Margarita Thoughts
Thoughts and memories while on Margarita Island Jan 2006Getting there airport customs etc.
Upon arrival at Caracas Airport you are carted by bus to the international terminal. From there, you take escalators up to the very large immigration room filled with lines and lines of people. Make sure you are in a line which is Open and is taking immigration and not one for Venezuelan citizens. There is a difference.
Once immigration clears you and stamps your passport and gives you a copy of your immigration papers (which you use to leave the country) You then move forward to picking up your luggage. From there you stand in line again to have customs clear you. All that does is they check the number of bags you say you are brining in, to what they see you taking out of the airport. ..This is quick and you are out in less than a minute.
When all that is complete you are in the main room of the airport where you are picked up by your driver, or approached every minute to find a taxi, or change money. (cambio) wouldnt suggest that you change money with these guys or get a taxi from them either. There are uniformed security people who seem helpful who can direct you to a valid taxi service. For me it was worth it getting a driver to wait for me at the airport with my name on a card. Its a little more expensive this way.. But Caracas is not a nice place to visit, It sort of reminds me of Tijuana. Many poor people there who are just making a living at 5 dollars a day, and that being said, if they can find someone to take a little advantage of . they will.
From there you walk about 100 yards (my guess). Exit the International terminal, turn left walk for 5 minutes, and you are at the national terminal. There are baggage handlers who offer their services to cart you luggage. That’s up to you if you need it. It’s a easy walk. There seems to be a bus stop to transport you back and forth from the National to the International but I didn’t actually see a bus. The national terminal is somewhat smaller than the international one. Its about the size of one of the terminals at JFK Here you find check in and purchase counters for Laser and Aeropostal and Santa Barbara airlines among others. I mention these because they are ones I know of which fly to Margarita. There is also travel agents, change kiosks and a few places for coffee and candy.
Once you get your ticket taken care of and you have your boarding pass, take it to the tax station. At the time of this writing (Jan 2006) the airport exit tax was 14,000 vb. (about 7 dollars)
The flight to Porlamar is quick, about 30 minutes, just enough time to get some coffee and read though half the advertising they hand on the way into plane. The island is a tax free zone for Venezuela and because of that many citizens come to the island for weekends and holidays, stock up on luxury items which are more costly on the mainland. It appears based on the ads and what I can see, Alcohol, digital cameras-mp3 players, computers, cosmetics seem to be what is advertised the most. Alcohol ads are omnipresent. When you land and pick up your luggage you see billboard sized Johnny Walker ads, as well as Chivas Life Ads as big as buildings. If that wasn’t enough signs on mountains the size of the Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles can be seen from various shopping centers. When I asked around as to why these ads are everywhere, I was told that since there are restrictions on television and radio ads for alcohol, the producers are using other methods to attract attention.
Accommodations
The house I am staying at on this trip is from what I can tell typical for the area. (El Salado) Its about 1200 SF two bedrooms two baths. Large kitchen with plenty of counter space. Tile floor thought-out the house and sun roof’s give me a true early experience.
Two hammocks in the living room where one can sleep or watch TV while resting. I found hammocks throughout the island. Hammocks … what can I say ? they bring you to the point of sleep or daydreaming with the slightest of work, your body becomes a pendulum and all you can think about is your slow breathing, and the constant rocking. I could seriously see myself wasting away day upon day in a hammock. (but that’s another story )
The back yard has a few trees, star fruit and mango, and something else. It didn’t appear to be bearing fruit at the time I was here.
The house has no phone, (fine by me) no Internet, but there is within a short walk an internet café which charged me .25 for one hour of usage.
Cell Phones
Cell phones are everywhere. Everyone has one. If you bring one, just make sure it’s a GSM type 900 MHz band. You can get a sim card at the mall with prepaid minutes.. They are a little expensive this way. But for a short trip it the difference between having communication and not. Digitel sells the GSM prepaid cards. For some reason Movistar (the larger of the cell phone companies) didn’t sell prepaid sim card minutes.
Taxi & Car Rental
Taxi Service, You can’t go outside on a main street without finding a taxi. They are everywhere you want to be. Some good, some overcharge a little. 20K VEB (about 9 USD should take you anywhere on the island. Car rental is available at the airport and the Hilton about 115,000 to 135,000 per day. With the official rate of exchange at 2150 that’s 53 $ per day. There is another car rental up at Playa El Agua which I was able to talk down to 80,000 per day for Suzuki - jeep. For me, considering the cost and availability of taxis I keep with flagging one down when I needed it, day or night.
