advice for backpackers in venezuala

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After being warned how dangerous Venezuala has become in the last years, my friends and I were ignorant as to how much these dangers had escalated in this country and ended up flying in Caracas! Arriving on the plane, all the locals were staring at us as if we were actually crazy to be going here. Three women insisted we fly to Colombia as soon as possilbe, we didn't really believe them actually how bad it was but stubborn as we were we stuck with our original plans.

To make a long story short, we ended up being robbed at gun point on a beach in Morocuoy National Park. It was a Monday morning. Two guys approached us (no one else was around), took a gun out, and made us kneel in the trees while they robbed us blind.... Although I'll admit it was not clever to stay at the beach when no one else was there but the place was so beautiful that we really didnt think twice about it, considering it was a Monday morning, we presumed others would soon arrive unfortunately for us it was the wrong type of people that did. Thankfully they didnt hurt us, but just took all our stuff.

Apart from the robbery, the general vibe in Venezuala is not one that I would ever voluntarily put myself in again... internet cafes are few and difficult to find. People were not friendly, and their Spainish is quite difficult to understand. And as for hostels, like you would find in every other country in South America, they are nowhere to be find here. Buses also are so bad. There is only a few private bus companies that only go to a handful of places...so for us who wanted to get to Colombia by bus it was quite a struggle. there were no private buses to get us to near our boarder crossing at Maraicabo. We had to get a public bus, which had police coming on checking our passports literally every 20 minutes while telling us we shouldnt be on this bus as it is far too dangerous. It was a very uneasy experience.

Although I do realise that we were very unlucky with our whole experience of Venezuala and for this reason I would be biased in saying that I would never ever recommend to a friend in visiting there. However after leaving Venezuala and moving to Colombia (which was amazing!) we did meet a few backpackers who had similar feelings about Venezuala and really did not enjoy it or feel safe there even during the day. The feeling we felt walking around during the day, I cant even describe how unnerving it was sometimes.

Im writing this in hope that it will give other travellers an insight into their travels in Venezuala and to be careful! Unfortunately this is a very negative passage about the country, its not because Im a negative person, in fact Im the total opposite, I enjoy travelling and the thrill of seeing a new place and discovering new cultures but as for this experience I would not wish it on anyone.

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