Mas Merida

I want to change the date of my air ticket from caracas to buenos aires. That turns out to be a bit more difficult than one would expect. There are MANY travel agencies all over Merida. However, 90% of them just sell package tours of the area around Merida. To find a genuine travel agent, that does air tickets, etc., is turning out to be quite a challenge.
The senora of my house volunteered the name of the travel agent her daughter used a couple of years ago. She called the travel agency and confirmed that they were open saturday from 8 to 2. The senora volunteered to drive me to the travel agency since she had an appointment to have her car serviced. I was very surprised that this quiet, self-effacing diminutive lady drove a car. That was my first surprise. The second surprise was the Jekyl and Hyde transformation that occurred once she got behind the wheel!
Her driving technique of her little automatic consisted of 2 options: pushing the pedal to the right to the floor and pushing the pedal to the left to the floor. We bombed through the narrow city streets at very impressive speeds, the pedestrians scattering left and right in front of us. She had one hand on the steering wheel and with the other hand gestured dramatically in front of my face pointing out sights of interest.
It was amazing how she never struck parked cars or other objects, while spending only 10% of the time looking at the road ahead. She dropped me off at the travel agency exactly at 8 a.m. Actually, she didn´t exactly drop me off AT the travel agency. We were on a big boulevard, 2 lanes in each direction, and 2 left turn lanes in each direction.. She pulled into the right hand left turn lane and came to a full braking stop at the intersection despite the fact that the green arrow was blazing above us. She smilingly pointed out the travel agency to me on the left side of the boulevard. She further urged me to jump out of the card, but carefully!, as quickly as possible. The traffic was moderately heavy. The cars in the lane to my right were whizzing past at 50 mph. The cars behind us were screeching to a halt and leaning on their horns. The senora was oblivious. None of this caused the slightest wrinkle in the smile on her face as she wished me well. I scrambled out of the car, holding my breath, and raced for relative safety on the narrow traffic island. She waved and sped off only about 5 seconds after the left turn light had turned red.
The travel agency wasn´t open. I´ve noticed that stores and businesses here in Merida very wisely do not post their hours of operation. I waited. At 8:30, the senora pulled up, half on the sidewalk, again all smiles, and told me it was unlikely the travel agency would open up that day. She also told me that the car repair place had decided not to open until Monday, despite her appointment.
To think, some Americans are concerned that Chavez says he wants to bring Venezuela to socialism. It´s already here!