I was rather fortunate this summer that my work took me to Venezuela for the entire month of July and therefore I got to experience so much that this wonderful and fascinating country has to offer. It is an excellent country to travel around in especially if you are on a budget and its location means that you can experience a wide variety of climates, from the jungles of the Amazon, the cloud forests in the north, chilled out Merida at the foot of the Andes before heading off to climb a mountain and then on to the beaches in the north to chill out and enjoy the sea and sand. I was fortunate to do all of these things and so much more with the highlight being the work we did with an indigenous Indian village, a six hour dug out ride from civilisation, being accepted into the community and feeling like you have improved their lives in a very small way, as the credit card advert goes “Priceless”.

Orientation and Important Stuff

For those who do not know Venezuela is in South America on the northern coast of the continent looking out towards Trinidad and the rest of the Caribbean, in the west you have the Andes before you land up in Columbia and the south west is dominated by the jungles that lead into the Amazon. The capital city is Caracas which is located in the north, apart from the airport I spent no time in the city and only saw it from the windows of a bus. It has a bad reputation for crime however like all such places if you are sensible and stay in the tourist areas and do not venture out alone at night then you will be fine, the whole month in Venezuela the only negative comment I heard about Caracas was from a German bloke who got pick-pocketed on public transport and that can happen anywhere.

Part of the fascination for visiting Venezuela is the political system, it is a democracy lurching towards a dictatorship under the leadership of Hugo Chavez a socialist whose country could be very wealthy because of their oil deposits however he chooses to use the revenue to subsidise home consumption and as such I saw a bus driver fill up his vehicle, about 80 litres for less than the price of one litre in the UK. Makes you want to cry. The other downside to this is that despite the poverty there are lots of cars being run into the ground and a whole load of pollution.

British citizens do not need a visa to enter the country however it is important to remember that upon departure there is a departure tax to pay which has to be paid in the local currency the Bolivar. This leads me onto the money which is rather unique due to Mr Chavez. A while back he knocked a couple of zero off the currency to create the illusion that the currency is stronger however you will see prices in both the old and new currency, you will also get notes and coins in both currencies. In addition there is an official US dollar (take these instead of pounds or Euros) exchange rate but no one uses that except the banks and a black market exchange rate which is the real one, when I was there I tended to get between 5.3 to 5.7 Bolivars to the dollar while the official rate was more than half that. Naturally you have to be very careful changing money on the black market as their are conmen and forgeries out there and large dollar bills are harder to change because of fakes but if you are sensible and change money with the right contacts, e.g. local tour operators were a good source for me, then the cost of your trip in country will be reduced considerably.

The other key bit of advice is to make sure you get all the vaccines you will need, yellow fever is a must have and is not cheap, in addition there are malaria zones in the country and the rabies vaccine would not do you any harm given the large amount of stray dogs wandering the streets.

Finally the national language is Spanish but the South American variety, do not expect to find everyone speaking English that will be rare, if you want to be able to travel and not get ripped off then you do need to learn the basics unless you are heading to one of the Caribbean resorts and then in my opinion you are not visiting Venezuela just a beach.

Getting About

Venezuela is a vast country however it is also relatively easy to travel around as it has an extensive and very good coach industry with a decent amount of competition keeping prices down. There are no trains and flight are not cheap. Some places such as Canaima, the gateway to Angel Falls, is only accessible by air and for that you have no option but for travel between cities the coaches are excellent.

Firstly they are safe to use at night so you can save on accommodation if on a budget, they are so well air conditioned locals turn up with blankets and I copied them after waking up freezing on the first night of travel, they have wonderful reclining seats and a toilet that is best visited only if needs must, they are also pretty efficient and even have timetables which they sort of stick to but do remember in Latin America time is viewed differently. They are also cheap; I travelled across the country from Maracay to Merida for about $27 based on the black market rate on an overnight bus.

Eating

It is safe to say that food is not likely to be a highlight of your trip as like many places in South America it is pretty basic and not very exciting. Having said that I did eat some quite excellent seafood cooked out of tiny little shacks on the beach and it was superb.

One of the standard fares is the arrepa which is a heavily fried corn based patty stuffed full of any variety of fillings and eaten for any meal of the day, I found them stodgy and greasy but the locals love them, the same goes to the empanada whose redeeming quality was being less heavy on the stomach.

If on a budget hunt out the meal of the day, a fixed price two or three course option which normally is either chicken or fish with rice and some salad which is often great value and very good. For a treat go for a steak which were always huge and cooked to a high standard on the two occasions I treated myself. Vegetarians will struggle in Venezuela unless you go for pizza and pasta most of which I found fairly routine and of mixed quality.
Must See Attractions

Venezuela offers a great deal of variety and I will probably review individually some of the main attractions to visit. One destination a lot of people head off to is Angel Falls which is the tallest waterfall in the world, getting there involves a flight to Canaima and then a four hour

dug out ride and at least one over night campsite stay, usually in hammocks, it is a spectacular trip and the falls are high rather than having a heavy volume of water, ideally you need to visit in the rainy season to get close otherwise they can only be viewed from the air on an additional flight.

My personal recommendation is to head off to Merida which is an excellent place and there are a whole host of outdoor activities like white water rafting and paragliding to do as well as some excellent hiking in the mountains. Merida itself is pretty chilled out with a great vibe and being a University town it has a young feel to it as well. It is also a great launch pad to go hiking in the Andes which is superb and you get to see some breath taking scenery.

Beach lovers will be spoilt for choice with the touristy Margherita Island however some of the best beaches can only be accessed by boat and are well worth getting to especially those in the Henri Pittier nature reserve.

There is plenty of cheap accommodation and plenty of expensive stuff as well but some of the best night’s sleep I had were while camping either on the beach in Chou or up in the Andes surrounded by snowy peaks and the sound of silence.

The People

I found the people of Venezuela very friendly indeed and most welcoming of foreigners even if they see nothing wrong in calling you gringo to your face. Speaking Spanish is a big plus and will get you better accepted and will also encourage them to try out what English they know when they see how poor your Spanish is, well it worked for me.

You do have to be a bit wary about talking politics and personally I avoided conversations about Chavez unless initiated by the locals, one of the guides on a white water rafting trip told how he lost his job with the state petro chemical company because he did not vote for Chavez in the elections.

I felt safe for the entire time I was out there and it is a safe country as long as you use your common sense, I had read scare stories about kidnapping for ransom but that is a greater risk for locals as these crimes tend to be what is known as express kidnaps where those carrying them out want fast payment so a traveller is hardly idea.

Personally I would certainly recommend Venezuela as a bit of a hidden jewel, sure it does not have the world famous sites of other South American countries like Peru and Brazil but then again that means it is not swamped with tourists either unless you head for Margherita Island, for me it is a superb destination with good diving and some excellent, natural habitats that are made to be explored.

Thanks for reading and rating my review.