First Impressions: If you weren't paying attention to the news, you'd sense nothing (not too dissimilar to cuddlevirus!). The streets are paved and buzzing with people, high-end grocery stores and modern gyms, natural food specialty stores with mushroom coffee and big-city styled cafes. Plus, the Airbnb market is already in the top quartile globally in terms of design. Not cheap, though you get a 25% discount when paying with the local currency and sometimes with dollars.
Air Quality: 45 AQI (91 measured on my ATMOTUBE; very good)
Tap Water: 125ppm (passable)
Dew Point: 19C/66F (very low-end of what would be considered humid; dew point is a better measure for humidity)
Best Gym: VIP Fitness
Best Coffee Shop: Socato
Best Restaurant: Cordero
Cash/Payments: Buckle up. You have the current and official Venezuelan Bolivar (VES) which, let's say, is 550 per $1. The black market rate is ~25% higher (ie you can get ~750 per $1, maybe - explanation below). This means that if you're paying in cash, some stores will give you a discount of 5-25%. I have gotten discounts from high-end restaurants as well as small supplement shops at a rate of maybe 40% of businesses offering such a thing. You will see Ref. (for Reference) on menu's, etc. and that means dollars. You will also see the rate of the day shown everywhere. This rate increases daily. Based on what we know now, you'd opt to use dollars, if available, but hold on now becuase sometimes the business will use the EUR rate, which is, say, 640. Well, that doesn't make sense, does it? Quoting in dollars, but then converting to Euro's. So your decision is to take the cash discount, even if 5% becuase your credit card ain't paying you 5% cash back or rewards. However, if the store quotes you in dollars but uses the EUR rate, you should then also pay cash, even without a discount becuase it will be cheaper. If paying in cash, you should have exact change because either they don't have change, or it's going to take them 5-15 minutes to find change for you. Also, they will generally round up so $8.24 becomes $9 in cash. Finally, as a foreigner, you can't really exchange dollars for VES becuase the largest bill is 500. I just went to the grocery store and purchased 36,000 VES of goods, which would be 72 bills, not really convenient. If you have a local bank account, it would be wise to exchange your dollars on the black market for 650 and then you would be getting an automatic 25% discount on everything you purchased.
Caracas resembles Bogota more than Medellín; nevertheless, let's compare. Caracas gets 2 hours per day more of sunlight (ie less clouds) and rains 75% less. Given its latitude, the city gets 30 minutes more before sunset. Just a tad more humid and hotter. Worse water quality and similar air quality.
Meriko / Pana - Dude
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In 2015, Danny got fired from Airbnb. Just two years later, he started two successful businesses and wrote a best-selling book. Since then, he's become a bodybuilding, location-independent, minimalist traveling the world while living in Airbnbs. He describes himself as a skeptic, contrarian, and expert cuddler. In his spare time he reads, cooks, and plays basketball. Follow his journey on Instagram or YouTube.
