Big bad Venezuela...going deep deep cover, 007 incognito style. 8) 8) 8)

[Awesome]

Why don't the three of you take this thread into your very own room and call it 'piss, oil and economics'?

Because if it's remotely meant to be some kind of wacky trip report, it certainly isn't catching any traction from the larger membership here....

It seems to be catching plenty of traction from you since you're one of the main contributors to the thread.

I just got in from drinking with some new friends in a Chinese restaurant/bar.  There are a lot of Chinese people in Caracas!  Had a good time and I think this one girl who was there wants me but she waited until I was getting dropped off to ask how to reach me on fb.  I'm sure I'll bump back into her now that we have friends in common.  My social circle is growing rapidly.  Now excuse me while I puff on this doobie and crash ou for the nightt. 

[Awesome]

Things are kind of shaky right now here in Caracas.  The supreme court just dissolved the congress and there will probably be protests all weekend.  I'm in the process of trying to rent an apartment and all this political crap is going on.  Awesome is not happy.

[Calipro]

Things are kind of shaky right now here in Caracas.  The supreme court just dissolved the congress and there will probably be protests all weekend.  I'm in the process of trying to rent an apartment and all this political crap is going on.  Awesome is not happy.

I'm watching the protests on the news in the safety of Colombia
Good luck over there

[Awesome]

Well it appears that the supreme court has backtracked and reversed it's decision to dissolve the congress.  Everything seems to be back to normal in the city. 

The guy who's renting me the apartment is dragging his feet saying he needs to have a contract written up.  I told him what do we need a contract for?  I pay you the money, you give me the keys, and we shake hands like gentlemen.  He's saying we'll meet on monday so I guess he realizes that a contract is just a waste of time.

[Chris F]

Well it appears that the supreme court has backtracked and reversed it's decision to dissolve the congress.  Everything seems to be back to normal in the city. 

The guy who's renting me the apartment is dragging his feet saying he needs to have a contract written up.  I told him what do we need a contract for?  I pay you the money, you give me the keys, and we shake hands like gentlemen.  He's saying we'll meet on monday so I guess he realizes that a contract is just a waste of time.

As an apartment owner myself, I would never rent to someone without  a contract. What recourse do you have Awesome if he just takes more money and does not deliver on the apartment?   What if he decides to double the rent after you were there only a month? 


Is your position that a contract in a third world country is worthless?  Is that why you don't care?

[Awesome]

As an apartment owner myself, I would never rent to someone without  a contract. What recourse do you have Awesome if he just takes more money and does not deliver on the apartment?   What if he decides to double the rent after you were there only a month? 


Is your position that a contract in a third world country is worthless?  Is that why you don't care?

I don't care about a contract because I trust the guy and with or without a contract he still needs to trust me as well.  All I have to do as a renter is pay the rent on time and not tear the place up or steal anything.  All he has to do as a landlord is fix something if it stops working; plumbing, appliances, electricity, wifi.  Do you really think I would waste my time suing somebody in Venezuelan court?

Another thing is that he's charging me in USD, which I don't blame him due to inflation of Venezuelan money.  So in a sense he will be increasing the rent on me, if you think in terms of Venezuelan money.

[Chris F]

I don't care about a contract because I trust the guy and with or without a contract he still needs to trust me as well.  All I have to do as a renter is pay the rent on time and not tear the place up or steal anything.  All he has to do as a landlord is fix something if it stops working; plumbing, appliances, electricity, wifi.  Do you really think I would waste my time suing somebody in Venezuelan court?

Another thing is that he's charging me in USD, which I don't blame him due to inflation of Venezuelan money.  So in a sense he will be increasing the rent on me, if you think in terms of Venezuelan money.
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[/size]
[/size][size=78%]I am curious what size apartment and how  [/size]much[size=78%] you will be paying per month?  [/size][size=78%]

[Awesome]

[/size]
[/size][size=78%]I am curious what size apartment and how  [/size]much[size=78%] you will be paying per month?  [/size][size=78%]

It's a small 1 bedroom apartment, furnished, with cable/wifi.  And the rent price is very low compared to prices in the US.

[Chris F]

It's a small 1 bedroom apartment, furnished, with cable/wifi.  And the rent price is very low compared to prices in the US.

How long do you plan on living there and what are you doing for work?

[Awesome]

How long do you plan on living there and what are you doing for work?

Right now I'm looking at being here for at least 3-6 months.  I'm just living off of savings mostly but I have some affiliate marketing money coming in that I'm working on increasing that cash flow.

Just when I was ready to give up on my apartment guy he came by today and we went to go see the apartment.  So hopefully some time this week I won't be homeless anymore.  He agrees that we're better off doing business with a handshake.  Leases in Venezuela give way too much power to the tenant.  If he somehow screws me over which I know he won't do I'll just find him and kick his ass jaja!

