Missions Possible?
15 August 2005 (Monday) – Caracas, Venezuela
Mission ONE – Bolivian Embassy
Three years ago, my visa application for entry into Bolivia was rejected, without explanations, after a 3.5 months’ wait. I had actually never planned on trying again, because, although I would really LOVE to visit Bolivia, why exasperate myself again for another 3 months or so, when to be honest, there are also loads of other places to visit?
But chatting with Jorge of the Amazon Jungle (hehee, my guide, actually) last week about my travels, this topic came up and the ex-politician-current-political-refugee was outraged. He whipped out his wallet and gave me a business card of a person who worked in the House of the Senators of the Bolivian Government. He told me, go to Caracas and show them this business card, watch them wither at the sight of the card and they will surely give you a visa. Wow, really??
Anyway, that was one of the reasons why I came to Caracas. While, apparently, in South America, it was very common to use side-doors as the favour for a friend of a friend and wield threats like ‘I know someone who knows someone…’ and all these complicated networking and bribes to get things done, I am not used to it. If the guy in the business card GAVE me the card, maybe I would use it. But this was given to me by ANOTHER person.
Well, still, I made my way to the Bolivian Embassy to try my luck. To my utter disbelief, the consulate lady simply gave me a list of items to produce – a letter explaining my intention of travels, a letter from my employer (whoops), passport, bank statements, deposit slip of US$30 to the Bolivian Embassy’s bank account, fill up this form and include a photo.
Wow, either the rules for processing Singaporean tourists have changed in the last 3 years, or the Bolivian Embassy in Caracas is a gift from my Travel God this time! But, not so fast… I would be truly happy only when I actually GET the visa, I reminded myself. I still had to see if they would overlook the fact that I do not have an employer, and whether they would roll their eyeballs at the sight of the remaining money in my bank account.
Mission TWO – English books
The trashy novel ‘Destiny’ is still only half-way through but I was already beginning to worry about where my next book is going to be from. Being in a city now, is my chance to try and procure one. Lisandro, whom I met in Santa Elena, suggested that I go to Libreria Techniciencia at Centro Sambil. He assured me one could find English books there.
Centro Sambil… a massive mall, obviously very new and rather posh. Also, I was relieved to see that Venezuelan ladies dress much much much much much much better than many Brazilian women. Here, they dressed decently. Some trashy clothes here and there, but generally, their tastes are miles up there compared to many Brazilian women, especially those whom I saw in Salvador, Belem and Manaus. Phew! And finally, I see women with great figures wearing mid-riff-showing blouses or other sexy, somewhat revealing clothes. Now, that was more like it. These women had earned the right to wear these clothes. My stomach did not turn like how it did in Brazil.
Another thing I noticed very glaringly was the number of queues all over. Gosh, in the morning, people queue for buses in very, very long lines. And here in the mall, extremely long lines of people were waiting patiently for the chance to use the automatic machines or the chance to enter one of the telephone companies to complain something about their cellular phones.
Speaking of cellular phones… how things are different here in Venezuela now. Apparently, unlike in Brazil, it is very cheap to place phone calls to cellular phones, especially those within the same network. In Brazil, it was so expensive that many homes actually had a service that barred cellular phone numbers from being dialled from their home phones. And to call a cell phone from a public phone, you had to talk super fast!
And so, here in Venezuela, an amusing sight for me was that I had seen women sitting somewhere with 3 cell phones in front of them. They were renting these phones out to passers-by with a need to dial a friend. And depending on which network their friends are on, they would use the cell phone from the same network. Neat.
OKOK, back to the books. Only John Grisham and John Kellerman. No, I rather not buy books that I would throw away later. I prefer better books. The search continues…
That evening, Rafael and Rosa took me to his brother’s apartment for a birthday party celebration. In a way, it touched me a lot to note that here in South America, people do treat birthdays rather importantly, always or nearly always making it a point to celebrate it with close friends and family members.
Well, back home, Rosa very kindly helped me type out the letter stating my intention of travels to Bolivia. Wow, she typed a really impressive letter, the Spanish was way, way, way, way beyond me. OK, wish me luck, we shall see tomorrow…
Tags: 05) Merchants of Little Venice, Caracas
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