Venezuela

...first South American travel experience...some lessons

1. know what the currency is doing - in this case the Bolivar Fuerte (Bf), which replaced the Bolivar as of Jan 1, 2008 - essentially taking the Bolivar and dividing it by 1000, since there were 100 000 Bolivar notes and the like...i guess at that point the currency gets kind of meaningless. The Bf has an official (2Bf to 1USD and 3.5 Bf to 1EUR) and a black market rate - 5Bf to 1USD and 7Bf to 1EUR...so, cash does talk and, with a good rate on the black market, you can effectively halve the cost of your travels...we were only stocked with about 1.5 week's worth of cash, so pretty quickly had to find an alternative...more on that later

2. get organised - we were "organised" for the first 2 nights...and then it was kind of seat of the pants stuff. this approach is ok if you kind of know the country...but not so good when you are hearing stories about the country being unsafe

so, to start out we checked in ok with Iberia...but then had to run for the gate and i was stopped and asked some questions about travelling to South America and Venezuela due to the drugs coming out of that region...a flight down to Madrid...then another to Maiquetia near Caracas...and we were in Venezuela...with a few tips from other people on the flight about where to go, to stay safe and what black market currency rates we could likely get

we found our transfer guy from the hotel catimar pretty quickly, in amongst screaming fans of someone...off to wait for other hotel catimar guests and have our first experience with cambia (money changing)...Serafine is much better at negotiating than me...much, much, much better - so i tried to keep a poker face as Serafine talked the guy up from 6 Bf to 1EUR, to 7...which we found out later was a very good rate at the time...we changed 200EUR while another hotel guest, from the Canary Islands...a native spanish speaker, with good english - a combination we found to be valuable, but very rare in the country

out into the transfer truck and a warm evening, through heavy friday night traffic and to our hotel near the beach...around 7pm, after the sun had gone down...the beach area was full with cars, loud music and drinkers...we checked in pretty smoothly, into a very small room with a tiny window...we crashed on the night of Nov 20th...then woke up round 9 on the 21st to a beautiful day and disappointing beach, small beach area, plenty of litter, but nice in the water...the highlight for me was probably dinner on the second night - seafood rice, kind of like paella...i couldn't stop eating the stuff, and they served us heaps and heaps

2 nights in that environment...then what?...that was where the lack of planning kicked in and we were suddenly out at Maiquetia Nacional Airport to plan on the fly (pardon the pun)...we had a nice option to fly to Punto Fijo, but then realised that if I paid with my credit card we'd be going with the official rate...we also wanted to change some more euros and were on the verge of getting 7.1Bf to 1EUR and negotiating a 700Bf taxi ride to Punto Fijo - out on the Paraguana Peninsula...so the flight fell through, the changing fell through and the taxi fell through...so we decided to go to Maracay, west of Caracas...a taxi from the airport to all of the Caracas bus terminals uncovered zero spots on buses going to Maracay...so, we opted for a bus to Valencia, west again from Maracay and a bargain at about 40Bf each ticket...

Valencia doesn't feel like a nice city though...we arrived there at about 430pm...we had a quick look around the bus terminal for options to get out the next day...then tracked down our bags and a taxi...the bus trip to Valencia was quite good...and we decided on the Hotel Diamante on the way...a not so great choice - it was close to a very rough downtown and felt a bit like a fortress and the spaghetti bolognase bore little resemblance...to much that is edible (Lonely Planet has a lot to answer for re Accommodation guidance, Diamante and Casa Lucetia in Porlamar are not even close to their LP write up)...but i digress

we were super keen to get out of Valencia and grabbed a cab the next morning, back to the Bus Terminal, hearing from the taxi driver along the way that buses to Punta Fijo wouldn't start until later in the afternoon - another lesson learnt - trust between 40 and 80 percent of what you hear, or what you think you hear - we had all kinds of fun trying to talk and understand spanish, Serafine is much more proficient than me, thankfully...when we got to the bus station we found...or got found, by a guy organising a car to go to Coro/ Punto Fijo, at 70Bf per person...we thought about it for 10 seconds and decided to go for it - they needed 2 more people to go ahead with the trip, they got one and we were off on the road...another good road trip, dropping the other passenger off at Coro and Serafine getting some advice on good places on the Paraguan Peninsula...turns out Adicora had a better set of Playa (beaches) than Punto Fijo..but, at the juncture to either go to Punto Fijo (34km) or Adicora (25km), the taxi driver says it will cost an extra 20Bf to take us to Adicora instead of the agreed Punto Fijo...i lost it a bit then - the guy wants to charge us more, to take us less distance...so we agree to stick with the original plan and head to Punto Fijo and then to Adicora...

