Sunday 15th: the day off

Sunday was our time off, so we planned to do some tourist activities before we left Caracas. We took the metro down to the city center with Jesús to do some sightseeing. He wanted to show us Simón Bolivar's house, Casa natal. Simón Bolivar played an important role in the establishment of Venezuela as a independent state free of the Spanish rule.

                            A statue of Simón Bolívar on his horse, in the Bolivar square. The size of the city determines the size of the statue. This is as big as it gets

The Bolivar square in the city of Caracas has the only apperance of black squirrels

Inside Bolivar's house. The paintings on the wall was added to the museum long after his death

Taking a break in the museum

Einar in front of the tree were Bolivar himself once stood

Then we went to a beautiful park with a view over the city center. 

Then suddenly Jesús got a call from the  guard at the botanical garden. He said that some kids had tried to steal some things through a hole in the window with a wooden stick. We had to run home and check if something was missing, but luckily everything was still there so we went out an ate dinner.

We had a fantastic stay in Caracas with both lichens and the people we have met. The experience was all over amazing. A special thanks to Jesús, Mariana, Maria Fernanda, Miguel, Christopher, Estefania and of course the lovely people at the botanical garden.

Group photo from the day of the workshop

The last thing we had to do that day was to sample tissue from some of our lichens for later DNA sequencing. This is not always easy for new untrained master students, specially when you're not in a lab, but it all went well and we learned something new. 

NEXT UP: BRAZIL!