Caracas Packing List Tips by carolinaEspada

Luggage And Bags: Small luggage and bags. This is the XXI century!!! Be sure to lock them. An unlock suitcase might be opened somewhere from the plane to costums... and you might get robbed. Lock your lugagge. I have a little lock on my suitcase (the one that really works), then I have a bunch of locks hanging all around for decorative and stay-away-from-my-bag purposes.

Clothing/Shoes/Weather Gear: Dress down, low profile, almost homeless, but clean. Venezuelans give a lot of importance to taking showers and dressing with clean clothes. But... if you are planning to go to a fancy place, if you are a man bring a really nice jacket and a gorgeous tie (in Venezuela you can buy beautiful ties); if you are a woman, bring a black dress, a chic necklace and proper shoes. That will do. But leave all of your jewelry at home. Dont forget really confortable shoes and cotton socks.You might need a sweater (now, early in the morning is 68 degrees and even less) and a wind-breaker in case you find a short-passing by rain. But remember that Caracas is the capital, is a huge city. You must not look "beachy", bring pants.

Toiletries & Medical Supplies: Bring your medicines, stick to your treatments. You can find excelent doctors in Caracas and pills and shots and everything you need. But, who wants to spent his/hers vacation seeing a doctor?... Well... I do know a couple of really good looking ones... Men and women: bring your favorite kind of condoms. We have them all, but in Spanish. Ladies, bring the brand of sanitary napking you use (check in my warning' ll about this issue and about condoms as well).

Photo Equipment: If you are a profesional, bring all of your equipment. But watch out. Be carefull. Check my warning/danger comment about this matter. Other travellers: bring regular camaras and check my "ran out of film" in the warning secction. Dont forget to bring one of those undewater nonexpensive cameras (those that you hand back in when is developing time). It´s really fun to take pictures under water. Specially of other people and of yourself.

Camping/Beach/Outdoor Gear: You can buy that here, but if you are going to Los Roques, bring ALL of the sun block you can find in stock. Check my warning/danger about the sun in my Los Roques page. It is serious. Bring beach sandals to walk around, and beach rubbery shoes if you are going to do any snorkeling and might step in some corals. Bring mosquito repellent (although, you wont need it in Caracas), but check my Canaima (jungle) warning-advise about this matter.

Miscellaneous: Bring CASH and you will get a better deal changing your dollars for much more than 1600 bolivares, which is the official change. Dont forget your credit cards as well.

If you like to travel and give presents away, once, when I went to Los Andes, I was heart broken because all of the local kids came up to me asking for a pencil and a pencils sharpenesr. As soon as I got to a big city, I bought hundreds of that, and note books, and colors. It was a feast giving them away!

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Toiletries & Medical Supplies: Bring the medicines, pills, shots you doctor have prescribed specially for you. In comparison to U.S.A. doctors, ours tend to overdose their pacients. This is true. We take more miligrams of medicine in comparison to people from other countries. Im talking about antibiothics or antidepresives or sleeping pills or vitamin C or cough syrups. Etc. And even more! There are many medicines that can be bought over the counter with out a doctors prescription. This could be a "Welcome to the wonderful world of legal medical drugs" for some visitors. But I suggest you rather not. Bring what your doctor has prescribed just for you, and in case you get sick and have to go to a hospital, make sure that local doctors undestand that you are a foreiner and you are not used to take overdoses... Carefull here.




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