ooooo Venezuela - not going to paint a pretty picture here - I'm thinking that it's rather on the dangerous side - country is and has been having a lot of problems.
On another site I'm on there is a member there (he lives there) who has written nothing good about it a lot (I see his stuff going back farther than 2013). From the corrupt (really bad) politicians/government to the food distribution (rather non existent - IF a shipment of food gets to a government owned grocery store - people stand in long lines (with fights and rioting) to get their ration of simple foods). Medicines are pretty non existent now - he has been trying to find herbal/natural cures. His wife had terminal cancer and was misdiagnosed and he couldn't find medicine and she finally died. He was only there till she got better so they could leave. Now he is staying till July for his only son to finish school and he's outta there.
Daily shootings, daily power outages. I mean they actually were running out of TP at one time. And a reduced workweek to 2 days (this is listed in the one article on the first thread link), so less monies to spend - and the prices raised (from an excerpt from Ironhide - who lives there).
What I do know, is that when I go to buy bread, there isn´t any and when there is I have to do a long line and I am only allowed to buy one.
When you need a battery you either pay a bachaquero or you wait up to two days in line and if you are lucky they have the one you need. I spent 8 months without a battery because they didn´t have it and they were asking too much. For instance, the battery I bought I paid 80.000 bs for it, I bought two that is 160.000 bs,
The regular price of the battery costs 17.000 bs. A bachaquero comes in and pays them what we call a vacuna, a vaccine, I don´t know exaclty the amount but I heard it was 20.000 bs, so the bachaquero is paying 37.000 bs for a battery and because he pays the vacuna he has priority over us who do the line. The bachaquero turns around and sells it for 60.000, 70.000, or 80.000 depending on the price of the black market on that particular week, and because the black market price does rise every single dayj, this has a direct effect on the prices especially regulated prices sold by bachaqueros and hence the massive hyperinflation we are experiencing right now.
What happens, the government announces a 30% increase on minimung wage which is selttled now at 15.050.15 or something like that. Imagine someone with minimun salary trying to buy a battery. This is only one example. A samsung galaxy S5 costs over 500.000 bs, complety ridiculous. My sinus operation whichi insurece paid for, costed me 350.000bs, a cell phone costs more than a nose operation. Only in this country. Same with other appliences like TV, a computer, a microwave, a dishwasher, etc,
Here is a fairly recent thread - one of many about this on this site - a conspiracy site. The person who is there goes by the name of Ironhide - he has several entries in each thread link. He used to talk about his going into the jungle and of the fruits he found and things he was building, but not so anymore.
Threads listed below have several news articles and pics in them talking about this. It's a shame. The beaches, jungles and scenery are beautiful! But I'd say if you do go - be careful!!! Hope this helps or gives you a better background here.
You can also search the site for member Ironhide and Venezuela for more info too.
http://intellectualodditiesnetwork.com/showthread.php?tid=38941&highlight=venezuela
http://intellectualodditiesnetwork.com/showthread.php?tid=38722&highlight=venezuela