we asked the taxi driver to take us to the promising sounding Hotel ????

which, turned out to be the best accommodation so far, in terms of quality and comfort BUT, it was in the middle of nowhere, being south east of the city itself and a 20Bf taxi fare from anywhere...but, it had a pool and casino, 2 restaurants and...it seemed, they could change cash for us at black market rates...which bought on a round of us trying to explain the concept - we'd pay them in USD, they'd give us Bf at black market rates...which didn't turn out to be the case when i checked out my bank statement...luckily they only gave us 1200 Bf, costing me about 500 AUD...live and learn

we relaxed by the pool...had dinner and breakfast in the over airconditioned restaurant and probably relaxed for the first time on the trip...coz we were off to Adicora for at least a couple of days on the beach, which was a relaxing prospect...

so, taxi to Adicora and 100 Bf later, we're checking into the Posada Casa ??? The first real Posada we've stayed in...on the Northern side of a small peninsula that juts out from the main Paraguan peninsula...with the entrance not 5 metres from the sea...it looked really good, and it was, but the mosquitoes loved Serafine, as they did for the whole trip, while they kept away from my hairy arms and legs and apparently not tasty Australian blood!?

Adicora then took over as the most relaxed place we'd been...especially after Raffie told us that the area is ultra keen on tourism...even going so far as imposing martial law on thieves who target tourists. Raffie's a Venezuelan who left the country in 1981 i believe, to work on luxury yachts as a chef...he sure loves his food. Raffie's looking to set up a kite surfing business with Pachi, a real local in Adicora, who sometimes works as a computer technician and sometimes as a kite surfing business owner who is listed in Lonely Planet. We had a couple of nice meals with them...tho don't go to Adicora if you don't like fish - local fresh fish dominates a lot of menus...i had fried fish eggs one morning, which was supposed to help me in a similar way to viagra...didn't have a chance to bust that myth. Swimming in Adicora was in nice, warm Carribean water, though there were a lot of stray dogs, who liked Serafine (the feeling was not reciprocated) and even some crabs who liked Serafine, one latched on to one of her toes at the dinner table outside the Posada...looking back we probably stayed a day too long in Adicora before getting on a local bus to Coro, where we had planned to spend a day or 2

that planned was trumped as we were at the bus station, a new plan came to light - jump straight on a bus to Merida, thus missing out on Coro and Maracaibo. From what we heard later that turned out to be a good plan - Coro was nice, but not for more than half a day and Maracaibo should be avoided all together - according to a couple of sources

so, we had an unexpectedly pleasant day at the Coro bus terminal - sitting in the cafe, having some food, planning the rest of our itinerary...we were feeling good..until we got on the bus at 7pm that night...it was freezing...another lesson - it's good to overpack for warmth on those buses. Serafine was literally freezing - i wasn't any better off...and we were half an hour in to a 9 hour bus trip, overnight! Serafine and a few others complained to the bus driver a few times to turn the AC down...which resulted in him, after our food stop, to come and threaten to turn the AC UP, if anyone else complained. It was RIDICULOUSLY cold - we used seat covers, paper..anything for insulation. We got to Merida with about half an hour sleep and feeling mightily peeved off with the world, completely ruining our good mood when we got on the bus

Merida is breathtaking - sitting on a plateau in the Andes, we chilled out (probably a bad choice of words - more like thawed out) at the Merida bus terminal, with a Brazilian guy - Martin M, who we'd met before we got on the bus. We split a taxi into the centre and went looking for Posada Casa Sol at 730am...i was totally disoriented and moody after not having slept, but at least Serafine's sense of direction was on - we found the BEST posada and one of the best places I have ever stayed (Posada Casa Sol). Off one of the main streets in the centre of Merida, it's run by 2 Swiss folks who bought the house, I think around 8 years ago, simple rooms, really well fitted out, clean...where they made us feel comfortable straight away, especially good after the bus ride from Hell

we got out for a walk around town...checking out the awesome views out into the mountains, doing some shopping at a sunday market and appreciating how clean the city is..especially compared to the other parts of the country that we'd seen up until then...Venezuela is a really beautiful country but they don't know what to do with rubbish - or they do know what to do - drop it where you are

we met a guy called Ysaac - an American/ Venezuelan, who indicated that he'd be able to help us out with some cash change - at pretty decent black market rates, using Paypal, of which I'm a registered member...Ysaac's well placed to cater to tourists - speaks excellent, if American, English, and Spanish, he's young and technologically savvy