[Awesome]

Well the protests went down today and guess who was right in the middle of the action jaja!  I'd heard about what was going on that the metro was closed today because of the protests happening around Plaza Venezuela.  So I figured I'd mosey on over there and scope out the scene.  Man I've never seen so many cops in my life.  I walked over to one area where a bunch of protesters were running up getting ready to start throwing rocks at the cops and then the smoke grenades came flying at us and everybody took off running choking on the tear gas.  I saw one crazy b@stard pick up one of the smoke grenades and throw it right back at the cops jaja!  Man when everybody took off running I was like Neon Deon Sanders I was GONE sprinting full speed.  Talk about an adrenaline rush whoa!!!

[Awesome]

Protests still going on today.  Most of the metro stops are closed.  I think today was the biggest day of protests so far.  I don't know how long they're going to keep this up.  My Mexican buddy met some lady in the hotel restaurant who's cousin is the manager of a bank and we went today to open up bank accounts on the other side of town.  It took us hours to get back to our hotel.  Most of the roads are blocked, either by the police or by the protesters.  Then while walking back to our hotel we saw a bunch of people running so we took off sprinting for a bout a block, eyes watering from the pepper gas.  I'll be glad when this protest crap is over.

[Awesome]

Protests STILL going on today.  Oh my god this crap is getting annoying.  I can't hardly leave my hotel without having to walk around massive police blockades and breathing in pepper/tear gas.  One cool thing is that I'm noticing that Venezuela has a lot of hot attractive female police officers. 


Another thing that I'm starting to realize is that in Venezuela the sayings "anything's possible but nothing's for sure" and "things are never what they seem" hold very true here.  One thing I'm trying to figure out is that if these people are so fed up with "Chavismo" and the current government, what exactly do they they think the alternative is going to be?  Things must have bee severely f*cked up prior to Hugo Chavez taking power with his "socialist revolution", so if the opposition is successful at regaining control away from the socialists, who's to say things won't get worse than they are now? 




Another interesting thing that I've noticed is that while in Colombia and most latam countries it's the poor brown people who are usually protesting against the government, here in Venezuela it's the opposite.  It's the rich white people who are outside in droves protesting against the government.

[Awesome]

Random thought, I think Venezuelans are too greedy and too shortsighted to be socialists.  Another thing, a working socialist system requires that people actually follow rules, and following rules doesn't seem to be something that Venezuelans are very good at.  They run red lights right in front of cops.  If you think people drive crazy in Colombia, in Venezuela it's worse.  The people that the government puts in charge to run things just end up stealing everything and selling it on the "black market".  So instead of the price controls providing cheaper food like they're intended to do, it backfires on them and the food ends up being more expensive. 


Another thing I've noticed is nobody seems to be in a hurry to do anything.  You have to wait, and wait, and wait for everything.  My apartment guy I assume is still going to rent me the apartment but he's just taking his sweet time.  Right now he's out of town on vacation, but last week he said he needed to have the place cleaned before I could move in.  I told him don't worry about it I'll clean it myself because I had a feeling it was going to take forever.  Here we are it's been almost 3 weeks since he first told me he'd rent me the apartment, and who knows how much longer he's going to drag his feet.  I'm not too worried about it because I found a SWEET hotel "suite" that's just like an apartment right in the heart of the city.  My two Mexican buddies from TJ are next door.  These bastards are constantly running out of money and asking me to loan them money so they can buy food, wtf lol!  But thanks to one of them I now have my own bank account, but get this, I have the debit card to make atm withdrawals but I have to wait A WEEK for my account to become "afiliado" which I guess means activated in their system just so that I can transfer money into the account!!  WHY THE F*CK IS EVERYTHING SO FREAKING SLOW IN THIS COUNTRY??!! 


Oh and my buddy who's letting me use his atm card is STEALING FROM ME!  I guess he thought I was stupid and I wouldn't notice that he was taking (MY) money out of the account.  I told him about it and he's coming up with all of these lame excuses.  When he gets back from vacation I'm going to have a talk with him in person just so I can see if he has the nerve to look me in the eyes and lie to me to my face.  Oh but other than that everything's peachy.


Venezuela has the best hamburgers I've ever tasted in my life.  The hamburgers in Mexico and Colombia are crap compared to the hamburgers in Venezuela.  And the have this sauce called "salsa de maiz", which is basically some corn flavored sauce.  Oh my god that stuff is beyond delicious.  And even though I complain about some things about Venezuelans they really are super super nice people, most of them.  It amazes me how far they'll go out of their way to help a stranger.