical differences.
He was happy he was there and even more so that there were friends and family supporting.
We went back Home shortly after the race. It was a very nice morning, despite all the transportation issues and the rainy weather.
My friend was so happy we took some time to go cheer for her son and I was moved by all these young kids' determination to pursue their athletics dreams, despite so many issues going on around us.
Sure enough, the sun always comes back up after a storm.
