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Cultural Tips Caracas
50 Reviews Allow me to quote myself (hhhaHAHhahahaAh) in Spanish: "Ha quedado ampliamente demostrado que para ser Presidente de Venezuela lo único que se necesita tener son signos vitales". That is...it has been...
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Old Caracas (Centro) Caracas
5 Reviews Native house of the Liberator Located between the corners of San Jacinto and Traposos, it is the place where the 24 of June of 1783 were born Simón Antonio of the Santísima Trinidad Bolivar Palacios...
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Toward the end of the dry season the fields are set afire to burn off the old growth. Sometimes the smoke will close off roads because of no vision. Soon the rainy season will begin and new growth will appear.
When you arrive here in Santa Elena, you can't help but notice the rows and rows of cars waiting to get their tanks filled. There were rows for Brazilians, rows for Venezuelans and rows for tourists. And these rows were controlled by the military police.As petrol is so cheap here in Venezuela, Brazilians come here in loads to buy petrol. There is a black market going on. They buy for X Bs in Venezuela but they sell it for 15 to 20 times more in Brazil. Some of them install extra tanks in their cars so that they can pump a lot of litres. There is some form of control with the car registration or whatever. But people would come over early in the morning, get their tanks filled, leave, transfer the petrol somewhere else, change the license plate and car registration of another car, and return to get their tanks filled again.Of course, the guy working at the petrol station knows. A little...
Just like the Argentines have their ‘Che’ (hey, friend, etc…) and the hand-shaped-like-a-chicken-head-and-rocking-to-and-fro gesture and the Brazilians have their ‘Ta’ (OK) and their thumbs-up sign, the Venezuelans have ‘Chevere’. They use it all the time to describe something or someone good, to end a conversation, anything.- Did you sleep well last night? Yes, chevere well.- I have a friend, very chevere, who is now working for…- OK, thank you, yeah… see you later, chevere.The Colombians (and some Ecuadorians) use this as well, or so I observed, though not as frequently as the Venezuelans.
North American's are basically most familiar with stick construction, which uses the ubiquitous 2x4 lumber to frame a house. This method is appropriate in the USA and other places for being inexpensive, easily modifiable, and reliable on unstable ground, but in Venezuela, such construction wouldn't last very long. Termites and rot would quickly consume wood frame homes in tropical Venezuela, so concrete is much more common. The infernos regularly featured on the news in the USA are very rare in Venezuela, but engineering collapses are more common. Highrises are mass produced, build up floor by floor with special metal forms to make the walls quickly, and residential homes often lack the amount of rebar engineers would recommend. Between concrete columns, walls are filled in with hollow ceramic block. When wiring or plumbing is required along a wall, workers break open a wall void, insert...
Mangos imported into the USA and Europe are poor representations of this wonderful fruit. American typically buy the Mexican variety, which is generally much smaller in size than those found in Venezuela. Before he died, my father-in-law, Lorenzo, had a very large and productive mango tree in his backyard. Because the tree was very large, and the fruit very fragile, he fashioned a cloth net on the end of a stick to safely retrieve the heavy fruit from the higher branches. One of his mangos was plenty for a many as four people. Mango was diced into large chunks and mixed with pineapple for a delicious fruit salad. Mangos are very addicting and even intoxicating as has been written about by others many times. Mango ice cream is common in Venezuela, as are the mango batido.
Known in English as the persimmon, the níspero found in Venezuela is a smaller fruit variety, with a slight furry brown skin, similar in appearance to the kiwi. The inside fruit is a molassas brown color with a flavor reminiscent of a molassas-chocolate. Like the persimmon in the USA, a good níspero is hard to find, but worth looking for and like the North American varieties, must be eaten very ripe else will be astringent on the palate. This fruit is wonderful as it is, but is also used to make cakes and cookies.
Known as soursop in Asia, this fruit is actually indigenous to the Caribbean and tropical parts of South America. In Venezuela, this fruit is eaten fresh, but also used to make a cake. The fruit needs to be eaten when it is very ripe. The fruit is very sweet but tangy. More information about this fruit is available at the Wikipedia website for soursop or guanabana.
Cachapas are a favorite creole fast food created from old corn. A pancake like batter of fresh grated starchy corn, of the type usually fed animals in the USA, is mixed and ladeled onto a grill. After turning once, fast food vendor serve them on a paper plate, or in rural areas, a banana leaf. Sprinkled with a grated white salty cheeze called queso Guayanes, there are few foods more immediately delightful. Again, I have found these served in Venezuela. My wife has tried to make them in the USA without success because the type of large kernel starchy corn on the cob is simply not available in the markets. Venezuelan supermarkets sell packaged mixes, but these are a poor substitute for the fresh cachapas sold by vendors thoughout Venezuela. The cachapa shown here sitting on a banana leaft and my wife's blue Levi's was purchased on the road in Estado Bolivar, maybe a hundred miles east of...
One of the world's most unknown but great fast foods is the Venezuelan arepa. I'm surprised these aren't more widely sold in the urban areas of the USA because they are really easy to enjoy. The basic ingredient for the shell is a special pre-cooked harina corn flour made only in Venezuela, but can be found in specialty Latin American and Mexican stores in many places of the USA. The flour is mixed with water and formed into a hamburger sized patty, which is then either deep fried, as is the custom among the vendors, or can be pan fried or even baked, to avoid the fatty calories. After cooking, take a knife and slice a pocket, pull out some of the cooked corn, and replace with meat, grated queso Guayanes (a white cheese), platano, shrimps, and a whole host of other possibilities. A smaller version is the Arepita which is smaller, and during forming the dough, cheeze or other ingredients...
The fresh pineapple juice found everywhere in Venezuela is easy to appreciate, and I recommend ordering a "batido", which combines the juice with crushed and blended ice. But, by far the world's best breakfast fruit juice, in the minds of many Venezuelans, and add myself to that list, is made with Parchita pulp. Parchita is known commonly in English speaking countries as the Passion Fruit, but is very rarely found outside the tropics. In Venezuela, the parchita grows on a vine, and must be brought to a certain ripeness before the juice can be made. The jugo vendors and restaurants crack the shell and scoop out the insides that includes a lot of tiny black seeds. The fruit is typically put into a blender with ice to make a batido. After blending, the seeds and other solids are removed by straining through a strainer. For those unfamiliar with Parchita, the first enthusiastic taste may be...
GRAN MELIA CARACAS Caracas
5 Reviews and 129 Opinions This luxury hotel makes much of its inclusion in the 'Leading Hotels of the World' brochure. It's...
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Reviews and photos of Venezuela attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Venezuela sightseeing.
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Q: hi, i am planning to leave columbia by bus and head for cucuta???? then hopefully catch a bus over to canaima, is this...
A: I don't think it is not possible to get to Canaima by land. probably by river/land, you should check by some local agency. don't forget to have repellent with you,...
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