How Chavez is Destroying Venezuela

In the last 11 years as President, Hugo Chavez has thrown Venezuela down a socialist path littered with totalitarian paranoia. Socialism is not the root of his evil, and indeed, it has proven to be the most popular current politcal stance in South America. The problem with Chavez is that he's got such a big anti/capitalist chip on his shoulder that he's steering Venezuela into destruction. Venezuela is faced with food shortages, malnutrtion, poor healtchare, high violence rates, and an energy crisis. What is doing about it? Buying $5 billion USD worth of Russian weapons (in addition to the $4.4 billion that he already spent). He is also in negotiations with China to purchase additional weaponry. Nobody is attacking Venezuela, so who is Chavez at war with? 

Chavez has riled more than a few national leaders with his angry rhetoric and shallow threats, but now he's turning against his neighbor, Colombia. An early turn came a few years ago when four Venezuelan soldiers were caught spying on Colombia. The Colombian military called President Uriba, who said "Give them a hug, tell them that they're our brothers, and send them home." Why was Chavez spying on Colombia? Nobody knows, but it goes against the two country's long history of peace.

In 2008, Colombia attacked a FARC guerilla camp in Ecuador, just over the border from Colombia. This was an unprecedented move which upset relations with Ecuador, but netted some very "interesting" information. Besides the fact that Ecuador was harboring the guerillas, two laptops revealed records that over the last several years, Chavez had funneled over $300 million dollars to finance the FARC in their fight against Colombia. Again, we ask why?

Earlier this year Chavez manually, and arbitrarily, reset the exchange rate for the Venezulan dollar. He instituted a two-teir pricing system that would make domestic goods cheaper but double the prices of imports. In the long run, all the prices will rise as Venezuela has very little domestic producing capacity and has to rely on imports for most manufactured goods. But in the short term, it netted the goverment an extra $50 million USD from oil sales, that he was free to use as he wished. It just so happens that his re-election is just a few months down the road. One of the other effects of this monetary change? Colombian farmers who exported agricultural products to Venezuela, were shafted out of their payments. Trade between these two countries was effectively killed, even though Colombia used to be Venezuela's biggest trade partner.

Just this week, a Colombian family living in Venezuela has been accused of espianoge. The family of 8, who run an ice-cream factory in Venezuela, have been jailed on the basis that the father of the family had taken a photo of an electrical substation. He was later found to have pictures of bridges, roads and buildings. Under this criteira, I would be considered a spy in every country I've been too. Chavez didn't stop there, however. He further blamed the "spies" with acts of sabatoge to the electrical infrastructure. Venezuela has been in a painful draught this last year, which, as a result of their heavy dependence on hydroelectric power, means that they have also faced dire power shortages. Chavez has previously blamed the lack of rain, but not he has a new reason: these Colombian spies have been behind it all. Never mind the fact that the family has lived in Venezuela for 17 years. It's also convenient to neglect the fact that Chavez spent $9.4 billion on Russian weapons instead of improving the power infrastructure, among other things that need help.

Also this week, I was alerted to the fact that Caracas is one of the 10-most dangerous cities in the world and holds the noble distinction of being the murder-capital of the world. Way to go Chavez. Look who is Number One now, biatch!

While Colombia is not completely safe and has it's own violent history, things are quickly improving. Years ago, the Colombian cities of Medellin, Cali and Bogota were high on those lists of most dangerous places. Now, none of them are. Colombia sees five time more international travelers than Venezuela, even though Colombia is the only country with a US State "Travel Warning." Chavez is vehenmentally opposed to the right-leaning Colombian government, who, along with US help, is aggresively and successfully dismantling the FARC. People say the war on drugs isn't working, but I can tell you that in Colombia's case, it has made a huge difference.

While Kristin doesn't feel as safe as I do, we have not had any problems in our month in Colombia. We have encountered some of the friendliest people in South America. The only safety issues other travelers have exprienced are the corrupt Ecuadorian border police, who are notorious for stealing valuables while rifling through your backpack during the customs "inspection."  We have one more week of traveling south before hitting the Ecuador border. You can bet that we'll employ all of our tricks to stop the border police from taking any of our belongings. 