the biggest tourist drawcard in Merida is the Telefirico, which is a great idea - extensive cable car system from near the town centre up into some of the mountains in the Andes surrounding the town...but, it's been out of action for a couple of years - it's kind of symbolic of tourism in Venezuela - a great idea, but badly maintained with no real planning to it...so, to get to the villages previously serviced by the Telefirico you now have to get transport to the villages and do some hardcore trekking - the villages are consequently suffering in terms of the number of tourists

a few of my decisions around travelling were...let's just say ill advised..or more to the point, ill conceived...to name the most prominent - spending an extra day in Adicora - we'd seen all there was to see, but stayed one day too long...staying an extra day in Merida - too much of a good thing - we had a great time in Merida but stayed that extra day too long...taking a car ride from Merida to Caracas - I thought we'd get to see some more of the country, but we chewed up a whole day and the drive wasn't really worth it

it worked out pretty well though - Ysaac drove us from Merida to Caracas, which took about 10 hours...and we met up with Thomas Berry at a bus terminal in Caracas. Thomas organised our Canaima/ Angel Falls tour for us and had all of our tickets and permits ready for us when we met up with him...plus loads of advice and some good homespun Venezuelan philosophy - Thomas went to Venezuela when he was a baby (with his parents) and grew up there - his english is perfect, as is his venezuelan/ spanish and he's married to a venezuelan soap star - my favourite quote of Thomas was, when he got asked about how the 2008/ 2009 Global Financial Crisis was affecting Venezuela, he said that Venezuela is always in crisis, so they hadn't noticed a difference - interesting guy with a dry sense of humour

...so, after a couple of hours waiting at the terminal, we got on our bus to Cuidad Bolivar, where we were to be met by a local guy who'd take us to the airport, for our light plane trip to Canaima, where our tour would start - all that went according to plan...except that we arrived at 4.30am and our pickup was meeting us at 6.30am - so a couple of hours "relaxing" in the pre dawn at Cuidad Bolivar bus terminal...before our pickup picked us up and got us on the way

the light plane was a 6 seater, including the seat for the pilot, but a pretty smooth flight out to Canaima, where we bought our national park permits and then kicked back to wait for our local guide to come and meet us...our group arrived in ones and twos, until we were all there and Churun, our guide, took us off to camp, where we had an hour to go swim in the Canaima Lagoon before lunch and an afternoon tour

the area is naturally spectacular - the camps at Canaima are right on the lagoon, which sources it's water mainly via 3 waterfalls, including the immense Hacha Falls, and, further up Salta Angel (Angel Falls). The afternoon tour included a boat trip to Hacha Falls, a walk behind Hacha Falls, then a walk overland through some bushland and a swim in a small lagoon and water fall. All this water eventually ends up in the Orinocco River...

back to the camp for a sunset walk around the Lagoon...a few disappointing things about the tour - the food - they've got this awesome natural area with perfect growing conditions and they have mass produced, crappy food...

overnighting in dorms, up for breakfast then a wait before taking a bus up to the top of the falls into Canaima Lagoon and a powered boat trip up towards Salto Angel...the boat trip was great and unexpected - some really tight and rough rapids...about a 4 hour trip, punctuated with lunch about half way and we reached the drop off point to Salto Angel - the face of Salto Angel faces south west, so, by the time we got to the base at about 2, the sun was past the top of the falls - i'd recommend trying to get up there in the morning if you go - that way you'd get the sun directly on the falls in all their glory...their glory is also influenced by how much rain has fallen at the top of the falls - the water collects on top of Tepui - flat topped mountains - one of the things the area is famous for. Story has it that Jimmy Angel - an American pilot, crash landed his plane at the top of the falls and spent 12 days making his way from the top to the base - to get help from the locals...later, he was telling his story in Caracas (I believe) to a cartographer who offered to go back to the falls and measure their height...somehow the venezuelens managed to call it Angel Falls...and guide's reckon that Hugo Chavez will soon rename it..Chavez Falls...though that might be too much of an omen for his presidency?! haha

a night in hammocks in a pretty basic camp...again, would have been nice to have a camp fire and cooked over it...then a much quicker trip down river to the big camp...

we had a flight booked back to Cuidad Bolivar and then an overnight bus trip back to Caracas...Then a flight to Isla De Margarita...

