Traveling to Venezuela

[Squidnation]

I received a call a while back from Capt Butch Cox relaying a story about his season in Venezuela last spring. The call, along with conversations with other captains is prompting me to write this post. This may be a bit long winded but if you are interested in international billfish traveling I urge you to read on.
The conversation really didn't revolve around the fishing. We all know that Venezuela has been the best billfishing destination in the world for quite some time. Capt Butch arrived at the Venezuelan port authority to clear customs after a difficult ride from Aruba. He and his mate were tired, soaked and beat to death from the rough trip. As he pulled into the dock the customs agent met them with a smile and a hot cup of soup. They chatted a bit about the rough trip while the agent inspected the papers and signed off on their entry. He said that to total process would have taken less then 20 minutes had the agent not wanted to have her picture taken with the crew while she was sitting in the fighting chair.
This typical hospitality has been par for the course from just about everyone Butch has dealt with in Venezuela. I too had a similar experience on my last trip down with board members whitey and Don Adkins, the owner of the MHC based Fightin Lady.

I had a rare non-fishing day due to a schedule screw up. Against all advice from the many people who have warned me about Venezuela (3/4 of those had never been there) I decided to go on a sight seeing trip to a German village about 4 hours from the marina. Along the way to the village, my driver Yodi and I stopped at a few cafes for some coffee and breakfast. We also stopped at some fruit stands to take some strawberries back to the guys at the marina. As we scaled the beautiful mountain I could feel the temperature change and was even chilly for a bit. The people at the cafe couldn't have been nicer. I kept asking Yodi if we should lock the doors and he just laughed. He said the Venezuelan people are a nice lot. We chatted with some of the locals and they were as interested in me as I was in them.

When we arrived at the village we strolled the cobblestone streets and spoke with some of the fruit vendors. One particular gentleman was extremely entertaining. He would guess the number of peaches it would take to make a pound and would nail it every time. I even tried to fool him once and threw a couple of strawberries into the bag and he still nailed it. We ended up having lunch at an incredible German restaurant and started our descent back down the mountain.








[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\My Pictures\German Village Venezuela[/IMG]


Upon returning to the Marina I started to pay Yodi the agreed amount for the day and stopped me about $40 short. His reasoning was it was very cloudy and I couldn't really see the entire village. I would love to hear that line coming from a New York tour guide one day.

Back to my conversation with Butch. He went on to speak about the emotional goodbyes he had with the marina crew and friends as he pulled away to take the boat back to Aruba for the summer. His sentiment was that he had never been so sad to leave a place even if it were only to be for a few months. The people in Venezuela had treated him as good if not better then any other place he had worked.

The reason I am posting this is because those of us who have been their and those that keep their boats there can't seem to understand why the traveling fisherman can't seem to get past the idea that Venezuela is not a desirable destination. Some of the best captains in the world are putting up staggering numbers of white and blue marlin along with sails and even swordfish if one would so desire. But because the president of the country is not fond of our government it is considered to be unsafe. Part of me says don't write this because one day it will be difficult to book a boat in Venezuela. The other part of me says that people need to know the truth about this place.

If you would like some information about logistics and fishing please shoot me a PM or you can email me at Squidnation@gmail.com

I guess I can't help myself to at least mention the fishing also.

[TheBigI]

great read

[Wireman]

Thanks for this post Bill.

[Capt_John]

I'm going in Oct. for vacation if anyone wants to come along and share expenses. We have several property owners here from Caraballeda and Caracas. They have also invited me on their boats and to show me around. I was also gonna look up my buddy Bubba Carter as well.

[Double D]

I have only been to Venezuela once, but I can echo your sentiments. We were warned not to go into Caracas, but did anyway. To a person, everyone was friendly and helpful, and genuinely curious about the US. This was not long after 9/11 and everyone expressed their sympathy. Received more than a few hugs

And the fishing was off the hook

[Supafly]

Very cool post. I need to go there some day.

[paul708]

great post bill
it is some great fishing there
we were scheduled to go the year of the mud slides
we had to wait till everything got sorta running again
the boats still had to run to pick us up.
but it was a great time down there

[swaunfundingboatloans]

great thread, was there a couple years ago & had a great time. Nicest people ever!!!

[Swami]

Couldn't agree more with you Bill, it's a great destination. You can learn more about billfishing in a week in VZ than a year most other places...

[waynofish]

My biggest regrets was not venturing out when I spent my time there from 2000 till 02. Seemed to be worried by listening to the people who didn't go there. Never had a problem going to the local restaurants in either Puerto Viejo or Carrabelleda. I always felt the locals were great, never had any problems with any of them. Much the same in Panama, Costa Rica and Colombia. After spending the past several years in Costa Rica I would love to get the opportunity to return to Venezuela. Seems all you hear is negative news but when you get to those places the country is nowhere near how the news makes it out. Get a trusted driver to take you around and you should have no problems. Hell, i wouldn't go out by myself in baltimore, miami, or DC. why should Carracas be any different. Besides where else is it possible, and not be surprizing, if you get a grand slam up in your spread at the same time!