Venezuela or not ???
 

hello
we ve been touring south america for 8 mnths now (argentina, uruguay, paraguay, chili, bolivia, now in peru) in a toyota land cruiser hzj 75.
see ww.va-project.com
overlanders we met told us venezuela could be quite dangerous and is not so welcoming to "gringos".
what are your experiences and opinions pls ? thx

happy trails

nb : don t get me wrong, no process at all to venezuela, its habitants, its politics, just basic travellers info.

not more dangerous for a tourist than anywhere else. just apply common sense... that's from 15 years of living here. as for gringos not welcome, these comments are normally hearsay, people who didn't come to venezuela and make the confusion with the high level political discourse between chavez and the empire... on a personal level, gringos ave welcome and appreciated by the people here. the only pb with venezuela is the service level in hotels and restaurants, far from colombian or mexican standards...

The people are fine. As friendly and hospitable as any. When I was there in May 2008, it was the police and border control who really left a sour taste in my mouth.

The road stop checkpoints were really hostile towards us, even raised their guns to us. Never a smile off a police man and at the border to Colombia, they wouldn't let us leave without paying a bribe and even threatened to confiscate equipment etc.

On contrast, we met some Venezuelan bikers who made us feel VERY welcome. Took us to their meets and even put us up in their home and fed us..

Its like anywhere, good & bad ! As for dangerous, I never ever felt like it was dodgy in that respect.

If you go, go to Ciudad Boliva and take a fligth out to Angel Falls !! BREATH TAKING !! Deffo the best part of Venezuela

We travelled up and down venezuela 2 years ago, with a PZJ75. Good thing is that venezuela is full of these Landcruisers, although they are all petrol versions but the police at the many checkpoints cant see the difference ofcourse and most of the times will think you are a local. Even in spite of the fact that we had a big bright yellow ducth numberplate. We were only stopped once.
You will love filling up your dieseltank there, costs about US$1,00 for a full tank! Beware though not to arrive almost empty at the border as it is not always allowed for foreigners to fill up the tank (to prevent neigbours from doing that all the time). When it is allowed you pay much more than say 100 km inland. Also beware not every fuelstation hás diesel as every car is petrol there.

thanx for all your answers
we ll see then after colombia ...
many people we met did not have "buenas ondas" with venezueala but everybody travels different.
happy trails

Caraibs in general are more dangerous than the southern part of the continent.

Unlike Argentina, you ll need to plan ahead where to sleep and might want to avoid political topics unless invited to do so. In some areas, insecurity can be felt deeply. Generally speaking, touristic areas are safer : Gran Sabana, Isla Margarita, Merida, Puerto Ordaz...while Caracas can be stressful.

I met Claude in Santa Elena and you can trust his advises, he knows the reality there. Bad surprises can sometimes come from foreigners living there, trust cautiously.

But for the landscapes, Venezuela is to be visited. Incredible variety faily well preserved from heavy touristic investments due to the distrust for the "Bolivarian revolution" and its tendency to dispossess foreign capitals.

I highly recommend you the western part of Isla Margarita, the least developed, for the barren landscapes and beautiful beaches. A long stay in Gran Sabana is also a good idea, there are so many beautiful areas to be discovered...if you can overcome puri puri bites :innocent:

I heard the southern road inland was occasionally visited by road pirates. I didnt experience it myself.

Very Important
 

I must admit that I have really enjoyed Venezuela though I did not do it by motorbike and instead have left the bike in Colombia.

One thing that is very important about Venezuela is try and take enough american dollars into Venezuela for your whole trip. If you withdraw money from an ATM you will be charged the offical rate of 1US=2.15 which will make travelling in Venezuela very very expensive (except for petrol). For example (sad to say my irish friend dragged me into McDs) a big mac meal is 40B which would then be almost 20US at the offical rate or 7US at the unoffical rate as were we were getting about 5.6B to the US$1.

It is really easy to change money which I did at restuarants, hostels and once a book shop.

But Merida is lovely and so is Angel Falls. I have lots of pictures on my blog if you look www.alaska2argentina.com/blog

Cheers,
Annette