Blogs from Caracas, Capital, Venezuela, South America - page 2

Caracas Saying goodbye to the Southern hemisphere, we left for Santiago airport at 5:30 am on February 24th and we finally boarded a plane that left on time! This will definitely be our last early morning flight. After one stop and two movies (Due Date and Just Go With It) we arrived earlier than schedueld in Caracas, Venezuela and breezed through customs and luggage claim. However after that we had quite the experience, to say we were bombarded by the locals is an understatement. They were expediting their taxi services to the city as well as their "cambio", which is the money exchange. In Caracas there is a black market for money exchange and some people can fetch up to a maximum of double the bank rate, needless to say we made use of "no, gracias" ... read more

Hola! Thought it was about time for another wee installment...not that I've got much to report here actually! Life is good here, pretty much settled now and into routines and suchlike. School is still totally mental but we've just been on half term break which was LOVELY! A couple of weekends ago a big bunch of us went to the beach for the night and stayed in a lovely posada which is like a wee bed and breakfast on the beach! Delightful! There is literally nothing else out there - all just posada houses all the way along the beach, no shops for miles or anything...perfect actually! It was way hotter than in Caracas - we forget we're actually quite high above sea level here so it doesn't get too hot most of the time. So ... read more

Geo: 10.496, -66.8983Vi opplevde flyforsinkelse som førte til at vi måtte kjøre buss fra Ciudad Bolivar til Caracas. En busstur som tok 12 timer. Vi trenger vel ikke fortelle at det var en kjedelig tur, med blant annet 2 ufrivillige motorhavarier underveis - det ene førte til at vi måtte bytte buss midt uti ødemarka. Forsinkelsen førte til at vi ikke ville rekke flyet til Panama. Da det ikke var noen garantier for å rekke noe neste dag ble vi anbefalt å ta buss til Caracas, for så å ordne med fly dagen etter. En tur som normalt?? ville ta 8 timer. Da vi var "short" for cash, fikk vi noen utfordringer ved kjøp av bussbilletter, som ordnet seg il slutt. Her er det bare kontanter (bolivares) som er gangbart. Ingen ville akseptere dollar som betaling ... read more

A slightly misleading title because this is really things I've learnt in Venezuela and Argentina but it isn't quite as catchy a title! Also apologies for those looking forward to this last week but was travelling and from now until May don't expect much as I have a wedding to prepare for then recover from! Venezuela hasn't changed much in 4 years...apart from Chavez's grafitti which is much bigger and shinier than before Banking isn't easy in Caracas...it took my friend over an hour to withdraw about 100 dollars in cash, from his own bank account, involving numerous phonecalls and emails to authorise himself to take out his own money. The Caribbean is always warm...even on a cloudy day I was loving the Caribbean Sea more than the air around me! I love seafood soup...had it ... read more

Maailmalla jälleen! Tien päällä jälleen - vuosi ehti vierähtää edellisestä turneesta mutta nyt on taas päästy asiaan oikein toden teolla. Edellisellä keralla kiertelimme Andeja, Amazonia ja Atacaman autiomaata, tällä kertaa pysyttelemme rantojen tuntumassa eli ‘Por la costa’ - Pitkin rantoja. Matka alkoi samaa reittiä kuin viimeksikin, Madridin kautta lento Caracasiin jossa nyt olemme muutaman päivän totutelleet kuumuuteen ja kosteuteen. Lennot sujuivat tällä kertaa suorastaan erinomaisesti, ajoissa matkaan ja lentokin kesti vain vaivaiset 9 tuntia, oikein pikataival siis. Kentällä suoriuduimme pitkästä maahantulotarkastuksen jonosta ja tullistakin suosiollisesti, tavarat löysivät tiensä samaan paikkaan kuin me vaikka jonkin aikaa erossa niistä olimmekin. Ensitunnelmat Caracasin Simon Bolivar lentokenttä sijaitsee reilusti varsinaisen kaupungin ... read more