I want to continue taking you on a journey with me throughout my beautiful Latin America. Of course, I can only share the experiences of the places I have traveled, which is what I am doing with this series of publications. Today, I want to take you on a journey to the second Latin American country I visited: Venezuela.
I visited Venezuela for the first time in 1997, right after my trip to Nicaragua. In fact, my little group — three young women and I, all from the same religious group from college — flew from Nicaragua, through Panamá, to Venezuela. There we met with a larger group from the same religious organization from college. However, while we were in Nicaragua, there were general strikes in the country. The public transportation sector had joined the students in strike as prices were going to be raised in the public universities in the country. This meant that the ferries from Ometepe to the mainland were suspended.
Moreover, during this time, there was also an earthquake in Venezuela that devastated parts of the country. This was our first trip to Venezuela and we had no idea where the earthquake happened and whether it was close to where we were supposed to stay.
Thankfully, we were able to clear everything up and were able to travel to Venezuela after all. This was the first of many trips I took to Venezuela. I have visited before, during, and after the Chávez presidency. I have seen the country transform in many ways. Here, I will not take share about those transformations, as I believe this is a delicate topic that should never be entered into without first engaging the brilliant minds of Venezuelans who support, oppose, and are ambivalent about the political reality of their country. I would do a disservice to my Venezuelan siblings by focusing on my political opinions instead of highlighting the beauty of their motherland.
The first time I visited Venezuela, I stayed in the home of the local pastor whose church we were working with. His house was on a very scary cliff, in the town of El Junquito. He was a dentist, and made good money through his job. His service to the local church in an impoverished neighborhood of Caracas was part-time. He used his skills as a dentist to provide free service to the community too, and the church had a dental clinic for the people in the community.
El Junquito wasn’t particularly interesting to me. But Caracas was! The city is a huge sprawl in a valley and extends to the foot of the mountains around it. As you come up from the Maiquetía Airport, you can see the haphazardly built structures covering miles and miles of mountain slopes. At night, the lights look beautiful. During the day, it looks impressive and dangerous. In the neighborhood where we were working, the passages and narrow paths crisscrossing the slopes from house to house, some built one on top of another, were a maze we did not dare to walk through. This in itself was a beautiful sight. It was beautiful because you could feel how much the community cared for each other, as they helped each other navigate this network of paths that were so confusing that outsiders were warned not to venture in. The Caracas that I experienced that first time, and the second, and third time I visited, was a city of drastic contrasts. It was a city filled with cars, motorcycles, public buses, and a pretty impressive urban metro system. It was a cosmopolitan city filled with culture and arts. It was a city filled with the delicious aromas of national and international cuisines.
Caracas is my favorite place in Venezuela. Contrary to many Latin American cities, Caracas doesn’t have a very defined and preserved “old town.” You walked through history and modernity all the same time. As you step out of the old Roman Catholic Cathedral in the center of the city, there are modern buildings and shopping malls all over the perimeter. This contrast was new to me, and I enjoyed it very much.
In Caracas is also where you can find Cerro Avila. The impressive mountain on the side of the city is reachable through a cable car. The first few times I rode this cable car, I had no worries. However, the last time I visited Caracas, I guess my age showed, as I was scared to death to go up! I positioned myself in the center of the car and curled up in the fetal position until we reached the top of the mountain to the amusement of my sister and my friend who were serving as our tour guide. But once on the top, you get to see the city through the fog.
Another place that is magical in Venezuela is Colonia Tovar in the state of Aragua. I have visited this place a couple of times. This town up in the mountains is the result of German immigrants arriving in Venezuela over a hundred years ago. The climate on the mountain was reminiscent of the climate in their home towns. They produce some of the sweetest and biggest strawberries I have ever had! It is worth visiting the colony and enjoying a day or two trying all of their traditional German dishes and strawberry creations.
Valencia and Maracaibo are the other two places I have spent time in. Although I didn’t get to explore much in Valencia, it was a family visit and we got to enjoy some good time with my aunt and her husband’s extended family who lives there. Having some street food late at night was probably one of the greatest experiences in Valencia. Maracaibo, on the other hand, was also a magical place. Every morning, I would wake up early and walk to the nearby bakery to buy freshly baked bread for the group with which I was. The team there made a delicious strawberry jam (I get to see the thread here!) Eating that freshly baked bread was heaven!
Venezuela has my heart because of many other, more personal experiences I had while traveling and shortly living there in my youth. Although it’s been a few years since my last visit, I do hope to return someday. I want to continue eating the delicious street foods, especially, the arepas reina pepiada (my favorite), and their empanadas — there’s a story about empanadas and a visit to Simón Bolívar’s hacienda from which I will spare you this time. Venezuela is a beautiful country, with wonderful people, and way to much to discover in just a few days over a decade of visiting it. I know in my heart that I will visit more places and get to see the Salto del Angel with my own eyes someday. Until then, I live with the wonderful memories of many, many months spent exploring the streets of Caracas, and the memory of the wonderful smell of freshly baked bread in Maracaibo.
SocioTheology 
You must be logged in to post a comment.