Being the only pilot on reserve, I figured I'd be getting a call to fly over the weekend. Sure enough, Camille called on Thursday to tell me I'd be departing at 6:30 the next morning. It was a new sequence that I hadn't flown yet. They took away our Panama City and Caracas trip and replaced it with a Caracas and New York layovers.

While I wasn't really itching to fly to Caracas again, the idea of a day in Manhattan sounded like fun. We seem to get N.Y. layovers every year or two for a few months at a time.

John K. was the Captain and he was yet another one of the Boston pilots I enjoy flying with. I know I'm constantly pointing out how nice it is to fly with the Captains I'm paired up with, but I sincerely believe that Boston has the most good-natured group of pilots at the company. I have no scientific proof of that, but I'm sticking with it.

John and I had a great time in Paris a year ago, when he showed me that some bread, cheese and wine at the local grocery store can be the perfect way to enjoy Paris on a summer evening. So I knew we could find something interesting to do in New York.

The Simpsons is such a TV-institution that it is pretty much enjoyed all around the world. If you think Homer is amusing in English, just try him in Danish. But not everyone finds the classic dysfunctional family humorous. In Venezuela the TV show has been dropped from morning television because it was deemed unsuitable for children.

The BBC reports that Venezuela's TV regulator finds that the show sends "messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents." Which show does a better job of sending positive messages to children? The bikini-clad, silicon-stuffed ladies of Baywatch apparently. That is exactly the show that Caracas TV station Televen decided to replace the mid-morning Simpsons slot with.

The Simpsons might make it back onto Venezuelan TV, just later in the evening. That way children can have their morning cereal with suitable half-naked American women instead of the unsuitable deadbeat, donut-eating father who says "doh" a lot. We wouldn't want children growing up with a bad example now would we?

Venezuela is slowly but surely becoming one of the biggest allies of the US. Just kidding.

According to CNN, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez dared the U.S. on Friday to put Venezuela on a list of countries accused of supporting terrorism, calling it one more attempt by Washington to undermine him for political reasons. Chavez said the threat to include us on the terrorist list" is Washington's response to his government's successes in the region.

Chavez said: "We shouldn't forget for an instant that we're in a battle against North American imperialism. On this continent, they have us as enemy No. 1."

I like the "on this continent" part. What a way to make oneself a winner!

I've flown with Captain Jim on the MD-80, the 737 and the 757/767. It's always a pleasure to work with him and we often discuss everything from politics to aviation -- but lately he's also become my mentor in photography. Jim has been trying to expand my interest in shooting in the manual mode on my Canon DSLR. I tend to spend more time with the angles and composition than the exposure and white balance of my photos. But whenever I'm on a trip with Jim, he brings along his gear and shows me how it should really be done.

I've run into him a few times this month and we've talked about trying to get a Panama City, Panama and Caracas, Venezuela trip together so we could visit Casca Viejo in Panama. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site, and perfect for a day of photography. Through some trip trading, I was able to get on one of these three-day trips with him.

As you'll see after the jump, it didn't go exactly as we'd hoped.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said in a speech recently that he chews coca every day, and that his "hook up" is Bolivian president Evo Morales. Chavez reportedly said, "I chew coca every day in the morning... and look how I am," before showing his bicep to his audience, the Venezuelan National Assembly.

Chewing coca leaves is common, and legal, for indigenous Peruvians and Bolivians, as a stimulant and for easing hunger pangs. In most of the world, coca is most commonly associated with the drug cocaine, which is made from coca. Evo Morales of Bolivia, however, once noted that "coca no es cocaína"-the coca leaf is not cocaine.

But Chavez said that Morales sends him coca paste, which is, according to the Miami Herald article, somewhere between coca leaves and cocaine, and is also highly addictive.

Some are arguing that Chavez's coca paste admission means that he's committed a crime:

'''If he is affirming that he consumes coca paste, he is admitting that he is consuming a substance that is illegal in Bolivia as well as Venezuela,' said Hernán Maldonado, a Bolivian analyst living in Miami. 'Plus, it's an accusation that Evo Morales is a narco-trafficker' for sending him the paste."

Whole thing here.

More cocaine-related presidential shenanigans here.

More from Gadling on coca here.

I've talked about nudist tourism and debauchery tourism, now here's another spin on hedonistic tourist packages. It seems that the market for "sex" when traveling is rapidly being replaced by the emerging market for "girlfriends" on the road.

Premiering tonight at 10pm (GMT) is the documentary "My Boyfriend The Sex Tourist" that explores the life of western men for whom "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am" is not enough, resulting in the growth of "commercialized love" packages where they can have women at their beck-and-call, 24-hours a day. The film's director Monica Garnsey, traveled to Venezuela and Thailand and spoke to women trapped in these professions; the 2-part documentary is through their eyes.

When I was in Thailand, I saw the sorry state of Thai women making a living from prostitution. I heard that it is not uncommon that they submit to more that just sex, under the illusion of being rescued by a foreigner who will fall in love and want to get married. I saw the promo of this film and it seems like a much "happier"(?) one than I imagined. I think it is very depressing.

In October, Venezuelan clocks will be set at Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) minus 4-1/2 hours, compared to the previous GMT minus four hours. This move by president Hugo Chavez is one of many recently in his drive to achieve a socialist state. The time change, Science and Technology Minister Hector Navarro argues, seeks "a more fair distribution of the sunrise," which would particularly help poor children who wake up before dawn to go to school. "There have been very rigorous scientific studies that have determined that ... the metabolic activity of living beings is synchronized with the sun's light," he says. Navarro also suggested that the government will be announcing additional measures to make better use of time. I can't imagine what might be next... a 26-hour workday?

Going Tribal

is a series on Discovery that was originally produced by the BBC and aired in the UK as "Tribal". Each episode follows former British Royal Marine Bruce Parry as he spends approximately one month becoming immersed in the culture, language and rituals of a native community. This Telegraph article gives a detailed account of what Parry experienced, as well as additional background about the intrepid expeditioner and what led him to this role as friend of the tribal families.

There were six episodes in the BBC series and if Discovery follows suit, then tomorrow night's programs (10 pm EST) may be the last one, taking Parry to Venezuela, where he'll train as a shaman with the Sanema tribe. Prior episodes have had Parry horseback with the Darhads in Mongolia, visit cannibals in West Paupa, practice donga with the Suri in Ethiopia, eat "rat cake" in the Himalayas and hunt in the rainforests of Gabon.

To those who might criticize Parry for even wanting to bother these remote tribes, he explained, "We tried to be very culturally sensitive with everyone. We thought about it all very carefully. My personal aim was to show each community as normal human societies with the same loves and hopes that we have."