Blogs from Venezuela, South America - page 2

We booked a four day three night tour from Merída to Los Llanos with Gunnar, a blonde haired blue eyed Danish 24 year old and Yoann, a French guy biking throughout South America. We drove for 8 hours in a big 4x4 through the mountains until the land started to level out into savannah-looking planes. The lodge we stayed at had at least 30 different chickens, ducks and roosters with dogs and cats scurrying around. We spent our time horseback riding through the savannah, spotting caimans on the river, searching for anacondas and anteaters on a safari ride, piranha fishing during sunset and a lot of napping in the hammocks. It was a very tranquil and relaxing tour with good food, a fun guide and great sights.... read more

Crossing the border into Venezuela was much easier than expected. A nice Colombian helped us exchange US dollars for Bolivares at a rate of 1 dollar to 135 Bolivares. Then he helped us flag down a Venezuelan taxi driver that drove us across the border and through “customs.” A person stamped our passport; a guard checked through our big backpacks and we were in. There were a few more guarded checkpoints in which we showed the guards our passports. Our original plan was to fly from Southeastern Venezuela to Caracas, but the small, outdoor airport was too busy and stressful for us. People were jumping over the roped areas and pushing each other to talk to airline personnel. We quickly decided to take a freezing cold, yet comfortable, overnight bus to Caracas. Our second night in ... read more

On a lazy afternoon as I was idly rummaging through some papers at my office, a long distance phone call woke me up! That was UNIDO, Vienna calling, trying to ascertain whether I was the same person who had authored a technical article published three months back in an industry journal. As I answered in the affirmative, next came the bombshell, whether I was interested in making a presentation on the same theme with all expenses paid by UNIDO in a conference in Caracas, Venezuela. That was too much to fathom and I could somehow mutter, ‘Oh! Yeah, I could give it a try’. My first trip abroad and that too to Caracas, almost straight from the school geography lessons! All my good friends cautioned me about Latin America, the land of drug cartels and gang ... read more

My dearest friends, I will take you today to our neighbouring country Venezuela, a country which should be our brother but unfortunately, we have not been on the best terms since Adam and Eve. Well, I don't know whether I am throwing a monkey wrench in the works but I feel that given the investment we are at present making in the Venezuelan economy, shopping mistreatment shouldn't be even considered by them. It will be up to you to judge after reading my entry, that's why, let's concentrate for the moment on the mere description of that Venezuelan city called San Cristobal, not very far from the Colombian border. The Capital of Tachira Located in the western Andes of our neighbouring country, San Cristobal is one of the oldest Venezuelan cities. It was in ... read more

Venezuela is a country that seems to have a bit of a problem with its reputation (much like its Mondongo soup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopa_de_mondongo), but given this is made from the stomach of cows and apparently smells like bile I think in this case it might be justified!!). In most of the places I had been travelling in South America, the locals had always responded with warnings of how dangerous Venezuela would be, and that I should be very careful going there. I wanted to find out for myself what Venezuela was really like (bearing in mind that of course most of the people giving the warnings have never actually been there!!) so I set off overland to Merida, the most touristic city in Venezuela, where I hoped to find my feet before deciding whether it would be ... read more