For all the negative press that the city of Caracas sometimes gets, it's undeniably a beautiful place, and it reminds me in many ways of Quito, in the way that the mountains spring up virtually at the city's edge. The business areas are very modern, with lots of white concrete high rise office buildings.

On the negative side, there are a lot of really dumpy neighborhoods and slums, lots of apparent poverty, and I'd been warned several times to be very careful walking alone, and to never even think of doing so at night. Robberies are evidently more common in Caracas than cowboy hats in Texas.

Before jumping on the plane, I'd done my usual scan of latin American news web sites and travel safety sites, like travel.state.gov, and I was a bit worried about the stories of anti-American hostility in Caracas. Although I couldn't help but see some of the graffiti on the walls, I never heard any openly hostile remarks directed my way, and I certainly I never felt threatened by anyone who just wanted to lash out at any gringo who happened to be nearby. On the other hand, I have no doubts that a loudmouth American who starts voicing his opinions about Venezuelan politics or their backwards mentality will be invited to spend some time lodging at the local hospital after the merciless beating.

So anyway, back to Caracas. Yeah, it has its problems, but the place is still pretty cool. Big city (probably about the same size as Houston or Dallas), fairly inexpensive for gringos (though taxis are no bargain, IMHO -- it cost me almost $40 to get from the airport to the hotel). Prices for everything else are generally even lower than I pay in Mexico, which is also generally a bargain for gringos.

Before I move on, I'd like to recommend that anyone contemplating a visit to Caracas read the outstanding review posted by july2145. Her insight is excellent and the descriptions of the place very accurate. A few things have evidently changed since she was in Caracas, and the atmosphere is probably tenser and the country even poorer than it once was after months of internal strife stemming from the huge nationwide labor strikes and the attempted coup against Venezuela's hugely unpopular president Chavez.

The unrest is now a mere simmer on the back burner, but the scars of 6 months ago remain -- along with occasional skirmishes between Chavez (who I prefer to call "el Culo") supporters and his vast legions of detractors. I doubt you'll be able to totally ignore local politics (a day doesn't go by that there's no some conflict or other on the front page of El Nacional), but as I said, just keep your mouth shut about it when you're around the locals and all will be well in your world.

I don't want to focus on the negative things though -- there are already enough opinions floating around about the poverty, grit, political tension, and crime. Instead, I'd like to mention some of the positive things that make a trip to Caracas downright bearable.

The obvious great thing about visiting Venezuela is that the exchange rate these days is well over a thousand Bolivars to the dollar -- EVERYBODY GETS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE!!!

On a slightly more useful note, Caracas is a fascinating place. There are some cool things to see and some good museums. There are upscale neighborhoods, and there are some truly excellent restaurants to be found. Now the real good news.... getting around in Caracas is very easy, safe, convenient, and affordable! It's that way because Caracas is blessed with a mass transit system that's truly second to none.

Metro de Caracas
I lived in the Washington D.C. area for more than 20 years. Our own capital is famous for its mass transit system, and when I first started using the subway system in Caracas I couldn't help but be struck by how startlingly similar the Caracas Metro is to the Washington D.C. Metro.

The two systems are similar in some important ways. They're both essentially systems from the 1980s, making them very modern compared to the famous subway systems of cities like Paris, London, or New York. The cars in the Caracas Metro look just like the cars in the D.C. Metro -- the only thing that lets me tell them apart at a glance is that the chocolate brown exterior trim that D.C. uses is replaced by a bright rainbow of colors across the sides of the cars. Otherwise, the cars are the same brushed aluminum look, the same molded plastic seats inside, the same big M logo, and even the same stylized route maps inside the door of each car, with bright colors identifying the different lines and round dots for stations with big dots for connection stations.

It's like deja vu all over again. At least as far as the trains are concerned. The stations are another story.

A lot of people like the Washington D.C. Metro stations -- I always hated 'em. They're big, dimly lit, dark caverns with huge vaulted ceilings with dimpled concrete ceilings. Every station looks pretty much the same. I've always preferred subways system like the Mexico City subway, where every station has its own distinctive character and its own personality. The stations in Caracas are closer to the Mexico City model than the D.C. model. At least I don't recall seeing any hugely inefficient designs with those cavernous stations.

Another big difference from Washington D.C. is that Caracas doesn't use the insanely stupid system that D.C. has in which fares vary wildly depending on what time of day you're traveling and how far you're going. The sanest system is the simplest -- just use a token and away you go -- but that kind of common sense doesn't apply when you're in the city of big government. D.C.'s system stinks because you have to constantly be buying fare cards, trading in fare cards, adding money to fare cards and otherwise be playing silly games wondering if you've got enough money on your card to ride or not. I don't know what kind of reward the guy who dreamed up Washington D.C.'s fare system got, but he should have gotten life!

