Hello, mes amis de Steemit!

My mom has an unhealthy obsession with selfies.

As you may have noticed, or not, I was away for a whole week and actually missed posting Learning to Leave [Venezuela] last Tuesday. Well, it was more than just laziness! I was out there, living, rather than leaving, Venezuela.

Mother's Day in Venezuela is celebrated on the second Sunday of every May, and my own mother wanted nothing more than to visit her own mother, my grandma, who lives exactly 728km from our home.

Not exactly a drive to the corner store.

We used to do it quite often, when I was a child, but as the years went by it became less and less enticing for teenager me, who was more interested in being home alone so he could drink himself to unconsciousness with his friends and prospective partners.

Even so, my mom and little sister continued going by themselves, with less and less frequency every year, until sometime about two years ago, they ended up stopping. It wasn't that they didn't want to go, but that getting plane tickets became impossible, and making the drive on our run-down car was just suicidal.

So when my mom asked me to come with her one last time before leaving the country, I couldn't possibly say no.

Naturally, my first thought after agreeing was "Time to get my STEEM on".

So I took some pictures to share with you guys!

Upata is a relatively big town, and it functions as a sort of gateway to La Gran Sabana.

Following the route we took from Caracas, it is here that the climate begins to truly change to the humid, tropical one characteristic of the region. Like most towns, it has a "Plaza Bolivar", the original center of the town, adorned with a statue of El Libertador, Simón Bolivar (barely visible to the left of my amateurish picture).

In front of it, there's a church. This is the structure these plazas have had ever since colonial rule was first established, with the exception of lacking the government building from way back then. The church in Upata is simple, unassuming and unpretentious, true to the spirit of the town and many of those who inhabit it.

It serves not only as an establishment for spiritual reflection and for holding mass, but also as a place where the community can come together on certain occasions, such as the many religious celebrations highly important to the cultural lives of countryside towns in Venezuela.

My own grandma remembers many of these celebrations fondly. During her younger years the town was much smaller and there weren't roads spanning the country, connecting towns such as Upata to larger settlements and even the capital.

This degree of isolation, stillness and most likely boredom, contributed to the appreciation the townspeople used to have for these few moments where they all got together to celebrate religiously important dates. "The whole town would gather, in a big procession, and march to the rhythm of their own chanting. Two steps forward, one step back, almost like dancing salsa," reminisced my grandma.

She told me all of this over some grilled pork and potato salad we made on Mother's Day, to celebrate the occasion with everyone's favorite activity: getting fatter. Instead of thanking god for the food, I internally gave thanks to all of you guys on Steemit, as well as the people all over the world who trust nobodies in a third world country to work for them online. They may pay us 5USD for work worth 60USD, but it's miles better than starving on Bolívares.

I've got to admit, I was somewhat nervous at the time. We grilled everything on the porch, and ate it right there as well. Back in Caracas, I always try to be as discreet as possible while celebrating anything, so as to not give the false impression that I'm swimming on money and expose myself to potential robbers or kidnappers.

When asked about it, my uncle said he still felt quite the contrary. "I may not be wealthy, but let them think I am, if they want to! Never hurts to puff up your chest a bit." It was nice seeing that, despite the circumstances, some of that haughty country attitude still prevailed. Changing the people may seem easy, but some things die hard.

We didn't get robbed or kidnapped, but we did get some people walk by and ask for food. The country attitude shone through again, but this time through the generosity of my uncle, who had actually planned ahead and bought more meat than we needed, knowing he'd be sharing it with strangers at some point.

Overall, it was a very nice trip that allowed me to unwind, but also to gain a deeper appreciation of my country, as I took the chance to reconnect a bit. One of the things I enjoyed the most was the clean air and proximity to nature. There are frankly lots of trees and green areas in Caracas. You can't completely avoid nature. But this was the... rural kind. A lot of people have backyard plantations in Upata, and my grandma isn't the exception.

She had many plants used for making tea, keeping mosquitoes away and even treating stuff like the common cold. My favorite was the banana tree she had out back, from which she let me have... some. I'll leave you all with a picture of me with my trophy. Got a Donkey Kong feeling going on!