General Info

[Wraith43]

Good morning gents,

I keep running into terms "bank transfers", or "acepto tranferencias bancarias", or "acepto pago movil" to pay for goods or services in Caracas. I don't understand how that works. (assuming I can get a bank account as a foreign tourist, which I know is impossibly hard) Do you have to go to the bank every time to setup a transfer per purchase, or is it done on a cellphone via app, or does "bank transfer" just equals paying by debit card? Just educating myself for a trip early next year.

[Start123]

I'm thinking about going to Venezuela for a quick visit. I work remotely so I'd like to bring my laptop, but I'm afraid it might get taken from my at the airport by some corrupt police or airport security. What are the chances of me going to Venezuela with a laptop and coming out with it a couple weeks later. This is assuming that I won't be showing it off to anyone, I'd only be using it in my hotel room and keeping it locked and secured in a hotel safe when not in the room.

On a related note, how is the internet access in venezuela? Is it possible to get remote work done?

No problems at all and I fly to Caracas and other airport sometimes. It's not a poor country as you might have believed. Internet access is available at 1 mbps for residential costumers or you can use your cell phone. Hotels have Wifi at around 5 mbps.

[Nikitin22]

Any recent advice or experiences on entering Venezuela by car from Colombia and sampling the women? Which border? Head to which city? Hire a driver and or guide? Time and travel and risks? The rewards?

Thanks in advance.

TTM.

I did try to enter Venezuela from the Paraguachon border crossing last year and was not successful because the border was closed. I just talked with my cousin I heard that the border is sometimes open and sometimes they close it again. So you should be very careful first and check everything. If the border is open or not.

[Haitek]

There is no more Venezuelan embassy in the US.

http://eeuu.embajada.gob.ve/index.ph...emid=6&lang=en

[Haitek]

The dollars you put into your account are converted into BS at the official rate, which really sucks.

I use my local bank account only to deposit bolivars.

[Explorer8939]

Their visa process the same day or they mail it eventually.

There is no more Venezuelan embassy in the US.

[Explorer8939]

I managed to open a bank account and have a payment card at the Banco Nacional de Credito. To my knowledge, it is the only bank that agrees to open an account to a foreigner with a tourist visa.

The proceedings lasted three days. The most important paper to provide to the bank is the Registro unico de Informacion fiscal (I paid 500,000 bolivars to an accountant to make this paper).

The dollars you put into your account are converted into BS at the official rate, which really sucks.

[Explorer8939]

Any recent advice or experiences on entering Venezuela by car from Colombia and sampling the women? Which border? Head to which city? Hire a driver and or guide? Time and travel and risks? The rewards?

Thanks in advance.

TTM.

First off, you need a visa, and good luck getting one at the border, if you are an American. And, with no diplomatic relations, you are screwed if anything goes off the rails.

On the other side of the border is Tachira, with no detectable mongering scene.

[The Tall Man]

Any recent advice or experiences on entering Venezuela by car from Colombia and sampling the women? Which border? Head to which city? Hire a driver and or guide? Time and travel and risks? The rewards?

Thanks in advance.

TTM.

[SeanWilkds]

I am in Panama now, just getting ready to fly to Margarita day after tomorrow and having a bit of a hard time getting $100 bills here. The bank machines just dispense $20's. I managed to change a few inside the bank, even though they didn't want to help me because I am not a customer. I just realized that a few of the bills they gave me, are the older (2006) bills without the security strip, and one has a small nick in it. I am wondering whether this is likely going to be a problem and whether I should factor this in when calculating my available cash on hand. I am planning on withdrawing a bit more money from the ATM at the airport before I leave, and am wondering if I should really be trying to change these bills into $100's as well, or whether I might be almost as well of with $20's. One of the ATM's gave me all the $20's in perfect condition, and another (that I changed for $100's) gave a lot of dirty and fairly heavily used bills. Last time I was in Caracas, $50's and $100's where much preferred, but I could get pretty much the same rate for $20's just people weren't as eager to trade for them.

[Haitek]

I managed to open a bank account and have a payment card at the Banco Nacional de Credito. To my knowledge, it is the only bank that agrees to open an account to a foreigner with a tourist visa.

The proceedings lasted three days. The most important paper to provide to the bank is the Registro unico de Informacion fiscal (I paid 500,000 bolivars to an accountant to make this paper).

[Haitek]

I have just spent four weeks in Venezuela, visiting Barcelona, Puerto La Cruz and Cumana. If any of you go to this area, do not hesitate to ask me for information.

Regarding P4 P, I do not have more information compared to what I posted before on this forum. I did not have time to meet prepago chicas for P4 P.
This time, I dated a non-pro and I stayed mostly all the time with her, including living in her family house in Barcelona.

[Haitek]

I'm thinking about going to Venezuela for a quick visit. I work remotely so I'd like to bring my laptop, but I'm afraid it might get taken from my at the airport by some corrupt police or airport security. What are the chances of me going to Venezuela with a laptop and coming out with it a couple weeks later. This is assuming that I won't be showing it off to anyone, I'd only be using it in my hotel room and keeping it locked and secured in a hotel safe when not in the room.

On a related note, how is the internet access in venezuela? Is it possible to get remote work done?

The airport police will arrest you only if you carry illegal items or if you try to hide 10 laptops to sell them later on black market. The cops and the military dare to rob you out only if you find yourself on an isolated area. But in public in front the crowd, they stick by the rules.
However, one member of this forum was racketeered 20 dollars by an immigration officer when he left the country. For myself, I have used at least ten times the Caracas Airport and I have never been threatened or lost my belongings.

Venezuela is not a dirty third world country. People have tablets and laptops. Many restaurants, bars and hotels offer free Wifi. But I found 4G faster than Wifi and I used my smartphone as internet modem for my laptop. I advise you to get a local phone card with 4G.

[Kazeu]

I'm thinking about going to Venezuela for a quick visit. I work remotely so I'd like to bring my laptop, but I'm afraid it might get taken from my at the airport by some corrupt police or airport security. What are the chances of me going to Venezuela with a laptop and coming out with it a couple weeks later. This is assuming that I won't be showing it off to anyone, I'd only be using it in my hotel room and keeping it locked and secured in a hotel safe when not in the room.

On a related note, how is the internet access in venezuela? Is it possible to get remote work done?

[Travv]

"Caracas (AFP) - Swearing in fury, the crowd strips the man naked and stomps on his head as he sprawls on the ground.

"You want things that come easy? Then take this, you bastard."

In Venezuela, this is what robbers get when they are caught by passers-by.

AFP journalists filmed a lynching close-up in a busy street in the capital Caracas.

A witness says he stopped the man who had tried to rob a woman at gunpoint in a bakery. Then the mob took over.

"You're lucky we didn't burn you," a voice yells, as police lug the man, limp but still breathing, into the back of their car.

The crowd yells in satisfaction- but not at the man's arrest. They think they are the ones who have done justice here.

"Their aim is to kill the person before the police arrive," says Marco Ponce, coordinator of the Venezuelan Social Conflict Observatory (OVCS)."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela...094329281.html

If the locals are going on a lynching spree of muggers and robbers, it might be safe to go there soon! As a traveler once said of England 300 years ago, "Thank God I am returning to a civilized country" when he saw the bodies of thieves hanging from ropes outside an English port from his ship. Won't take many lynchings to make Venezuela safe for tourists from muggers.