Hats off to Larry ! VENEZUELA

VENEZUELA

DECEMBER 2005

Waterfall in La Gran Sabana, Southern Venezuela

Venezuela is not a popular destination for U.S. citizens at this time, probably because of the large amount of negative press about its current government. It didn’t exactly help when televangelist Pat Robertson openly called for the assassination of socialist President Hugo Chavez. Generally, the rule for tourism is – the worse a nation’s reputation, the fewer tourists visit. That most likely explains why I have yet to run into one American in this country. If you ignore all of the political nonsense, this is a wonderful country with incredibly nice people and a lot of sights to see.

Some facts about Venezuela (most lifted from Lonely Planet: Venezuela):

Oil Production: Venezuela is the fourth largest oil producing country in the world

Looking for lower gas prices? Move to Venezuela where it’s about $0.14 cents per gallon.

Baseball: Ozzie Guillen, the World Series winning manager of the Chicago White Sox is from Venezuela – as well as nearly 40 other major league players

Beauty Pageants: Venezuela has won more international beauty contests than any other nation in the world.

Beauty shops: In the capital city of Caracas, there is one beauty shop for every two restaurants/cafes

Plastic surgery: In Caracas, this industry is the most profitable in all of South America

Young population: Almost half of Venezuela’s population is 19-years-old or younger

Pro and con on President Hugo Chavez: One of my taxi driver’s was a huge supporter of President Chavez because “he is good for the workers and students.” On the other hand, a university professor I met said that he was tired of needing a police escort when walking around at night and felt Chavez was partly to blame.

The taxi ride from the airport to Caracas wasn’t exactly a welcoming experience. The trip took more than 2 ½ hours – longer than the flight from Costa Rica. Even my driver said he had never seen traffic that bad in his entire career. He had a small television screen below the dashboard, and we watched a couple of programs as we crawled along.

Also on the taxi ride:

Men were selling snacks in the middle of the busy roadway. For those of you that like to drink and drive, Smirnoff Ice was for sale.

One attractive, well dressed woman got out of her car in the middle of the traffic, opened the hood, and began working on her car.

A man was sleeping in his car on the side of the road. At least I hope he was sleeping.

At least a dozen gunshots were heard coming from one of the slums en route

My hotel in the Sabana Grande neighborhood cost about US$20. Both the police and my taxi driver warned me that it wasn’t a good place to stay. Actually, they were wrong. It was a great place to stay, as long as you never went outside at night. Robberies were taking place immediately in front of the hotel.

Caracas was a busy, exciting (albeit unsafe) place. Some interesting things:

Hearing "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" and Led Zeppelin's "Fool in the Rain" in Spanish

Riding the modern, convenient Metro

A woman wearing a T-shirt that said "Peace, Love & Pronto"

A woman utilizing her massive cleavage to store her cell phone. Was it set on vibrate?

Popular song: "Shut Up" by the Black Eyed Peas

New friends:

Ian was an English guy who recently lived in San Francisco. His trip got off to a bad start. He was bitten by a dog the day before he left the USA, his bank card wasn't working, and the airline lost his baggage. I did whatever I could to help him.

Jun ("june") was a really cool guy from Japan. He told me I was a professional traveler and appreciated my efforts communicating with all the locals. Not long ago, he traveled through Africa and said everyone was terrified of him because they had watched too many Bruce Lee movies. That strategy doesn't work so well in South America. He was robbed at gunpoint near a Caracas metro station on the first day of his trip.

Caracas: A man sells pants out of his truck near Blvd. Sabana Grande