Caracas, Venezuela
Last location: Caracas, Venezuela
Current location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Next location: Brazil (on Monday)
Our website: http://www.discosuperfly.biz/travel
Our gallery: http://gallery.discosuperfly.biz
When Colombus first arrived the Americas (1498) he arrived on the shores of Venezuela. Upon seeing the hut-on-water like civilization they nickname the country Venezuela, meaning “little Venice”. Venezuela has since been known for its petroleum industry, the environmental diversity of its territories and of course, its women (Venezuela still has the world record for most Ms.Worlds). In terms of its nature, Venezuela can provide you with tanning and swimming on the Carribbean coast, hiking in the Andeas at 5000m+, trekking in the jungle in the Amazon, riding on horses like cowboys (Llaneros) in Los Llanos, fishing piranhas in the orinoco delta, the colonial charm of small villages outside Caracas and on the coast and of course, the world´s largest waterfall, Salto Angel in Canaima.
All of these features gave birth to the reference; “Tierra de Gracia” (Land of Grace). Which makes sense, considering these mentioned attributes…if you come to think of it, can you ask for more?
A new brigde is under construction on the highway from the airport to Caracas. The construction area creates a bottleneck that can vary the trip from anything to just under an hour to 3-4hours.
Perhaps the only thing lacking is what is still resisting Venezuela from beckoming a major tourist destination and a rich international economic player…this thing is called stability. Currently there are a lot of political turmoil surrounding President Chavez, his “agenda” and how the Venezuelan people react towards what is happening in their country. In economic classes, Venezuela is used as an example in foreign exchange lectures, no wonder…last year inflation was at 17%, and just recently Chavez said he would cut parts of the VAT to “improve” inflation numbers. In addition to this, the country has already imposed price controls on meat and sugar, another measure to fight instability. Even though these numbers might seem like they could provide a tourist with a cheap vacation, or perhaps a company with cheap operations, there is the additional crime level, which currently are among the highest in South America (particulary in the area of murder and rape…). Some numbers we were presented with said that in the male age group 15-40, more than 35% of deaths were related to shootings/murders. That is very scary…
A very good view of Caracas, behind the mountain (El Avila) is the Carribbean…
We arrived in Venezuela on monday the 5th of February, during our stay we would stayed at my dad´s colleague´s family (Thank you Tjaalands!)..and so they helped us out with transportation from the airport to Caracas. If this is not pre-arranged, you will probably have some 300 Venezuelan men approaching you, literally fighting each other to offer a taxi.
For me this would be the first time in Venezuela since I left in 2001, 6 years ago. For Tommy it was his first time on the continent. Our plan was originally to fly in to Caracas and then catch a bus towards the Brazilian border. However, during our stay in Caracas we realised the risk we would take and after talking to several people, we chose to deviate from Plan A and go south by airplane (to Buenos Aires, where we are now…). The area that we would pass through is far inland, in a poor area influenced by a border conflict (Venezuel vs. Guyana), gold miner problems and we were told, very untrusty (corrupt) officals. Suddenly, Argentina´s $4 steak and $1 beer sounded much more tempting….
Yet another capital city conquered…what´s next?
But we got a week in Caracas, and a good week it was. It was nice to see the city again, and to finally be on the South American continent. To my surprise it was difficult to spot any big changes to the city, the changes were more present in the psyche and the general tension/feeling in the streets. In general people are very friendly and Caracas is a modern and beautiful city, with many green parks and the jungle almost fighting to make it through modern urban civilization.
Me in front of Mirador Plaza, the place I used to live….
During our stay we went hiking in the Avila at 5:45 am (almost pitch black at start!), saw the Simon Bolivar museum, checked out my old neighbourhood, visited and dined in the carming city of El Hatillo and I got to return to the school I attended, meeting the staff and seeing the renovated campus area.
Tommy hiking in the “jungle” of el Avila…
Our week went really fast, and very smooth. We got to see lots of Caracas in a very short while, and we owe big thank´s to Tjaaland´s and Misje/Mossige, who were really friendly and nice to us. Hope they enjoyed having us, because we certainly had a very good pitstop in Caracas….
Tommy enjoying Venezuela´s national dish, Pabellon (black beans, minced beef, rice++).
Our gallery is now updated with pictures from Venezuela (we only miss 3 pictures, coming soon):
http://gallery.discosuperfly.biz
Big thanks to everone in Caracas…!
Take care,
Martin
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