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Published: June 29th 2007
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So here we finally are, the famous group emails are no more a new era has begun, the first entry into the blog commences...
I start with an apology for the absence of photos. Uploading them involves a lot of paraphenalia and as you will see i am still a little wary about carrying round expensive stuff especially as it is approaching sunset when the badboys come out. I promise when i am out of Caracas i will put a few on of both Caracas and wherever my next stop is.
Arrived on Wednesday afternoon after two predominantly pleasant flights, the only blemish being the two hour period where i sat through Music and Lyrics. I made the decision to watch it because the man behind me had his headphones on so loud i could here the badly dubbed Spanish version anyway so i thought i might as well go for the lesser evil and actually here Hugh Grant´s stutterings and mumblings.
However the post flight experience was a bad one....a very bad one. Some bright spark at Madrid had decided i didn´t really need a backpack (probably thought they were overrated) so didn´t put it on the
Murals
Rewriting History? plane. So i trekked to my hostel bagless as if a part of my travellers soul was missing. At least i could get a shower when i got there....WRONG. Its $20 a night but unlike anything endorsed by Kimbo Slice (wikipedia him if you are ignorant of the legend) you don´t get water AAAALLLLL DAAAAY so i had to just cool off next to the fan.
At this point i was going to go into a long detailed description of Caracas, its geography, the climate, the culture, the people and most interestingly the politics. But time is precious on the internet and i want to keep you guys interested so here is....
Why Caracas is Great
1. Its situated in a valley with lush forest laiden mountains casting a shadow over it...you can also get to the top of the highest mountain by a Austrian built cable car
2. Its hot, not steamy or humid, just 30c of dry heat so you get tanned but don´t sweat like a pig
3. Arepas and Jugos. Hungry, wanna snack? have a maize cake called an arepa...bit dry so choose something to go inside it...but what? anything you like!
Socialist Slogans
Only the people will save the people Thirsty, don´t want Coca Cola or worse Pepsi? Have some natural fruit juice...but where from? how about the street corner or if you don´t fancy that place the next street corner, or the next
4. Minor celebrity status. Yes its true schoolgirls were taking pictures of myself and fellow londoner Chris today, we are SO COOL
5. Like Art? So does Chavez, so much so that he has got about every wall painted telling us how great he is, how great socialism is, how great bolivar was, how great miranda was, how bad Bush and Capitalism is. It is awesome! Though there are a few party poopers complaining about the shutting down of a TV channel...always get one don´t you
Why Caracas is definitely not great
1. Expensive. So Venezuela has oil, so lets just put up the price of everything especially in Venezuela. I am finding it hard to stay under $40 a day which is not good
2. People like Potbellied Pimp Pusher Pablo. Met a guy called Pablo last night who was an absolute nutcase but seemingly endemic in this particular area of the city. He approached us saying he had been
Symbols of Capitalism
Proof that the revolution isn't complete a tour guide for 25 years then the tone changed to how he wanted "a piece of tail". Then he offered us "a piece of tail" but we would have to pay even though these girls definitely weren´t hookers...they just had to be paid for. After that didn´t work he offered us a couple of lines of coke, free of course but if we liked it he would sell us some more, but "i´m not a fucking dealer man". Of course Pablo. The Belgian boy i was with being a bit of a joker took his offer and had some coke but then when Pablo asked him to pay for his drink in exchange he said no so Pablo began ranting for about an hour.
"You gotta respect Pablo", "Manners, Manners, Manners","I´m a businessman, no bullshit"
Finally got rid of him by pretending he wasn´t there. (Also for those of you interested in the going rate, Pablo reckons he can get 8grams for 37.000Bs thats about 9 quid)
3. The Police. On the way home last night we passed two cops by there motorbike, they eyed us up and further down the road a motorbike pulls up alongside us and the cops stop us and search us for drugs. They kept talking shit about "Habla claro" trying to make out we couldn´t talk because we were drugged up, when they didn´t find anything they tried to question our ID (admittedly i had fobbed them off with my student card!). In the end they let us go but we were lucky. Two other guys at the hotel were mugged by the police that night and we saw a Venezuelan guy getting held up against the wall by the police that same night. They are seriously dodgy.
Anyway so thats it for now, hope you enjoyed it. If anyone sees Tony Blair can you send the regards of a Venezuelan man i started chatting to yesterday. He doesn´t like old Tony though "he sent to many people to war, doesn´t he realise we are all human beings?"
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All that education!!!
Note different spelling of here - as in place and hear as in what you do with your ears!!!!