I apologize for the heavy nature of this blog, but I believe it is an important issue that might not get fully covered in the US. Most of this info is all stuff that I have learned while traveling. In the US we have this image of Colombia as dangerous and maybe we know of Chavez as a little off his rocker. But he's crazy and could personally cause distability (or war) here in northern part of South America.

And if it wasn't obvious, this also explains why we are traveling in Colombia and not Venezuela.

Colombia: Turning Guns into Guitars

The Colombian Coast - Just the Photos

While Kristin and I enjoy an eight hour bus ride to Salento, you can check out a few photos from our trip with Janie along the Caribbean Coast of Colombia.

Getsemani, Cartagena

San Diego, Cartagena

Old Town, Cartagena

San Diego, Cartagena

Old Town, Cartagena

Between Cartagena and Playa Blanca

Playa Blanca

One of many odd-shaped rocks lining the beach at Playa Blanca

Tayrona National Park

Taganga

Taganga

Taganga

Guest Blog: Travelling with Kristin and Danny

Our friend, Janie, is guest blogging today:

On March 1st, 2010 my life changed. The man I had been dating for the past year and with whom I was madly in love, suddenly broke things off with little explanation and even littler warning. On March 2nd I booked a trip to Colombia to meet Kristin and Danny for two weeks. Planning the trip gave me a distraction, something to read about, something to be excited about, and something to do over spring break with the dreaded empty time. I also knew that K&D would give me back my hope, since being around people in good relationships always seems to help the rest of us see what it can feel like when two people come together with shared dreams, love, and the energy to become an "us". K&D have that feeling of "I CAN'T WAIT TO SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE WITH YOU!", and it feels good just to watch their healthy tan faces plan the bus route together.

Traveling with them, however, may not be entirely comfortable for everyone - and I say this with complete appreciation for all styles of travel. I like a daiquiri poolside and watching american tv in the air con after a long day in the tropical heat just like everyone else, but K&D don't roll like that. You will find yourself having a great time drinking hand filtered water and eating store bought peanuts on a 40 year old schoolbus, talking about the merits of colonizing mars or how epigenetics really works, but you may not be as "comfortable" as you would prefer. We started off our trip in Bogota, at the house of an Uncle of Danny's friend. An important sidenote: they are Christian missionaries who have been helping in Colombia for 12 years.

This was my first moment of saying, "Weelllll....let's see how this goes". And wouldn't you know it, I ended up having absolutely fantastic meals, conversations, and even had the chance to go out to a farm with 24 parentless children where we helped fix bikes and played soccer. Grant, Danny's friend's Uncle, and his wife, Kathleen, gave us an insight into a world we likely never would have seen and as they prepared Colombian meals (with vegetarian options) and told us story after story, I began to feel like I had been given a completely unexpected gift. During our time in Bogota, we ate cheaply, took the local buses (another uncomfortable - but hilarious situation), and planned our trip up North to the Caribbean.

It just so happened that flights (1.5 hours and safe) to the Caribbean were cheaper than buses (22 hours and maybe not safe), and so we booked flights for 1 week of travel to Cartagena and Santa Marta, score 1 for comfortable travel and zero for getting hijacked on a 22 hour bus! When we arrived, our hostel was ok. Humid lounge area and tiny spaces, but they did have computers available, coffee around the clock, and we met some interesting folks. K&D may appear at first to be antisocial, but I learned that this is due to the repetition of the "hostel conversation", a boring list of questions referring only to where you have been and where you are going, peppered with overzealous recommendations based on dubious memories of mediocre travel destinations from people who largely like to party while traveling.

