When I was 8 years old my mother sent my sister and I to live with our paternal grandparents.  She was coming to the states to prepare our arrival and she decided that our grandparents should spend some time with us before we moved to the United States.

My grandparents lived in the state of Zulia, which is located in the northwest of Venezuela, around the Marcaibo Lake.  This lake is the largest water body of its kind in Latin America and its basin covers one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere.

Maracaibo is the state capital and it has the second (Caracas being the first) largest population among Venezuela states.  Like any country, each state is known for their own individual personality. Maracuchos (the population of Maracaibo) as they are referred, are loud, talk fast and everyone cuss like sailors – and I mean everyone, toddlers to gradmas.