Men<\/p>\n
Obviously the most important topic to start with!\u00a0 Basically think of the Latino lover type here a.k.a. sleazeball.\u00a0 Okay, maybe that’s a tad harsh, actually it’s not really.\u00a0 The men are quite full on, not necessarily in a problematic way but they are persistent.\u00a0 They are also very forward in terms of comments and wolf whistles in the street.\u00a0\u00a0Their respective ages\u00a0appear to make no difference to them with eighty year old wrinklies being quite happy to try to chat you up, presumably working on the law of averages.\u00a0 The Venezuelan men go to great lengths to woo you, even setting their cars to remote wolf whistle so that they can press a little button as you walk passed their vehicle so that you get an electronic wolf whistle and they get to chuckle without even having to purse their lips.\u00a0 The girl I went rafting with in Barinas commented that Venezuela is a great place for women with low egos to go as the men seem interested not necessarily in the finer specimens of womankind but -any- specimens of womenkind.\u00a0 This becomes increasingly attractive to them if the woman in question is from foreign climes.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Women<\/p>\n
In Chile I was intrigued by the fashion sense displayed by a lot of the indigenous females.\u00a0 This sometimes involved wearing obscenely tight clothes without the appropriate figure.\u00a0 This was even worse in Venezuela where the trend seemed to be buying trousers, normally jeans, about\u00a0three sizes too small so that you had not one but several muffin tops.\u00a0 Strangely this was not reserved for the overweight with even the slightest girls getting in on the trend\u00a0by squeezing every ounce of fat over their waistbands.\u00a0 It was a common sight to see women getting out of cars and fighting with their flies as they desperately tried to get their trousers together which would not do up in the seated position.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Breasts are also important and should be on display at all times.\u00a0 There are a lot of very large specimens in Venezuela which led me to wonder why so much money was being spent on boob jobs when it could, and should, have been spent on proper causes like, well, liposuction!\u00a0 Large boobs were even displayed by mannequins in shop windows, presumably so you could see what your plastic pals would look like in that revealing top with the muffin top falling out of the bottom.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
People<\/p>\n
Apart from the sleaze and lack of fashion sense, the people in Venezuela were generally a friendly bunch.\u00a0 People in Caracas were arguably less so but this is somewhat normal in capital cities.\u00a0 There was also an apparent confusion in Caracas towards Westerners with locals seemingly wondering what you were doing there, which actually isn’t too absurd a\u00a0question to be fair.\u00a0 It was not uncommon to spend a day in Caracas without seeing any other gringos which would explain why locals found your presence a little confusing.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Food and Drink<\/p>\n
Akin to Chile, alcoholic drink portions seemed to be rather large and alcohol from shops, especially spirits, was worryingly cheap.\u00a0 Fruit juice was surprisingly good in Venezuela.<\/p>\n
The food in Venezuela was good but it was very evident why there were so many stomachs on parade.\u00a0 The Venezuelans seem to think that in order to eat something, and by something I mean anything, it must first be deep fried.\u00a0 This seems to extend beyone the empanadas and the like to practically every dietary ingredient.\u00a0 I’m not the healthiest eater but, after a short time, I was craving salads and the like.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The country and climate<\/p>\n
Venezuela was an outstanding country in terms of its flora, fauna and natural beauty.\u00a0 I adored my time in Los Llanos and Angel Falls was, without doubt, one of the most amazing experiences on my entire trip.\u00a0 From the Andes mountains to waterfalls, to great savannahs, to rainforest and Carribean coastlines, Venezuela really has got it all.\u00a0 Couple this with vast mineral and oil reserves and you really should have one of the richest, most sorted countries around.\u00a0 There are several jokes around about the country and its assets and the fact that its downfall is the Venezuelans.\u00a0 Wow, that was hilarious, I really should be a comedian.\u00a0 Anyway, jokes aside, Venezuela is absolutely stunning.<\/p>\n
When I was in Venezuela the weather was perfect.\u00a0 There was some rain in places but the temperature was lovely overall.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Money<\/p>\n
The money situation, as I think I have mentioned on more than one occasion is slightly odd.\u00a0 Firstly they have\u00a0a new currency and are still operating the new and old currency in tandem.\u00a0 Although one is divisible by one thousand of the other, this is still confusing at times with prices and the like.\u00a0 The black market is an entity unto itself and exchange rates vary more between the black market rate and official rate than any other country I know of in the World.\u00a0 My advice if visiting is to take plenty of U.S. dollars.\u00a0 Although I am obviously not condoning any kind of illegal behaviour here, it may conceivably be safer to use shop or hotel changers rather than those on the street, despite a small difference in the exchange rates.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Petrol<\/p>\n
Although I haven’t got a lot to say about it I think that this deserves a mention in its own right.\u00a0 Basically, petrol prices in Venezuela are the cheapest in the World with you being able to fill your tank for around a dollar.\u00a0 Apprarently there was a big uproar when Chavez put the price up by a quarter of a cent or something.\u00a0 Weirdly, engine oil did not seem to be so cheap.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Politics and policing<\/p>\n
You may have gathered that Venezuela is not the most stable place in the World.\u00a0 The president, Chavez, has an almost diehard, fundamentalist following and the rest of the country seem to despise him.\u00a0 I was in the country for elections and great trouble was expected.\u00a0 Although the riots and problems in the towns and city were not as bad as expected they were apparent and there were incidents such as armed, masked men on motorbikes stealing ballot boxes and the like.<\/p>\n
The Police in Venezuela are not the most objective bunch.\u00a0 In Caracas a lot of foreigners from my hostel had serious problems with the Police with extortion and Police station ordeals.\u00a0 It was concerning that, in the murder and kidnap capital of the World, the Police did not seem to be the first port of call for you to run to for protection if in danger.\u00a0 People would say that if you were robbed you had two problems, the first being being robbed and the second being reporting it to the Police afterwards.\u00a0 It is perhaps worth noting here that I did not meet any women who had problems with the Police which may point to some weird gender issue, or alternatively luck.\u00a0 The army also seemed to have their fair share of staff who liked to increase their income in interesting ways.\u00a0 I did not have problems with either but it’s probably worth bearing in mind if you plan to visit.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Venezuela and tourism<\/p>\n
As a whole Venezuela is not set up for tourism and, at times, you feel that the country is not only not trying to attract it but almost actively disuade it.\u00a0 In other countries, for example, transport is set up for tourists but in Venezuela this does not exist.\u00a0 Having said that, the bus network is brilliant so there is no problem if you can speak basic Spanish.\u00a0 There are some companies offering tours in places like Los Llanos and Ciudad Bolivar, but you have to be self sufficient in most cases.\u00a0 Although this may seem daunting it was one of the things I really liked about Venezuela and to me\u00a0made it feel like more of an adventure and a “real travelling experience”.\u00a0 I have met a lot of\u00a0people\u00a0since who have\u00a0told me that they wouldn’t\u00a0even consider going to\u00a0Venezuela because of the difficulty of travelling there, the crime and corruption\u00a0– to me this is a real shame.\u00a0 Yes, you need to be aware of these things and I would maybe not advise travelling across Venezuela for a month of R and R or a family break with young\u00a0children but it was such an amazing experience, interesting as hell and one of the most beautiful countries I have encountered.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Men Obviously the most important topic to start with!\u00a0 Basically think of the Latino lover type here a.k.a. sleazeball.\u00a0 Okay, maybe that’s a tad harsh, actually it’s not really.\u00a0 The men are quite full on, not necessarily in a problematic way but they are persistent.\u00a0 They are also very forward in terms of comments and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}