As someone who is excited about local foods, K&D appear to have lost interest and prefer to stick to to grocery store bought avocados, whole grain bread, bananas, yogurt, granola and the like. I often found myself feeling like I was missing out on some of the culinary delights, but whenever I tried them, they weren't so delightful and I felt much better eating with K&D as opposed to experimenting with street food or spending too much money for a fried fillet of white fish and rice. For those of you planning trips to meet K&D, please feel free to eat what you like and drink as much and often as you like, but be warned that you may find yourself alone for that element of your trip. I talked them into a few meals out, but our meals in were much more creative and fun (breakfast: best oatmeal ever, eaten out of a pot with 3 spoons, lunch: peanut butter & jelly, prepared on your own lap, dinner: fantastic spaghetti from minimal ingredients, cooked in a stolen kitchen in a random "ecohotel", also eaten out of a pot with 3 minimally functional forks).

When I was flying home from my trip visiting them, I felt I had learned so much and had such a great time, it was like putting neosporin on the cut of my break up. You know the commercials that show no scar from the lady that used neosporin compared to the one that didn't? That is how being with K&D was for me. It was vibrantly fun, physically strenous, financially about as cheap as it gets, and they gave me such a gift of time and great conversations. I encourage anyone looking to break out of a rut, have an adventure, heal a broken heart, or just explore a new part of the world to go visit them - and to be open to the wonders of cheap discomfort. You may have a better time than you would have with that poolside daiquiri.


Sharing photos with the boys on the farm, after a breath-taking soccer game (at 2700 meters).


Old Town Cartagena.


Old Town Cartagena.


The digs at Playa Blanca.


Just as Janie described it - making the best of what we have, in terms of food, shelter and entertainment.


Just outside our campsite at Tayrona National Park.


Sunset at Tayrona National Park.



Standing atop the Kogi ruins of El Pueblito.


Hiking through the tropical jungle to find El Pueblito, and then eventually to a small town where we could get a ride home.

Happy Easter

Risk, Continued

Found another photo, this one from Guatemala.


And as Shubho pointed out in his comment on my previous blog, we've only seen a fraction of the world. Perhaps the best (in sketchy transportation) is still to come!

Minimizing Risk?

Last week we enjoyed a blissful ten days along the Caribbean Coast of Colombia. We were joined by our good friend Janie, who has written a brutally honest guest blog that I will post on Monday: Traveling with Kristin and Danny.

Until then, however, I'd like to share a short story. The three of us had just finished an exciting trek through Parque Tayrona and were trying to catch a bus back to Santa Marta. Well, we didn't just catch any bus. No, we rode in a decrepit van that was overloaded with 21 people. The tires were bald and the van teetered on turns, aided by the extra weight of luggage and potatoes and who knows what else strapped to the roof rack. The sliding side door was always wide open, as the "helper" boy hung halfway out, trying to get new customers as we whizzed down the highway. Of course there were no seat belts, which wouldn't have even mattered for me as I sat on a wood box. We used the left lane to pass trucks on blind corners, just as often as we rode the right shoulder to avoid oncoming cars. There are no cops out here to make sure drivers go the appropriate speed limit; instead the government has installed speed bumps (what the Jamaicans call "sleeping policemen"). The roads are in bad condition, as we would expect. And, we're obvious gringos in FARC drug territory in a country deemed dangerous by our very own government. Despite all of this, we had no hesitations about this ride. I guess you could say we've grown accustomed to transportation in South America.

I chuckled to myself as we roared along this Colombia roller coaster. How things have changed for me since we left Davis. For the last four years at Outdoor Adventures, our biggest concern was improving transportation safety, particularly in regards to the vans that we used on many of our trips. We got rid of 15-person vans and now couldn't carry more than eight people. We didn't use roof racks and our vans were religiously maintained and heavily insured. We went to various college and adventure travel conferences which had presentations and workshops specifically about this topic. We increased guide training, we created manuals, got signatures and copies of driver documents. Our efforts transformed our program into a model of safety that was adapted by Campus Recreation and used as a template for the rest of the University.

And now, one year later? I don't think twice about entering a statistical death trap . . . and paying fifty cents for it. Woo hoo! 

I was reminded of this today as I read a review of new book was recently published. It is titled: The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes. It looks like a good read, except it hits too close to home for us. Maybe it's better to read it after we've traveled to all the places highlighted in the book.  

Yeeeah, that looks safe.