BUT, there was a plane on the runway that would go direct from Canaima to Isla De Margarita = brilliant! But, it was a big chunk of our remaining cash...we did some quick sums and it was a goer...the bonus was a takeoff and short detour out over Angel Falls from Canaima airport...then an hour and a half up to Isla De Margarita...then we bought our tix to Caracas at the airport then a quick taxi ride to Porlamar - the biggest city on Margarita, but not the capital...and our second questionable LP recommendation - Posada Lutecia - it had a decent, but very small pool and a decent rooftop bar area...but the rooms were old, dirty..but, probably the most important thing to us at that stage was CHEAP, unfortunately not cheap and cheerful, just cheap...

porlamar does, however, have a beautiful beach..and a Mercantil Bank - where we were to get the rest of our cash that we'd transferred to Ysaac - we had a cheque for 5000 Bf - enough for 1.5 weeks travel...we found the bank, had a very average seafood grill, spent a nice afternoon at the beach and had a drink with the Urugyan, french speaking barman...also had a great pizza in there somewhere and a couple of surprisingly good nights sleep...

then, to the bank on the Monday morning...turned out to be a partial bank holiday. we discerned from a local sitting out front of the branch we went to...but there was another branch just out of town, by bus...luckily the bus came past as we were discussing options and our local friend told us to jump on - so we did, not entirely convinced we were on the right bus...with our eyes peeled for the branch, Serafine heard from another passenger that it was a bank holiday, so we were unlikely to find the branch open - a cash disaster for us...

but, on hearing that we were driving through a bank area of the city...so we decided to jump off, fortunately right outside a Mercantil branch, fortunately, which was open, despite most of the other banks in the area being closed...

20 minutes in a queue and the teller tells us that we can only cash a cheque for 4000 Bf...if we wanted to get 5000 Bf out, we'd need to get the person who wrote the cheque to write out 2 cheques...

But, Ysaac was in Merida - about 15 hours away...

so we pleaded...the teller asked the Bank Manager, who approved the 5000Bf withdrawal...and we were walking away with more cash than you should sensibly be seen with on a Venezuelan Street..safely tucked away in my backpack, we were ready to head to our next destination - Playa El Agua on the North East Coast of Margarita...

and, bingo, beautiful beach...but

we'd made a booking on a 3rd party website at the Hesperia Playa El Agua Hotel...which hadn't quite made it through to the Hesperia...so they wouldn't acknowledge the 320 Bf/ night booking...but Serafine wouldn't have that...and was on the phone with the website we'd booked through...was working the bloke in reception...and it paid off - we ended up with 2 nights @ 400 Bf/ night, thanks to Hesperia, no thanks to the 3rd party website - another lesson - be careful about the third party web sites...however, Agoda in Asia is a really good site in this category...

finally, we were checked in, got a dip in one of the 7 pools and started enjoying the all inclusive - 3 resaurants, cocktails from 11am...

and enjoying Playa El Agua - some good surf, a nice long beach..the Venezuelans there didn't really do surf though, most folks were keen to get out up to their thighs...and if you tried to go out any deeper - to where the waves were breaking, an overzealous whistleblower would dissuade you...and, if he wasn't around, an unofficial lifeguard - a mid 50's masseuse, who looked like she'd spent a good portion of her life on the beach, unprotected by suncream...imperiously let fly with her whistle on whoever got too far out into the surf on her watch

we got online and booked 3 more nights there in a better room, for a lower price - via the Hesperia offical website...and spent a few days warding off beach vendors, enjoying the all inclusiveness of the resort and, finally for me, getting a surf out at El Agua - even though i had no paddling fitness, it was great to get out in the surf again after a looooong time off...

then, a taxi ride back to the Margarita airport...a quick plane trip back to Maiquetia Nacional Airport...then some "negotiating" for a taxi - where we paid the 100 Bf asking price in the end, to the Hotel Ole Caribe - perched atop a hill in Mercator

a comfortable but ageing hotel and a decent nights sleep...lazy breakfast by the pool...then a real early transfer to the internacional airport - to huge queues...weird - we were lined up for nearly 2 hours, but by the time we got to the front of the queue, there was no queue left, so we could have had another 2 hours near the pool

we cleared passports...with 500 Bf still in our pockets - a bit ironic after all the struggles we had for cash along the way - some turbo shopping...then rush for the gates - for the flight to be 45 minutes delayed...and off we went, back towards Madrid

Cash - know the best way to get your hands on local currency - if it's by the blackmarket - make sure you've got enough hard currency, or the means make the exchange

Get a decent itinerary - it doesn't have to be minute perfect, but it should be to a good level of detail and..have 3 alternative itineraries
Negotiate - ask what the price is, what their best price is, then go in with half the price