12/10/2011 - Jet lagged stumblings into central Caracas

The area I'm staying in, Altamira, is supposedly one of the nicer neighbourhoods. Walking around it feels like a cross between Kiev and Barcelona (an analogy which in fact translates to other parts of Caracas I've seen but will unfortunately be lost on most people). Fading grandeur, big noisy 3 lane roads going through the middle of neighbourhoods, a slight tinge of disrepair about everything, high rise residential tower blocks, palm trees, posh hotels, towering bank buildings. I can't put my finger on why this analogy feels right, maybe I'll try and expand on it later.

Today was a public holiday so most places were shut but I thankfully stumbled across a shopping centre which contained an open supermarket where I stocked up on fruit and granola bars. Having paid and left, I vowed to come back later and make more sensible purchases.

Bolivar Square, none of the rest of Caracas looks like this

I got the, surprisingly well functioning, metro into central Caracas. It suffers from a bad case of muzak but that's something I'm willing to overlook since its so damn cheap – 2 bolivars (~25cents) for a return ticket. The “historic” centre of Caracas is quite nice, though wandering away from the main “Bolivar” square it quickly turns into a commercial metropolis. I must have passed hundreds of shops selling what I can only describe as utter tat. Massive rugs with pictures of tigers on them, cloth calendars with Chavez's face (the divisive president of Venezuela), walls of full of tacky looking jewellery etc. Maybe I'm just jaded. There are of course shops selling conventional things like shoes and belts but I think they're probably the same the world over. Still feeling jet-lagged I headed back and grabbed dinner at a nice little place near my hotel where one of the waiters spoke pretty good english. Again choosing a random thing off the menu I was rewarded with a hefty burger stuffed with something resembling coronation chicken, which I washed down with several Venezuelan beers sold in tiiiiny bottles. An excellent end to the day.