Wifi
At Sambil the larger of the shopping malls I found free wifi access also on he streets of Porlamar ave Santiago. People here either have broadband are on a waiting list for broadband. Wifi can’t be far behind. Caracas International Airport has Wifi at TGI Fridays. But no free wifi yet at Porlamar airport. I bring this up because of my new toy. The Vonage WIFI phone. With the Vonage Wifi phone I, when I find a free wifi hot spot, I am able to call home to US using this phone basically for free. There is a monthly access charge for using the Vonage network, but once you pay that.. all the calls to the US are free. Regardless where in the world you find yourself.
Weather
The weather is ever so slightly warm, about F85 not warm enough to complain about. From what I understand there are no real seasons here. Its stays this way all year. A little warmer in the summer months.
Rum
Personally, I am a rum drinker. The darker the better. Little known to those of you who don’t partake in the practice of finding aged rums, but aficionados of the dark nectar rate rums much like a good scotch or brandy. It can be single source, or blended, aged a few or many years. The taste varies from brand to brand as much a any scotch whisky. Some rums are best served on ice, some complete the perfect tropical drink, and others are just the thing to finish with a bottle of coke. One of my favorite rums is Ron Anejo ‘s Aniversario . Its signature small stout bottle, and hand made leather bag makes it a an easy find in the US at the finer liquor stores. The quality of this dark rum does come at a price equal to its enjoyment , (usually about 40 us per bottle) Here on margarita the price is 27,000 or roughly 12.00 for the bottle.
Meet the Epats
We had communicated a few times over the internet and I made it a point to stop by and meet with… lets call them Tim and Barbara . A lovely retied couple who spent ½ day taking us around various towns and developments on the island. They have been living here for 3 years, and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Their view on Chavez is very different from the locals view. They see in the past three years major development and influx of money and infrastructure, While the locals take was more in line with Chavez stole the elections by rigging it.
While I don’t claim to have any knowledge in anyway of knowing what Chavez has done good or bad, I can that there are those who support him and those who do not.
We were shown towns which I cant remember the names of, but some like Pampatar which has a few seaside developments of condo’s which we were told the going price for a two bedroom new condo fully furnished would go about 70k to 85K usd.
Tim lives in a community which is half way between Pampatar and Porlamar . It’s a community which appears to be more upscale but not out of reach for the average Expat. A three bedrooms house might be 100K to 150k
When I asked them how they were able to acquire permanent resident status, they gave me a few clues.
When you first arrive at Caracas Airport, you are normally given a 3 month visa. You can ask for 6 month one, which in their case was granted. Then sometime during the 6 months, you then apply for permanent resident status. That is done at the government offices in Caracas. The process takes an entire day, mostly waiting… They did have to show they had monthly income of excess of $1,700 but other than that getting permission to live here permanently was more of a formality.
The Price Is Right
Chavez does not only keep the price of gas low for the citizens of Venezuela, he has also found a way to keep a lid on medical / prescriptions and the basic necessities of life. Basic food stuff’s are price controlled by the government. Food items like eggs and bread priced this way does help keep your weekly shopping experience a joy. Prescriptions from what I understand are also priced much less in than in the US. One prescription I know of is currently priced at $87.00 a vile in the US, but can be had here on margarita for less than 9.00 us. Tim and Barbara have full medical coverage which costs them $300.00 per month for both of them. Water bills might be $10.00 or so per month. Monthly power bills in area of $40.00 per month. There are stores on the island which are known as Chavez stores. They are set up by the government for the poorer members of the population. These stores sell basic food and supplies at drastically discounted rates, and you don’t need to show identification to get in. To me shopping at a Chaves store would be akin to showing up at my local hometown supermarket in my Mercedes and buying my groceries with food stamps.
I bring this up because I was able to spend a little time today at Sambil. – the islands largest shopping mall. Sambil has taken away much of the foot traffic which used to be downtown Porlamar . Downtown Porlamar still is there with its wide streets, and clothes shops, right next to each other. But it appears to me that nothing has changed - or been improved since I was here last 7 years ago. The island population has grown, but not as much in Porlamar. Its growing out to the outskirts , closer to Pampatar and other areas. Sambil is like any western style mall, complete with a multiplex movie theatre and food court ,a few upscale bars and restraints, cosmetics, name brand clothing, cell phone, computers.. and using the words of Cheech Marin. “If we don’t got it you don’t want it.” Last thing I want to really do when I come on a vacation is spend time at shopping for Tommy Jeans, But if I was consider living here.. its nice to know that that they would be available if I wanted. – What doesn’t seem to be here yet. Is the outlet malls. (Like Riverhead Long island, or between San Bernardino and Palm Springs )
Beaches
Today we spent looking over el playa agua / translated “the water beach” It’s the beach on the north end of island where most of the foreign tourists seem to gather. Rumors abound that the foreign women go topless on the beach, Today just must have been a bad day. The beach is about 1 mile in length, and most of it on the day I went was full. About ever 100 ft there is a restaurant or bar which rent umbrellas and beach loungers but as I walked the beach towards north the bars and restaurants stopped and the beach was the only thing there. At the top end of the beach is a small hill which I climbed, and had a good view of 1 resort and more empty beaches on the other side. It appeared the only reason for these other beaches being empty was the lack of a road to it. The air temperature at the beach was about 80 and the water temp was about 70. This gave your time in the water a cool feeling away from the air without being at all uncomfortable.
