A Bonaire and Venezuela update

Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Sat 25 Oct 2014 18:23
It's been nearly 4 weeks since Yvonne left for Spain, since then baby Liam
has been born, and Evie is now the very big sister.

Yvonne flies back on Monday, hopefully she'll make the connections to
Colombia. Meanwhile I've swimming, diving and planning our return trip back
to Venezuela and then our return flights to Spain in December.

It has been interesting meeting people in Bonaire that have passed through
some of the Venezuelan Islands. They can't believe how beautiful they are,
and as a result some are intending to return despite the bad press given by
the misinformed.

However there is now a problem in Venezuela. Flights are difficult to obtain
and impossible to get at a reasonable price. I know the government owes the
airlines 4 Billion Dollars, so some airlines have pull out until they get
paid. Flights that are available can be found for maybe 15000 Bolivares, but
and its a big but. One can only buy flights using a foreign credit card.
Firstly that means travel agents and Venezuelans in general cannot buy
international flights. Those that have a foreign credit card can use it but
the government uses the 6.3 Bolivar to a dollar exchange rate, which of
course is laughable but means the flight costs around 2500 US$. Three time
the price of a regular Caribbean flight. At the black market rate which is
nearer reality (100 Bolivares to the dollar) the flight would cost 150 US$
which is also laughable. The 3rd of the governments official exchange rates
is around 50 to a dollar. So the flight would be 300US$.

Nevertheless, flights are difficult to impossible so something to bear in
mind if you sail in with the intention of flying out, even if it is to a
neighbouring country like Brazil or Peru.

I managed to get a flight from Caracas to Aruba, there were few seats, I had
to buy a return for some reason and for 2 people cost 900US$. I was then
able to arrange a flight to Amsterdam for 700US$ one way for the 2 of us.

So maybe its time to move on away from this beautiful country thats being
brought down to bankruptcy by its government, but where to?

Meanwhile a few more photos, and a word about my camera. In my past blogs I
have owned and used Pentax W30, W60 and another W60. The picture quality was
good to excellent, above and below the water, they were expensive cameras at
the time but they all let in water or corroded. Next was a waterproof
Panasonic Lumix, even more expensive pictures were good but after one year
corrosion set in and buttons didn't work. Next up was a cheaper camera, Fuji
W30 I think it was called again great pictures and good value at £89 but its
waterproofness let it down.

Now I have a Sony TSC TF1 waterproof to 10 metres, I've used it now for 4
months and its still working fine, the pictures are crap comparatively and
the battery does last long.

Until the next time.


These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/

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