Caracas City Tour

We took a secure guided tour to see the heart of downtown Caracas with government buildings, churches, and museums. We normally can't go to these areas so this was a rare treat to visit some of the local national treasures! Click on the pictures for bigger versions.

Asamblea Nacional (National Assembly)

Parque del Este

Parque del Este is a huge city park here in Caracas. It's about 200 acres with plenty of walking and jogging paths. It's a pleasant getaway inside the city since it's full of vegetation, ponds, a ship replica, and other interesting things to see. There's even some zoo animals on display along with the occasional sloth just hanging out in the wild up in the trees. It seems to be pretty safe. The park is full of families just wanting to relax, exercise, or play some sports. Here's some pictures from this weekend and probably many more to come. Click on them for a bigger view.

Paseo de los Próceres

Paseo de los Próceres (Promenade or Walk of the Heroes) is a monument to the heroes of Venezuelan independence. It's a wonderful place with fountains and walkways to enjoy a beautiful day in Caracas. There's a shopping center with parking near one end and the other end turns into a long military parade ground. It seems safe with all of the military around. It may not be safe at night on the streets of Caracas but there's some great park areas to enjoy in the right areas at the right times of day. Click on the pictures for larger versions.

2016 Ends

Colonia Tovar Venezuela

Could you have guessed that Venezuela has a German alpine village founded by immigrants in 1843? Colonia Tovar is about 2 hours away from Caracas so it's a great weekend getaway. It's a nice retreat from the tension of living in a high crime city. Tovar is the kind of village where people gather at the town square on a Saturday night and walk home after the party.

Tovar has a variety of restaurants with decent German food. There's plenty of the local German-style Tovar beers which is also a good brand to get in Caracas. There's lots of interesting little shops and food market stands with fresh produce. We also stocked up on fresh baked bread which we haven't seen in Caracas.

Tovar is higher in the mountains so the temperature was in the 60s F. We didn't plan for it, but we were there for the first lighting of the Christmas lights in the town square so that was a happy accident. It wasn't enough to make it feel like a wintry Christmas, but it wasn't an entirely tropical Christmas feeling either. Here's some pictures:

Strange Things Afoot - Inflation

2 1/2 months at post and "strange things are afoot at the Circle K." (Circle K is a convenience store chain founded in Texas and referenced in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Be excellent to each other!)

It's already hard to find some items like milk, sugar, toilet paper, deodorant, or other various imports people actually need for a normal life. Regardless of their lack of Circle K stores, I have a feeling strange things are afoot here. Prices are all over the place from really cheap to expensive when I compare them to home.

There's 3 different exchange rates at play. It makes it harder to understand why anything is priced the way it is. I'm sure a lot of the pricing troubles are caused by these various exchange rates.

Caracas Apartment

I finally moved out of the hotel and into the apartment after 6 weeks at post. I came in at the end of the summer rush and post had to expand their housing pool again, so my assigned apartment was still being renovated when I arrived. It might be another 3 weeks until our stuff arrives including a much delayed Unaccompanied Air Baggage (UAB), so living out of 2 suitcases continues. It's good that my wife was held up with a visa issue and doesn't arrive until tomorrow.

Let's see, pack out was 1 week before departure, 6 weeks of home leave, 4 weeks in DC for training, and now 6 weeks at post to get into an apartment. That's 17 weeks of feeling homeless since the end of June. I've never lived out of 2 suitcases for so long and I'm still doing it! Well, at least we have a nice apartment to start feeling like home again. We'll get more familiar belongings delivered and then it will be a home for 2 years. After that, it's time to start the whole process all over again. :-)

Here's a few pictures of the nicely renovated and furnished place. The bed will be replaced with our own, but otherwise the rest of the furniture is here to stay. The first picture is the very important water tank added because of frequent water outages, which should really hit hard during the dry season in the spring. There's also a filter for the sink because of quality issues. We may get power outages but not enough to justify a generator... yet. Otherwise, it should be a nice apartment to live in while avoiding all of the crime outside.