thanks for sharing these great pics / that beach looks amazing

When I see pics of beaches like that I realize how much I hate this place I live in.

Venezuela is an amazing beautiful country, I have been there a few times. Would love to go there again

Yeap, pretty dangerous.

I wouldn't even take cabs full stop, they are even dangerous for locals. Rent a car not that expensive and for very sad reasons if the car is red even better (everyone will think you are with the government and leave you somehow alone).

The "less dangerous places" are close to the cost but away from Caracas.

No walking around with anything that costs more than 50$ showing, you might get killed over an iPhone or a Blackberry. Sad but true

Wear flip-flops and an old t shirt and you are good to go

Stay away from Caracas, the smaller the town the better. To be honest not missing too much staying away from big cities.

Open your mouth to talk to chicks, you accent will work magically with the locals... Actually the less Spanish you know the more ladies you´ll get and the more free beer you´ll be offered.

Do not trust cops, they are more dangerous and better armed than local criminals.

Lay low, enjoy the place and you´ll have the time of your life.

while in venezuela between 2005-2008 for 8 months total i had 0 incidents of either police hassles or theft.
i walked around caracas during both day and night with another gringo friend of mine and we had a great time, just keep your wits about you like any other big city and you should be fine.

on edit - i personally found new york and new orleans to be far more dangerous than caracas although i do love new orleans...

Jeez talk about an old bump. I had to look at pics again to remember! Off to brazil in 10 days, will start a new thread after ;)

Moral of the story, if you don't know anyone local there, don't go :1orglaugh

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing! ;-)

Great trip!

Can somebody please get some pics of some Venezolanas in this thread to fix it? OP was to whipped to point his camera at any of Venezuela's redeeming qualities - unless you like horses.

All good advice except for the flip flops.... not only will you stick out like a sore thumb gringo idiot - but you won't be able to get away fast enough if you need to RUN.

Flip-flops - when you really want to gringo out and attract the attention of gringo fucking latinas even though you'll look silly

Running shoes - when you're going into the city, or anywhere where you may actually have to run

I'd guess it's gotten worse there since 2005...

A lot of the FARC rebels in Colombia were pushed out to Venezeula over the past few years

Go fuck yourself and stay in The States or wherever you are from. :321GFY

hahahaha, somewhat true. But when your in a strange country with your GF and her family lives there, the last thing i need is to fill my camera up with tits and ass. I would never have made it out of the mountains

last time i was in caracas was 2008...

but i guess that's good news for the colombian govt as they have less coke trade competition:1orglaugh

OK fine post some horse pictures then.

I am in the same situation but my girl has friends and they like to hang out together looking hot. I don't get in trouble for taking pictures when she is in it...

I don't know... I'd love to go to Venezuela but I'm a little worried about just how fucked up it might be

I've been to the worst parts of Costa Rica, Panama and Medellin, Colombia where I've lived for a couple years

Sounds fagtastic...

while it is true that caracas is dangerous, its dangerous like any town with 5 million plus people.
in reality it was bogota, colombia where i saw the violence. my friend and i were walking into downtown one day when we spotted a group of grammar school age students gawking at something in front of a gas station, pointing and giggling.

we went over and discovered two bodies lying there, their heads mostly gone having been blown off in an apparent drug turf related execution.

i never saw anything like that in venezuela although obviously it happens like it happens every day in all major cities of the U.S. and elsewhere.

btw Medellin is a great town. on the way there from bogota our bus had to be diverted because of fighting but once we got there we had a good time!
on edit- i will never forget the Botero plaza and that huge (long) area under the overpass where people hang out.

i spent 11 months traveling all over brasil in 2000. have fun.

In The Caracas airport, they have a 16 foot glass barrier that separates the baggage area/arrivals from the cab drivers. The minute these cab drivers saw me they started screaming different shit at me like.

"Mr Smith, i am your cab"
"Mr Thompson, I am the cab to your hotel"
"Mr Johnson, you ordered my cab"

I can't imagine what happens to the gringos who fall for that shit.

Medellin is awesome, but it's losing it's touch... it's slowly getting more and more foreigners/tourists coming here and slowly becoming more and more Americanized or whatever you'd like to call it. Just recently they started installing speedtrap cameras on the one little highway they have here, and they've created a new law that small local/corner stores can't sell liqour after 11PM! wtf? They're also building like crazy... condos going up all over the fucking place. Looks like that coke money is being put to use. There are literally 3 malls within a 5 minute walking distance from eachother... wtf? There was one, that was big and nice, then they made a HUGE one across the street last year, and now another medium sized one is going up inbetween the two...

100% Agree.

amazing photos - congrats

Hopefully not bringing your girlfriend on your Brasil trip!

that is really fucked up. i saw the same thing in Lima. Endless construction, house prices going thru the roof, speed traps set up in various parts of the city, and new malls springing up all over the place.

sadly Santiago and Buenos Aires are way into that mode already, which is why if my wife and i come back to Peru to live we agreed to live in either the sierras or the jungle because any large towns are really getting lame.

i suppose its the price south america is paying because various economies are going thru the roof there and many more americans and europeans are moving in.

Buenos Aires did shock the shit out of me though because in almost any street you go down 20 to 30% of all houses and apartments are either for sale or rent which is not a good sign.