Hilton Caracas

... we received lots of unfriendly stares and some rude comments. The streets were packed with people, and traffic eratic at best. Red lights were optional, so it was safest to cross streets in large groups. Caracas is a city of contrasts, with the rich woven into the very poor. Garden lantterns appear to dot the hills at night... these are the slums. Poorer people live higher up where the ground is less stable. You also receive a sense of the impacts of globalization with ...

... which actually got into quito at something like 1 am so not that fun) 6.30pm to 3.am: See "10.00 am to 5.30 pm" and add in some sleeping and a packed of crisps 3.am check in, go and pay extortionate airport tax, make liberal use of duty free moisturisers and get on flight to quito (via bogota). You may have got to the end of this and felt that this has robbed you of part of your life. This is deliberate: to help you ...

... bekommt lock** das Doppelte fu** seine Dollars!!...) Mit As**ca Airlines ging´s von Pu**to Ordaz zurueck in die Hauptstadt CARACAS. Mir wurde schon etwas mulmig als ich die Headline d** Zeitungen, die auf den Sitzen lagen, sah: Flugzeugabsturz in Venezuela kostet 46 Leben. In Mérida, ein** Stadt in den Anden, war tags zuvor ein Inland-Flieg** abgestu**zt. Diese News, gepaart mit dem alten Flugzeug und d** Erinn**ung an den Hinflug liessen ein ungutes Gefuehl in mir ...

... milk problem. Some say that it is due to the petty politics of the right-controlled milk production who are trying to stir some havoc. I have to admit, I haven´t spoken to many non-Chavistas yet, so will need hear their point of view, but some think that it is the fault of the government who are heavily regulating the price of milk.....With so many different stories coming out, you don´t really know what to believe. Hopefully next time I write I might have a clue...

12.10.2007 - 14.10.2007 Bratislava-Vieden-Pariz - CARACAS Let do Venezuely prebehol bez problemov, z Viedne cez Pariz do Caracasu s Air France. Uz vo Viedni som sa zoznamil s parikom cestovatelov (mena som zabudol :) ) zo zahoria, s ktorymi sme potom isiel taxikom z letiska do centra Caracasu. Tam sa nase cesty rozisli, ja som sa tam stretol s Gabiko u a oni planovali ist hned ten vecer do Ciudad Bolívar s planom navstivit Roraimu, Angel ...

... me when I walked in front of the forbidden area of the Miraflores Palace, where the president lives. That being said, I love a city that doesn´t ***** itself out to the quick satisfaction and cheap thrills that tourists often seek. Some cities force you to suffer a little, forcing you to know them better before they reveal their jewels to you. Caracas may be that way, and I think I got a taste of it when I visited Parque del Este on the East side of Caracas ...

... 4 star status wither. So, being nervy, I was already a bit stressed. The I tried to get local money from the only ATM - unsuccessfully - now even more nervous as I had no local currency (why didn't I get some out at Santiago?!). So then queued at the travel exchange, hassled a tiny bit on the way by people saying they could give a better rate. Then having given thumb prints and gotten my money in return, I tried to find whether there was either a walkway to the hotel ...

... some guy driving like a maniac at the speed of 80. That´s fun only when you are in the drivers seat yourself! The buses are a good way of getting around the city and the country and you don´t have to fight to get into one as the Venezuelans are surprisingly very disciplined when it comes to queing for a bus. They very peacefully form a queue and no one tries to jump over another persons head once the bus arrives and therefore every one gets on and goes home happily. That ...

... so I had the day off to explore the city. I met up with a Venezuelan boy and his friend and we had lunch together. We then walked through the shopping mall and then went to the cable cars to climb mount Avila. Going up on the cable car gave us a great view of the city. On top of the mountain the temperature was cooler and felt more european. Maybe thats the reason why there was a german village here. These germans came ...

... he knew all the perfect places to stop and take pictures. You could tell that he loved living in Venezuela and his mountain because everytime we got out of the jeep thing he would always say "come" implying us to follow him, but he always said it so sweet, sincere and bright eyed. It was the best time, and the view was amazing. At the top of the mountain there was an old hotel ...