World Travel

Venezuela

Caracas ñ Merida ñ Canaima/Angel Falls ñ Ciudad Bolivar ñ Los Roques
Wooden Venezuelan Jesus from the Merida Region
Wooden Venezuelan Jesus from the Merida Region

(If you'd rather just see my favourite pictures of VENEZUELA, click here!)

Venezuela is a relatively large country, by far the largest of our trip. We were unaccustomed to such large distances between sights and resorted to frequent local flights for the first time. Luckily, there are quite a few available and are mostly affordable. 

I found Venezuela to be a very diverse country, with the high peaks of the beginning of the Andes in Merida, the lowlands of the Orinoco area and the spectacular Tepui landscapes in the Canaima region. Los Roques has a very special coral island, almost Maldivian feel, with spectacularly blue water, beautiful fish and extremely colourful houses in Gran Roque. 

Venezuelans in Caracas seemed rather unfriendly and uncaring compared to all the other countries we had visited and the hotels were bad value. [Addendum: Oops, I received a number of protest mails to the contrary! Decide for yourself] Crime is present in Caracas and we were advised to stick to the main streets, especially at night. 

Love hotels were a new and interesting phenomenon for us. Pirated CD's and Sony Playstation games were being sold everywhere in Caracas and Merida.

This trip was from 12.5.2001 to 27.5.2001.

Damian from Venezuela wrote: "If you ever come back to Venezuela, be sure to visit Maracaibo, it is a city in west Venezuela, the second biggest city in the country, with the biggest lake in South America and the most badass bridge in Latin America, it has great places to visit, and has a lot of landmarks. Also, try to go to Falcon state, specially the northern side, the beaches are beautiful and sometimes late at night you can see Curañao's lights. And Margarita is a great place to visit too"

Our route through Venezuela

Our route through Venezuela

My favourites of Venezuela

The diary

12.5 Panama City to Caracas
13.5 Caracas
14.5 Caracas
15.5 Caracas
16.5 Caracas to Merida
17.5 Merida, Jaji
18.5 Pico Espejo, Pico Bolivar from Merida
19.5 Merida
20.5 Pico Aguilar, Laguna Negra
21.5 Merida to Ciudad Bolivar
22.5 Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima Camp
23.5 Angel Falls
24.5 Canaima Camp to Ciudad Bolivar
25.5 Caracas to Los Roques
26.5 Los Roques to Caracas
27.5 Caracas to Zurich

Tips

Start reading the trip report