John's Musings: UPDATE FROM VENEZUELA

John's Musings, Food For Thought

Food For Thought

John's Musings: UPDATE FROM VENEZUELA

UPDATE FROM VENEZUELA

Hola John,
Kudos on your website - looking good!! I'm flattered you put us in your blog, nice narrative of our first meeting.

Since you're interested in Venezuela here's a PS to the report: All the rumors we heard about the dangers of Venezuela were exaggerated. We can tell you that:

1. YOU DON'T GET SHOT IF YOU GO OUTSIDE THE GATE AT BAHIA REDONDA.     You have to watch your backside and I wouldn't go out at night but couples have walked to the restaurant up the street and walked to the chicken shack in the late afternoon with no problema. There is a new police station just around the corner so things are supposed to be safer now. (There was a shooting last year or year before, but most people seem to think it was an isolated incident, a hit on a specific Venezuelan for a business deal gone bad.) A block Down the street does look like a bad neighborhood so I don't think I would wander around there, but there are cruiser guys and couples here in the marina who have walked past those neighborhoods with no problem to the fish market.

2. THE Venezuelan PEOPLE DON'T LOOK AT AMERICANS WITH HATRED.     There are so many Europeans here - Germans, French, British, Canadians, etc and unless you are wearing an American Flag on your baseball cap they don't really know or think you are American. I keep having people ask me if I am French???

3. CHAVEZ IS NOT LURKING AROUND EVERY CORNER. Chavez and the politics are in Caracas, we don't feel the politics here. But we are curious - so we ask Venezuelans questions about Chavez and we have gotten both pro and con answers from the middle class.

4. PIRATES ARE NOT LURKING AROUND EVERY CORNER. There are some spots that have had pirates but there are many Venezuelan islands and areas you can sail to and anchor safely. All the cruisers around here know the areas to avoid which are just a few areas to the east along the coast.

5. But hey - the negative press on Venezuela has kept the gringo crowds down and we had no trouble getting a slip in this nice and reasonably priced marina so the negative press has served a good purpose for those of us who are here.

6. On the other hand - the rumors of the good boatyards and good work that you can get done on your boat in Venezuela has turned out NOT to be true. It was true a few years ago, but the talent has gone elsewhere (Trinidad, Granada). We hear a lot of complaints about the boatyards here and that you have to watch any work done on your boat like a hawk and fire workers until you find the occasional good one. There are several Chandleries but they are expensive. (One of the Travel Agencies here will get you parts out of the West Marine catalog for a shipping fee that isn't too bad.)

7. Like all the cruising grounds, things change year by year. Prices have gone up here a little from years past but it is still a good deal and definitely cheaper than the Caribbean islands. This is due to the black market exchange rate you get for the gringo dollar - from the Travel Agencies in the marina, from some of the businesses in town and even from some of the taxi cab drivers who cater to the cruisers. But we are being told that Chavez is going to change the money within a year, and drop three zeros (now $1 = 3800 Bolivars) and people are thinking the exchange rate will change for the worse. So things may be different next year.

Anyway - this is just our take on things - on our way here we met cruisers who had just left Venezuela saying they hated it and couldn't wait to get out. As you know, cruisers are an opinionated lot, with opinions 180 degrees apart.

Take care John and enjoy your summer in Cape Coral. We got a kick out of that marina, feeling like we were in the middle of a city park.....which we were.

Ciao for now,
Teri and Gary
s/v ISHI

Hello Teri,

Thanks for the update. You and Gary are an intrepid pair. I'm glad things are working out for you and from my experience in Guatemala and throughout Central America you're right about cruisers having diametrically opposed opinions about the areas they visit. I wrote about this in Muerte en el Rio Dulce a chapter in Tiller Tales, which incidentally we are considering offering on the site as an E-Book as well as Cafe News now being serialized. There was one "cruiser" on the river who read a condensed version of Muerte published in one of the boating magazines who was making a career going around the various riverfront bars denouncing my assertion that guns were common and murder not uncommon on the river, with few solved by a sporadic police presence, which didn't exist in the river basin at all as they didn't own a boat, an enormous area policed only by vigilantes. He denied the presence of guns except for those carried by guards on the bread delivery trucks. Guards on bread delivery trucks? I guess that alone tells you something about the society. I think that visitors take with them the internal comforts they learn to live with from their home countries and automatically believe that same safety net applies where ever they go or merely ignore atrocities occurring around them because they do not affect them directly. They say, "Its just the natives that are killed, no foreigners are ever involved." It's difficult to know the whole story as it exists in different forms in the heads of everyone who perceives it. Therefore there is no whole story only fragmented versions espoused by vocal parts of the crowd. This is just my opinion, you understand, but there is no "truth," only these different versions existing within individuals.

Well enough of that. You and Gary keep enjoying your travels and please keep us informed. You write an interesting letter which adds to the lore, that is the truth, whatever that is. My goodness I do carry on don't I.

Take care,