Changing Money
I was able to only find one place which took my debit card .That was downtown Porlamar on Ave Santiago. I call this area old town. Not for the lack of Cash machines, but it appeared the cash machines are not fully connected to outside Venezuela. 7 years ago when I was here last it was the place for tourists to shop and hang out, but now with the ultra modern mall Sambill this place looks like its in bad need of a face lift . (much like Freemont street in Las Vegas did a few years back )
Once again, I am sorry to report that you have to keep your whit’s about you when you are on the street. This evening I was approached by a nice young man asking if I was interested in changing money… Just so happens I was, his rate he offered was 2,700 VB to the dollar which seemed a bit high. But I figured what is the problem.
A few minutes later I was standing in bright light area counting out a 10 large 50,000 bills and a bunch of small 1,000 bills. Once I was finished counting the large bills he held them while I counted the small bills to make sure I wasn’t being cheated. Problem was his other hand he was taking the large bills and folding them up. Basically going to give me the wad of 1000’s and let me walk away without giving back the 50,000.. I saw trick when he folded the 50,000 bills. Nicely tapped him on the shoulder, smiled, and walked away. This lesson didn’t cost me anything but I hope you learn something from it.
p.s. A few minutes later I walked into a luggage store, asked the owner if he handled cambio then he promptly took care of business at 2400 to the dollar. No fuss. When returning to the US I found none of the casa de cambio shops would change my VB’s back to US Funds. You might consider that before exchanging too much money.
Flight back
The Venezuela exit tax is 119,000 BV which is payable in cash at time of exit of the country. Make sure you have enough cash to exit the county when you leave. From what I understand most American flights can’t include this tax on the ticket. As it turns out since I booked my flight with Taca the exit Tax was included with my ticket, but there was some other tax of 14,000 BV which needed to be paid. Leaving Margarita there is also small airport tax (could be because they are in the middle of construction there.. The Margarita airport tax was 12,000 BV. During my wait in Caracas airport I passed the time with free wifi, at the TGI Fridays, where the menus are in English, the waiters looked like they came right out of your local TGI Fridays. Looking over the airport I see Churches Fried Chicken, and Subways, just to mention a few.
Overall I find the people warm, the climate perfect, prices low (except for at the tourists malls like Sambil and Jumbo and Sigo. It appears few Americans have found this island, and like years ago, the tourists are mainly from South American and Europe.
Language
While I don’t speak Spanish very well yet, I didn’t find that that fact very much trouble. Most of the people in the airport could speak enough English to get me through, and many of the shop owners and restraint wait staff where eager to help someone who was trying to do business with them. One fun thing I did was get down to Hilton Casino (the only place on the island where you can play actual cards) Lots of other casinos’ but they only have machines. At the Hilton I could play 21, and listen to my count be counted up in Spanish. It wasn’t very long unti I at least understood how to count past 10 and onto 21 (vente uno!) or “Blacka jaka” universal for you are a winner !
some refrences
Changing Money in Porlamar can be done at Estudio Moda CA on Av 4 de mayo.
You can call for an English taxi at Taxi Milenum 0414 790 1485
If you have to stay overnight in Caracas I found the Hotel Santiago, ok for the job. The rooms are small, but the restaurant downstairs is first rate. They also have a computer downstairs so if you have to collect your email, its there (I was also able to find some wifi there. Its about 10 minutes from the airport, so you don’t have to have a big taxi bill by taking all the way into Caracas.
0212 213 35 00 About 50 us per night. The Hotel is a three star hotel.
If you happen to be interested in staying short or long term at the hose I stayed at, email me at bobl@1amsoftware.com and I can get you in touch with the owner.
Maria Mercedes Peer at L and L Tours did a wonderful job for me, booking the car service in Caracas and arranging and confirming to and from Caracas to Margarita http://www.LLToursvenezuela.com She is located on the island.
My pictures located here.
http://lee.calldei.com/photos/view_album.php?set_albumName=album111
Bob Lee
posted by Bob Lee @ 7:43 PM
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