Caracas

---

Although we were warned about the dangers of caracas, we were happy to find it free of tourists which allowed us to really soak up this politically charged country. for months, we had seen the defiant el presidente chavez shake his fists in the face of democracy and we were eager to see life from inside.....how locals had been "touched" by his social reforms. one thing was clear...his campaign and propoganda budget had no limits. it was impossible to turn your head in any direction without seeing his face plastered on either a wall, tree, bridge, car, bus,..you get the picture. the first mistake we made, was made before we ever entered the country. this is a place you must bring american dollars!!...the black market value of america dollars were almost double the banks rates and it was obvious by the number of men approaching offering their "cambio" services...business was good. we were lucky enough to meet Aquiles Báez, ( aquilesbaez.com ) a local musician and an extremely kind man that lives in new york but was back promoting his newest solo guitar album on the radio. he informed us that a new requirement made by chavez was that 50% of music played would be local artists...an obvious boost to this man´s popularity. we drilled achiles with questions of local culture and politics as we cruised from site to site around town and our final destination of a chocolate bar...and i mean, sit down and toss back a hot chocolate while dipping your chocolate tarts in chocolate sauce. emo and i even tried a chocolate morsel made of red ants...it´s got a pepper taste to it for the record. aquiles clued us in to the polarized views of the citizens regarding chavez´s rule and venezuela´s future. some other fun facts for all of you back home....gas is 18 cents a gallon here...roughly 2 bucks to fill your gas tanks and the best part....they are making a profit here. hmmm...wonder why exxon had record profits last year? chavez also standardized all parking garages...25 cents an hour...trust me, not a popular move by garage owners according to aquiles. emo and i relaxed at the hotel room after picking at a pizza that was erroneously ordered...a humbling example of our spanish skills produced a pizza with sardines, corn and ham...mmmmmm!!! for dessert, we watched the state of the union address by president bush followed by president chavez bashing him on a government controlled station...no love lost there. we found the people here to be very kind once you got them to open up..the wealthy feel that the country is like a plane in a downward spiral and chavez is the crazy pilot while the poor and less fortunate have bought into his social programs and handouts as at least a temporary improvement. recent news as we were leaving spoke of chavez´s intentions of nationalizing a cell phone company...essentially kicking verizon to the curb who has a substantial market share. i´m sure this will improve customer service immensely for the local users..right!! in summary, caracas was extremely educational and we felt lucky to have experienced it at such a monumental time. oh, thanks again aquiles for you hospitality and best of luck...we´ll look forward to downloading the album.

---

Photos

our friend aquiles
enjoying the chocolate factory

Comments

[Grandma and Grandpa King]

Thanks for Keeping Us Posted
You have been so good about keeping us updated. Especially enjoyed your Caracas adventures -- it really is an historic time there and an experience you will treasure.

[Troy]

Very interesting
Nice job on the commentary, very interesting. I heard that outside of Venezuela is beautifull. I am off to Cuba for 3 weeks - can't wait.