As you might have guessed, I'm big on human factors and usability. I like systems that work because they're eminently simple and elegant. Fewer points of failure, if you know what I mean.

Caracas does pretty darn well. You buy a ticket for a trip, and then you pass it through the kiosk as you enter the station. The best deal is the round trip ticket -- it's even cheaper per ride than buying a book of 10 tickets! A round trip ticket will cost about 75 cents -- pricier than Mexico City's system, but lots cheaper than some of the high dollar systems you find in the U.S. (like D.C. Metro and San Francisco BART, both of which are too obscenely expensive to earn the right to be called "mass transit" -- I think we should all refer to those kinds of systems as "elite transit").

Safety Underground
The Caracas Metro is always called a "safe" subway system, and it generally is. It's unlikely that a tourist will have any problems whatsoever riding the rails under Caracas, but it still pays to be careful. If you read the State Department travel site (travel.state.gov), there are warnings about pickpockets in the subway. The thieves are often well-dressed, well-groomed young men who don't stand out as derelicts. What the State Department site doesn't tell you is that most of the problems with thieves have been reported at a very small number of stations.

Unfortunately for you or I, those stations are those in the very heart of the city -- the stations most convenient to some of the tourist sites that we'd like to see, specifically, Capitolio, La Hoyada, and Bellas Artes. If you ride the rails to these places, just be careful. Leave your original passport back in your hotel safe, along with most of your credit cards. Don't put a wallet where someone could easily spot it or grab it (like your back pants pocket), and try not to look like a million bucks.

The subway has always been regarded as one of the safest aspects of Caracas, and the government is taking steps to keep it that way. When I was there a few weeks ago, you could see a minor military presence in the stations and trains -- not unlike what you saw in U.S. airports a few months ago when National Guard troops were placed in airports to beef up security. Military troops have long been in airports in many parts of South America (and other parts of the world), and it doesn't strike me as unnatural to me to see them at subway stations either. I've heard that soldiers at subway stations is something that you've only seen in Caracas for the last couple months, and that supposedly, it's not a permanent thing. If they help put a dent in the crime, I'm all for it.

Using the Metro
The main route is called Linea 1. This is also the oldest route, having originally been opened in 1983. It runs right along the city's backbone through the valley and goes direct downtown. It's the busiest line, it has the longest trains, it has the most trains, and it is the most crowded. In spite of that, it's not unbearable (like the Mexico City system at rush hour) because trains run every 2 minutes during the business day and no less frequently than 4 minutes on evenings and weekends. Linea 1 in Caracas reminds me of the Circle line on the London Underground -- its everywhere you want to be and everything else connects to it.

Linea 2 is a bit interesting -- it's a fairly long line and will take you out as far as the Zoo. Ignore Linea 3. It's short (for now) and just goes out to El Valle. An expansion is underway and will eventually take it all the way out to Mercado and La Rinconada, but that's not supposed to open for at least another 2 years.

The Caracas Metro is still growing. Additional projects are under way, including a new line called Linea 4 that's supposed to run parallel to Linea 1, but that will run through Las Mercedes. This would have been super convenient for me as I was staying at the El Tamanaco hotel, and a stop is under construction there (slated to open next year, but popular opinion seems to be that it won't come online on time, but who knows?).

While I was in Caracas, I saw an article in El Nacional about another project that's very much in preliminary planning stages -- they're thinking about adding a light rail spur that would connect to the new Linea 4. The spur would start at the not-yet-opened Chuao station and head towards the southeast for 15 km.

If the subway system doesn't get you exactly where you want to go, the system is interconnected with the local bus system, called MetroBus. The bus system is far better and cleaner in Caracas than in most places I've been in Latin America. The buses are modern and remind me very much of the MetroBus system in Washington D.C. -- which also works well because of the way it integrates with the subway system.

If you're visiting Caracas and want to know more about the Metro system, I highly recommend paying a visit to their official web site: www.metrodecaracas.com.ve

Bottom Line:
Getting around in Caracas can be safe, easy, and cheap. Look for a hotel within walking distance of the subway, then Metro it everywhere you want to be...

Until next time, see you on the road. As always, I'll be sniffing around the best bargains and the most interesting adventures.






Recommended: Yes

Best Suited For: Students
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime