Observations from the most dangerous city in the world

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Yes, it's official (it's in the news so it must be true); Caracas is currently the murder capital of the world with 130 murders per 100 000 inhabitants (compared to less than 2 in London) - and that doesn't even include prison-related murders or police violence, so it wouldn't be too adventurous to guess that the real ratio is substantially higher (although I'm really not sure what kind of statistic that is... I mean... over what time?). Despite the fact that crime rates have gone up 67% since Chavez took the lead ten years ago, many people here, especially in the shanty towns, do actually seem to like him. Although in all fairness it should probably be mentioned that most people that I see on a daily basis in my work (i.e. people with money) absolutely detest him and blame him for all the wrongoings of this country. Personally I'm not sure what to think... sure Chavez is a power crazy populist, but somehow the people did enable him to get that much power in the first place. Although everyone here cares about politics and has an opinion one way or another, making this city by far the most politicised city I've ever visited, there's at the same time an increadibly widespread attitude of complacement and 'happiness no matter what'. Of course it's fantastic that the people here manage to keep a positive attitude despite everything that is going wrong around them, but at the same time it enables politicians like Chanvez to get away with much more than they should. Regular student protests aside, it almost seems as though as long as the leaders leave the beer and whisky alone they can do whatever they want. Perhaps it's nature's fault really. I mean this is (or at least should be) a country of plenty, where if you throw some seeds out your back door, trees will shoot up. It's pretty much always hot and sunny and there should be no lack of either water or food. Therefore there is absolutely no need what so ever to plan ahead but the best strategy is just to smile and be happy because people here know that everyhting will be ok in the end. And the oil doesn't help. It produces so much wealth that there is basically zero income tax - in a socialist country! My boss summed it up perfectly when I asked him if Venezuela had any nuclear ambitions and he anwered "we have oil - we don't have any other ambitions...".
Venezuela truly is a country of total opposites coexisting. There are extreme riches and complete poverty living side by side and although pretty much anything can grow in this climate the country doesn't produce anything, leading to high prices and food shortages as a result of having to import everything from neighbouring countries. For many of my students, their highest wish is to leave this country in favour of some place different. Most of them say the same thing; some place safe. Australia seems to be the utopia that most Venezuelans dream about and they have all taken the test to see how many Australian 'immigration points' they can get. Based on education, marital status, language skills etc., these points determine how likely you are to get an Australian recidency permit and where you will be allowed to settle. I can't help but think of Sweden in the eighteen hundreds and our mass-emigration to the Americas....

Before arriving in Venezuela I believed that Caracas was located on the coast. This assumption does make perfect sense as if you look at a world map, Caracas is in fact on the coast. It was not until I arrived here that I realised that it is actually located very close to the coast, but that in between the city and the sea there's a massive mountain. In fact, it's not just any mountain, but a whole national park. El Avila, as it is called, is in truth a beautiful mountain but I have never quite managed to get over the sense of disappointement I felt upon realising that this city is actually pretty far from the beach. Nevertheless there are two ways of catching a glimpse of the sea whilst still being (almost) in Caracas. One is to climb the mountain... doing so provides you with a spectacular scenery but this option does require serious dedication and physical fittness way beyond my capacity. I tried once but only got about half way. The other option is considerably more convenient - a really long cable car that takes you all the way from the city to the top of the mountain in about 15 minutes. And the scenery is just as beautiful if not better than from the hillside. From the cable car you can see the whole city spreading out far beneeth you in all it's glory (well not so much glory anymore... more like a concrete nightmare... but it's still pretty impressive). However, the cable car is definitely not for the faint hearted. It climbs some impressive height and even people who normally don't suffer from vertigo might find themselves slightly taken aback, especially on a windy day. Personally I've attempted to take the cable car up to the top twice. The first time we got as far as to the base station in Caracas. Then it started to rain. And as always in Venezuela, when it rains it doesn't just drizzle slightly, it rains so hard that most things just stop. The cable car included... so we had no choice but to turn back home without reaching the top. The second time we actually made it all the way up - and then it started to rain... and once again the cable car stopped. Only this time we were stuck not down in the city but at the top of the mountain, in the pouring rain. Due to the high altitude at the top, the climate is significantly different from the one down in the city and after two hours of queuing in the rain to get back down again we were seriously freezing. Despite my slight misfortunes with the cable car I'd love to go back up to the top. It's like a whole different world up there - the air is clear and fresh, the temperature is lower and thus it's not so horribly sticky all the time and the views are absolutely amazing. I think it's actually the first place I've been to since arriving here where I've felt somwhat at home from the first moment. I wish it was easier to get to. If it was I'd probably spend all my free time at the top of that mountain just reading and looking out at the sea. And when I'd get bored of looking at the sea I'd turn my head the other way and look at the bustling city for a while...
Last sunday I found myself trapped in that very same bustling city. The plan was to head to one of the posh beach clubs in La Guaira (the closest beach to Caracas) for a celebratory barbeque in honour of Luis' birthday, together with all his aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. As Luis's dad arrived in the morning to pick us up (me, Luis and his sister Nadia) we were all insanely tired from partying too hard at the birthday party the night before but figured getting out of bed would be worth the trouble as we'd get to chill out on the beach all day. Plus there were promises of good food and cake... Unfortunately luck was not on our side that morning and just as we entered the motorway and arrived at the first tunnel that you have to pass throught to get out of the city we noticed that there were loads of cars driving in the wrong direction on the highway. However, being Caracas we didn't reflect too much on it but simply continued driving. It was not until a few moments later that we discovered the cause of this somewhat strange automobile behaviour - The people who live in the huge shanty town surrounding the highway had started blocking off the tunnels with big branches and general pieces of rubbish, making it impossible for any cars to exit the city. According to Luis' dad they were protesting because they didn't have any water. So we had no other choice but to turn back. No beach for us that day. Luckily though, Luis' family belong to the somewhat privileged strata of Venezuelan society and his dad's response to this minor problem was simply to take us to a different country club in the city and buy us all lunch by the pool. So the day turned out ok in the end... And the real celebrations were postponed to next sunday so hopefully there will be cake after all.

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Comments

[sandra]

hi emma, i really like your entry!!! it really reminds me on this crazy city....and believe me: i´m really really really missing it!!! can´t describe this strange feeling to be "back home"....europe doesn´t seem to be my home anymore after all those great experiences. so, keep enjoying your time, i miss you and look forward to visit you in stockholm sometime!! te mando muchos besos!