Danger City

Finally and reluctantly made it to Caracas. From the very beginning of the day I was in a sour mood. Colas was driving me nuts on our way to the airport via 2.5 hour car ride, which was no different from the day before as we were driving our way to Wilmington. I didn’t want to go. I was having doubts about myself and my ability to keep my eyes open and aware (I totally blame this on colas!) So I drudgingly proceeded through security. I was not in an upbeat mood. I did not want to have to mutter a word to anyone. And I was pissed when they asked for my boarding to go into a duty-free shop.

I slept on both the plane from Raleigh to Miami, and Miami to Caracas. Well, my sick (literally sick) little self slept until my ears started KILLING me from the pressure due to my current sinus problems. Ouch. I still didn’t feel like uttering a word to anyone.

Miguel greeted me right outside the luggage pick-up area. He is a jolly little man who laughs a lot. (See his picture!) He helped to liven my mood a little bit, which I was grateful for. I now needed to struggle to speak and understand Spanish. This required me to use my brain and I still wasn’t in the mood for it. It certainly didn’t help that because of my cold I could barely speak English, nevermind Spanish.

We drove through this and that part of the city, I can see why they say the road from the airport to Caracas is the most dangerous. It was surrounded by run-down poor neighborhoods; one after the other after the other, I really actually wonder what percentage of the city is made up of “good” neighborhoods , in a city where it’s not even OK to walk around outside. Miguel told me the road we drove on (main road) is a no-no after a certain time in the morning. (Around 2 am). 70 people are killed every single weekend in this city because of gun violence. Unbelievable. Basically you’re screwed (and/or dead) if your car were to break down here, or if you got into a car accident. So eery. It’s so dangerous that police don’t even have a presence in the poor parts of town; crimes are rarely investigated because these areas are just too dangerous.

My hotel is pretty crappy. It reminds me a lot of Brasilia, it was probably built in the 70’s and just never renovated. The carpets are gross, my lamp is broken, and it just feels dirty in here. I find it strange that they still have Intercon logos and breakfast menus; I don’t think this hotel still actually is an Intercon. It’s certainly not up to par with other ones that I have stayed in. (At one point, I was sitting at my computer just typing away writing emails when suddenly I heard a noise at the door, yep someone was walking right in. Man and I looked at each other, perplexed, before he quickly left saying in Spanish “excuse me excuse me I am sorry!” and I just stared at the door confused. Thank GOD I wasn’t prancing around my room naked. I was going to be more careful about the door from here on!) And tonight, I joyously locked all my important stuff in the safe without a code and now can’t open it, and no one is picking up the phone downstairs, so now I’m a bit worried. Hopefully I can get this all figured out in the morning. We shall see. Time for bed I think, I have stayed up much too late and tomorrow will be an early day.