A country in turmoil
After Uyuni, we flew to Cochabamba on a public flight, quickly picked up our baggage, prepared our aircraft and made us on our way in direction Panama City. Following a 3h30, we touched down in Leticia (Columbia), an airport in the middle of the Amazon Jungle. The fuelling went smoothly, and after a short visit from the resident Drug dog, we made our way to Panama City. The third leg of the day, another 3h30 flight, passed quickly and we arrived at the hotel at 1900 after a full day of travelling.
Venezuela does not allow private aircrafts to enter the country, and only accepts flights from a total of 6 locations (Havanna, Moscow, Istanbul, Madrid, Panama City and Santa Domingo). Therefore, the next day, we got up early, to catch our 0900 flight to Maiquetia, a city just outside of Caracas that houses the main airport. The Panama side of things went fine, and within 2h20 we touched down. On the other side we were met by a ‚Spiessrutenlauf‘; immediately following our exit, we had to register all of our information, which took about 25min. Next, we were ushered through a disinfectant cabin, before being subjected to a PCR test. We then had to spend about 15min explaining to immigration, how and when we were planning on leaving the country and returning back to Switzerland. Finally, we had passed everything and were taken to our hotel. On the way, RMF tried to change 30USD into local currency. Not only did they require all sorts of information to make the exchange, such as pictures, address, name, etc. They also needed a fingerprint confirmation to switch the USD. Finally, he was given around 134,000,000 Venezuelan Bolivares for his USDs.
At the hotel, we tried to organise a tour guide for the afternoon. Unfortunately for us, the hotel did not have anyone, or know anyone, capable of giving a three hours tour of Caracas. No international tour operator provided any tours either… Therefore, we did our own research, and identified a cable car that we wanted to go to. When asked about the opening hours, the hotel said it was closed… With this information, we asked a Taxi driver to take us around the city. Once in Caracas, which is about a 40min drive from Maiquetia over a small range of mountains, we noticed that the cable car was up and running. The number two attraction of the city, we bought our tickets. Due to the language barrier, we were sold tickets for 60 USD (for the three of us). Although we thought it was expensive, we went with it. When it came to taking the cable car, we realised the reason for why they were this expensive; they had sold us the VIP treatment. This meant that we waited for a special gondola, with custom made large seats and blacked out windows. The gondola was comfortable, but the blacked out windows defeated the purpose of the cable car; getting an impression of the city.
At the top we took a short stroll, looked at the view points, before driving down back to the bottom. Afterwards our taxi driver took us on a small tour of the city (we didn’t leave the car). While the tourist spot that we went to did not feel dangerous, most of the cars in the city have blacked out windows and we did not leave take a stroll anywhere else. Caracas, itself, made a decent impression and was clearly more developed than the previous stops in Bolivia. The streets were busy, with many stalls and shops everywhere, all preferring USD over the local currency (as that kept its value). Much of the city consisted of high rises, and the poorer parts of the city were build on the surrounding hills that enclosed the city. It did, however, feel like we had gone back in time 30 years, as much of the infrastructure felt rundown and outdated. This is a bit unfortunate, as government mismanagement has kept back the development of a nation that has the highest per capita oil reserved in the world.
The next day we spent at the pool, getting ready for our 1600 flight. After lunch, we arrived at the airport 1h55 early, only to find out that the National Guard closes the flight 2h before departure. We thought we were early arriving to our flight, however, quickly found out that people generally have to arrive 4h before departure. We argued with all responsible individuals for about 45min, but they did not seem to care at all about our issues. Defeated, we rescheduled our flight to the one at 0600 the next day and returned to the hotel. We managed to make that one, by arriving at the airport at 0130, and spending the next 4h30 waiting in all sorts of different capacities and places. Not making the first flight was annoying, but we looked at it as the cost of information and the best thing that could have happened. We had initially tried to reschedule our return to the 0600 flight, but then decided there was no point in getting up that early and therefore booked the afternoon flight the previous day. Had this not happened, we would have surely missed our flight, and thereby all the scheduled returns. This way, although tired, we were able to start our flight back to Switzerland as planned.
