Out And About In The City

Good evening once again. After a rainy weekend with intermittent sunshine, I´m almost ashamed to admit that I stayed in my apartment all these days. Thanks to a good ally called cable TV, I watched one movie after another and enjoyed some lazy days.

Caracas, despite its metropolitan character, has clearly seen better times in its nightlife. Some years ago, there were a number of heavily-frequented disco´s in the Paraíso and Las Mercedes area, but all of them went bust after the Oil Strike of 2002-2003, when some politicians who weren´t happy with president Chávez engineered a strike of the oil industry which paralyzed the whole country, to drive him out. They in turn were driven out of their jobs and the public anger caused by the strike strengthened the president´s position. Not only was it a foolishly and badly set-up action by the opposition, it also made many companies go bankrupt, and since there was no money and beer to go around, disco´s and nightclubs went down like flies. Driving around the main avenue in Las Mercedes or through El Paraíso you see some vestiges of what were once busily-visited nightclubs. Sad sight.

Now, where do the caraqueños find their entertainment? There is beer enough to go around nowadays, and these last few years a lot of money found its way to many pockets and accounts. You will find a number of very good Italian, Spanish and Portuguese restaurants and tasca´s in La Candelaria, Sábana Grande and Las Mercedes, where you can find a good meal for a reasonable price - when you have a dollar or euro account. For the common Venezuelan, a cozy dinner for two costing BsF. 200,- (200.000,- old bolívares) would mean a big sacrifice. However, restaurants are full every night, because one of the Venezuelan´s characteristics is his love for food. Love for a good beer or stiff drink comes right in second, with an ample offer of locally brewed beers and the much-loved Chivas or Buchanan 12-year olds to make thirsty throats happy.

Beers come in different tones and tastes. My fav one is the Regional Light from Maracaibo, and on second place, if Numero Uno is not available, Solera Green. These two are OK for the European taste, and I recommend them personally. Now, for the Budweiser or Heineken beer lovers Venezuela has an interesting selection to offer. Polar beer is the most-drunk brew, with a variety of tastes. Very popular are the light varieties and those called "ice", revealing the need to drink them ice- and icecold to kill an absent taste. Personally I steer clear of them because despite their "light" denotation, they can easily bomb you out of your skulls, as the many drunks on the Caracas streets will no doubt certify.

Drinking and driving are bad companions, but you´ll find enough Venezuelans on the road swagging a telltale blue or green bottle and doing their best to drive over your car if they could. Friday nights are beer nights, so watch out when you´re driving.

When you want to know where common Venezuelans spend their Friday and Saturday nights, follow the trail of empty blue and green beer bottles. Lack of disco´s and payable nightclubs has driven the common people to spend their social activities outdoors, standing around a car with its speakers belting out salsa, Colombian vallenato or reggeaton, and organize a party there and then. Parking lots are favorite among the revellers, so if you are so lucky as me to live in a residential compound with ample parking space, stuff your ears with cotton if you want to have a good night´s sleep. Sadly, residents who dare to tell the night revellers to set the music volume from 84 back to 6 have often enough been met with threats and even a drawn weapon. So party poopers like me try to sleep through the throbbing reggaeton, or plan to move to quieter places.

Then we have the posh and fancy people who go out to real places to see and be seen. There are expensive nightclubs in Las Mercedes, Los Palos Grandes or the dancings in the San Ignacio commercial centre, for example. You will find the rich and famous there, and single gentlemen among you readers will encounter a dazzling amount of Miss Venezuela´s. Watch out for unhappy married women however. The Venezuelan male is fierily jealous and won´t be nice to you as you would be to his wife.

And then we have the big shopping malls or centros comerciales. At the commercial centres like Sambil, El Tolón, San Ignacio or El Recreo, besides dancing you can go to the cinema or shopping, two other favorite pastimes. For the quick meals there is a big quantity of the well-known fast food establishments as well as sushi, chinese, Italian, Lebanese, Spanish and Venezuelan quick meal restaurants.

As a resident I strongly recommend NOT to frequent the bars with "hípico" found downtown. Don´t get fooled by the sign "ambiente familiar", because that´s not where you´d like to see your family - that is, if you love them. For those with adventurous spirits, try them, but try to go home not after 10 PM. It´s not the bars that are the trouble - it´s what might happen outside them.

Getting a taxi at night - first try to find own transportation, that is safer. If not, then take a cab outside one of the shopping centers with the center´s logo put clearly on the car. True taxis have yellow numberplates while the moonshining ones are plain cars with a TAXI sign on them. Those are not necessarily risky, but just try to stay on the safe side.

Buenas noches, and have fun!