Still Alive...

Out of the three countries I will be visiting this summer, Venezuela by far has the worst reputation. In recent years the relations between the US and Venezuela have become strained. In July the president of Colombia accused the president of Venezuela of hiding guerrilla troops in his country. Chavez, the president of Venezuela, has threatened to cut off oil to the U.S. if Colombia attacks but Colombia denies any allegation of mobilizing troops or plans to attack.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10829179

Of course what do Americans know about Latin America? Nothing really. Think about everything you know about Ecuador. All that comes to mind is that it's on the equator, the Galapagos Islands, and they eat Guinea Pig (they only do that in a certain part of the country btw).

Now think about everything you know about Panama. They built a canal there. That's probably it. You probably didn't know that it was actually part of Colombia for years, which would make it South America, not Central. Or that they shot part of Quantum of Solace there (what a shitty movie to be "proud" of). The history of Latin America is glossed over in school. Hell, the history of anything that's not the U.S. or Europe gets glossed over.

While this may be one of the most dangerous cities in the world, Caracas is known as the murder capital of the world, it's a very beautiful city. We landed last Saturday, early afternoon, and that's when this all became very real. It's been almost thirty years since my mom was last here. A lot has changed. Poverty has risen about 300%. The city has become much more developed than it was when she left.

More similar to Ecuador, nobody speaks English. It's commonly thought that everyone in the world dislikes Americans but this is the only place I've actually felt that sentiment. In Ecuador there was plenty of American music being played. Panama still has a heavy American presence, there's a large military base still. The only reason Venezuela has made the news in the United States is because of Chavez and his troubles with the states. There's less American music but there are plenty of TV programs from the states, most have been dubbed over though. It's hard to avoid. For movies, is there anyone that produces as many movies as the states?

After landing, we had about a 45 minute drive to the city. The airport is away from the city. The first actual sight of the city is the endless amount of houses, closer to shacks, that are in the mountains. It's clear that I'm no longer in Kansas anymore but oddly it's still very beautiful.

The drive to Caracas itself was breathtaking. There's no other way to put it. It was through the mountains, I've had so many rides through the mountains, and this was one of the more beautiful drives. For such a misunderstood country, I cannot emphasize how much I was in awe of the mountains. I wish I could've taken some pictures but I was absolutely terrified. This is Venezuela and I'm a gringo.

In Ecuador, a lot of fences had broken glass in it for spikes. There was a fair amount of barbed wire as well. I was joking once that they tore down the Berlin Wall and took the miles and miles of barbed wire and moved it to Ecuador. That was a lie. As we got closer to the city I started to notice a trend, where there would be barbed wire in Ecuador or Panama is razor wire. For those who don't know, razor wire is a steel wire that has razor blades on it. Barbed wire was used to keep cattle in. Razor wire was first used in prisons to deter escape attempts.

Some apartment complexes don't just use razor wire. Some use a combination of razor and barbed wire. Along the highway, some of the apartment complexes have razor wire wrapped in barbed wire. This is combination is then used to wrap around another wire that has electrical current running through it. This city really does live up to its reputation of being dangerous.

For a country that "hates" the U.S. it sure has a lot of chains. I went for weeks not seeing a Burger King or McDonalds in Ecuador. They were in Panama but that was to be expected. I was in the tourist section. In Caracas, there may be as many McDonalds or Burger King as there are in the suburbs. Hell, there's plenty of American chains. There's a lot of KFC and Wendys as well.

They're not cheap either. It's $4 USD for a hamburger, about 19 Bolivars. It's odd, fast food is thought of as cheap and fast but here it's not. It's just as expensive as the other restaurants. Food is expensive. Out of the three countries I've been in, food is the most expensive here. It's probably the import taxes.

Tomorrow I'm heading over to another state of Venezuela. I'll try to take as many pictures as I can but the Internet here isn't that fast and it's difficult to upload photos/videos. They'll have to wait until I get back.

P.S.

I have some stuff written about the coast of Ecuador and Panama (there isn't much to say about it honestly) but that will have to wait until later.