Caracas, officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the centere of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern part of the country, within the Caracas Valley of the Venezuelan coastal mountain range (Cordillera de la Costa). The valley is close to the Caribbean Sea, separated from the coast by a steep 2,200-meter-high (7,200 ft) mountain range, Cerro El Ávila; to the south there are more hills and mountains. The Metropolitan Region of Caracas has an estimated population of almost 5 million inhabitants.
The center of the city is still Catedral, located near Bolívar Square, though some consider the center to be Plaza Venezuela, located in the Los Caobos area. Businesses in the city include service companies, banks, and malls. Caracas has a largely service-based economy, apart from some industrial activity in its metropolitan area. The Caracas Stock Exchange and Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) are headquartered in Caracas. Empresas Polar is the largest private company in Venezuela. Caracas is also Venezuela’s cultural capital, with many restaurants, theaters, museums, and shopping centers. Caracas has some of the tallest skyscrapers in Latin America, such as the Parque Central Towers. The Museum of Contemporary Art of Caracas is one of the most important in South America. Caracas has one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world, with 76 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.
Reference: Wikipedia.org under https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracas
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It has a territorial extension of 916,445 km2 (353,841 sq mi), and its population was estimated at 28 million in 2019. The capital and largest urban agglomeration is the city of Caracas.
The continental territory is bordered on the north by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Colombia, Brazil on the south, Trinidad and Tobago to the north-east and on the east by Guyana. The Venezuelan government maintains a claim against Guyana to Guayana Esequiba. Venezuela is a federal presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District and federal dependencies covering Venezuela’s offshore islands. Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America; the vast majority of Venezuelans live in the cities of the north and in the capital.
The territory of Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522 amid resistance from indigenous peoples. In 1811, it became one of the first Spanish-American territories to declare independence from the Spanish and to form part, as a department, of the first federal Republic of Colombia (historiographically known as Gran Colombia). It separated as a full sovereign country in 1830. During the 19th century, Venezuela suffered political turmoil and autocracy, remaining dominated by regional military dictators until the mid-20th century. Since 1958, the country has had a series of democratic governments, as an exception where most of the region was ruled by military dictatorships, and the period was characterized by economic prosperity. Economic shocks in the 1980s and 1990s led to major political crises and widespread social unrest, including the deadly Caracazo riots of 1989, two attempted coups in 1992, and the impeachment of a President for embezzlement of public funds charges in 1993. The collapse in confidence in the existing parties saw the 1998 Venezuelan presidential election, the catalyst for the Bolivarian Revolution, which began with a 1999 Constituent Assembly, where a new Constitution of Venezuela was imposed. The government’s populist social welfare policies were bolstered by soaring oil prices, temporarily increasing social spending, and reducing economic inequality and poverty in the early years of the regime. The 2013 Venezuelan presidential election was widely disputed leading to widespread protest, which triggered another nationwide crisis that continues to this day.
Venezuela is a developing country and ranks 113th on the Human Development Index. It has the world’s largest known oil reserves and has been one of the world’s leading exporters of oil. Previously, the country was an underdeveloped exporter of agricultural commodities such as coffee and cocoa, but oil quickly came to dominate exports and government revenues. The excesses and poor policies of the incumbent government led to the collapse of Venezuela’s entire economy. The country struggles with record hyperinflation, shortages of basic goods, unemployment, poverty, disease, high child mortality, malnutrition, severe crime and corruption. These factors have precipitated the Venezuelan migrant crisis where more than three million people have fled the country. By 2017, Venezuela was declared to be in default regarding debt payments by credit rating agencies The crisis in Venezuela has contributed to a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation, including increased abuses such as torture, arbitrary imprisonment, extrajudicial killings and attacks on human rights advocates. Venezuela is a charter member of the UN, Organization of American States (OAS), Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), ALBA, Mercosur, Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) and Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI).
Reference: Wikipedia.org under https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela
