Mission Accomplished
16 August 2005 (Tuesday) – Caracas, Venezuela
Mission ONE – Bolivian Embassy [ACCOMPLISHED]
YES! I GOT MY BOLIVIAN VISA!!!!!
Wow, I am so glad I made the attempt! I actually never thought of trying again, and hence, never even thought of coming to Caracas but woah, yes, I am going to Bolivia! I simply went to the bank, paid the fee, handed over my bank receipt, letter, photo, copy of my bank’s statement, and the lady glanced at everything and smilingly gave me the visa on the spot. I did not even need to flash any Senator’s name card. La la la…
Mission TWO – English Books [accomplished, I supposed]
Well, in this mission, there was a rather round-about hunt for either The American Bookshop or The English Bookshop. The America Bookshop was listed in my map, but it was moved to a new site. Having no one to turn to, I walked around town and came upon Centro Venezolano Americano and also, traced British Council and casually sashayed in, asking if they knew where these bookshops were. They gave me the place to find The American Bookshop and I found it. Very resourceful, aren’t I?
I was looking for Latin American literature in English, but they only have a few books from Mario Vargas Llosa and no one else. And they were very expensive. Meanwhile, the dreaded classics were at half-price. OK, the classics then…
Well, I was a little careful with my expenditure at this point because I only had enough bolivares to last for a few days in Caracas. In other countries, I would have easily gone to an automatic machine to withdraw my money if I ran out. But, Venezuela has a very ‘different’ situation.
OK, 3 years ago, end-2002 to early-2003, there were massive political troubles in Venezuela. Actually, at that precise moment, I was in South America, somewhere in Chile and Argentina. I knew that Venezuela went crazy, but I did not know much else as I could not read the papers in Spanish. But a few months later, when I returned home, the Asian world, including Singapore, was going crazy about the strange respiratory disease called SARS and I naturally forgot about Venezuela.
So, now I learn this from Rafael. At that time, many Venezuelans started buying US dollars and many left the country. So, the government had to put a stop before the whole situation went out of control. A law was created such that only the government could buy US dollars.
If a Venezuelan wishes to travel, he has to show proof of his travels, like a visa and an air-ticket and stuff, before he is issued a letter from a ministry something which he can then take to a bank. The bank would then process this and he could buy up to US$400 and he would be issued a credit card which he has up to US$4000 to spend. In a way, Venezuelans can still buy US dollars but only for those who really need them, and only in this complicated way.
In turn, tourists can only change US dollars into bolivares in a bank (there were no more money changers) or withdraw bolivares against their accounts. For these, the government uses a particular rate. But this rate is much lower than the rate that the people in this country are actually willing to change for. So, if you can find someone, anyone, willing to change your US dollars, you get a much better rate, up to 25% more.
And I was waiting for that someone.
Tags: 05) Merchants of Little Venice, Caracas
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