The Caracas Experience (Two Whole Weeks)

Our apartment is right down the street from the U.S. Embassy, about 20 minutes away on foot. Walking to the Embassy is slightly strenuous since it is uphill most of the way, but the hill is not terribly steep and the midway point, the redomo, has a fantastic view which acts as a sort of reward for making it that far and encouragement to continue on (the last third is downhill anyway). Our apartment building is about 7 stories tall, from the front, which is deceptive because it is built into the side of a steep hill.

Thus, while our apartment is on the “first” floor (which in the US would be called the second floor), it is about five floors higher than the swimming pool, and about ten stories above the tennis courts. As you look out of our front window/balcony to the right and down is a shopping mall (Centro Comercial de Santa Fe). I would guess it is about 200 ft below us, but the driveway of the building directly in front of the window is about twenty feet below (the parking garage is on -1, i.e. the first sub-level, the main common area is “Piso 0”).

The apartment itself is large, but is compartmentalized so that areas of it feel small. The living room/dining room is the exception. It feels huge due to the fact that the front windows open on two sides turning the dining room into a giant balcony. All of the apartments we have seen in Caracas have variations on this theme of converting living space into open air space. For example, we went to a Superbowl Party and sat outside, on a balcony, which was actually the host's living room, and watched the game.

Our kitchen is long and narrow and the most remarkable feature is that the refrigerator is at one end of the kitchen and the freezer is at the other (yes, they are separate). We do not have a dishwasher or disposal (bummer), but hopefully we will be able to get a housekeeper to handle those chores. Right now I am the housekeeper. We have a laundry room that adjoins the maids quarters, which could also serve as a somewhat spartan spare bedroom. There are three formal bedrooms, the master, and two others, one of which has an attached bathroom. The master bedroom has a large walk-in closet with built in cabinets and shelves and a large master bath that features two sinks, separate shower and bathtub, and a bidet (which I am still trying to figure out how to use.) The den is really just a very wide hallway which opens into our huge covered patio. I paced off the patio and it is at least 1200 ft. of covered space with marble floor. There is also a garden, which is really just a patch of grass, where the dogs do their business. The patio is ideal for the dogs because it is very secure, much more secure than our yard in Houston. It is covered so the dogs don't get rained on, and is cool because of the marble. We could also throw a fantastic party on the patio, hell there is room for a live band and dance floor!

The furniture is straight out of the Ethan Allen catalog, which suits us just fine. In fact the dining room furniture looks just like ours from Houston. The bed in the master bedroom is a queen and is pretty comfortable, which is good because as soon as our king size bed gets here, the queen is going into the guest bedroom for all of you that are intrepid enough to come and visit. There are marble floors throughout the whole apartment, except in the bedrooms which feature a fake hard wood floor (it looks pretty good though). All of the walls are concrete, which will make hanging things, like pictures, a challenge. I did see a nice impact drill at the local version of the Home Depot (called Epa) that I might have to acquire.

As for shopping, so far we have been to a very upscale supermarket (think Central Market, only smaller, and without sugar, milk and eggs) a small farmer's market, a small fish market, a big farmer's market and, as mentioned above, a hardware store. Mary went out to a near by small town called El Hatillo and shopped for cool knick-knacks...er...folk art. Many things cost either the same or less than they do in the States, but some things cost much more. A little explanation is necessary here about prices. Through a completely legal process of trading bonds for currency (that I don't yet fully understand) we are able to get local currency at a very favorable exchange rate. The official rate is 2.1 Bolivares Fuertes (Bs.F.) to the US Dollar. However we are able to get Bs.F. At about 5.16 to the Dollar. Even with the good exchange rate, most things cost about the same as they would in the US. For those who cannot take advantage of the exchange rate (like people who are paid in Bs.F.) things cost about twice as much as in the US. Even with the good exchange rate, Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup costs about three times as much here as in the States (no soup for you!!!). On the other hand, two fresh salmon steaks and two tuna steaks from the fish vendor cost about $8 total. Vegetables are very inexpensive, meat is a little pricey and sugar and milk are not to be found. You can get sugar in things, like cookies or chocolate bars (which are really cheap and really good!) but there is no granulated sugar to be found in the store. We found some eggs at the Vegetable stand and from the looks of them they were taken from the hen house that morning. It was about $5 for 24 eggs. But there are no eggs at the major grocery stores. Go figure.

Our neighborhood is surprisingly quiet during the day, I would have expected more city noise. At night is is relatively quiet, but there is always a raucous party going on somewhere with live music and cheering crowds. One night it sounded like a stadium full of people were singing “Happy Birthday” to someone. The day I typed the “big” blog post there was a huge event going on at the mall that featured a live Carribean Jazz band (but it was Carnival after all!). All of the other buildings in the area, or at least on our street have armed guards at the heavily fortified gates which is a constant reminder of the out of control crime problem in Caracas. At the school up the street, drivers (like chauffeurs) line up to pick up the kids as teachers with radios call ahead the name of the kid for the next driver in line, all under the watchful eye of armed guards. The guard at the Hardware store was carrying the biggest gun I have ever seen. I think it was actually a shotgun pistol. It was about two feet long, and he had shotgun shells in holders on his belt. When the guard (they're called “vigilantes”) caught me staring at his gun he put is hand on it, which made me quickly look away. Oh, and he looked to be about sixteen years old.

So, to recap...nice apartment, good building, outdoor living. High prices, good exchange rate, but food shortages. Nice neighborhood, loud parties, armed guards.

This sign indicates that, for some reason, they don't allow "wiener" dogs here.

I have applied for two jobs at the Embassy...fingers crossed...