I need your help. If you happen to be travelling to or from Venezuela, I want you to take the pictures you can of the arrival process.
Among other things, I would be very grateful if you could send me pictures of
- the president's huge poster at the arrival in Maiquetía airport
- the place where the airport trolleys are taken by the airport mafia
- the private tourist offices in the airport
- the place where people have to pay the extra taxes to use the airport
- a selected set of billboards along the motorway depicting the Supreme Leader
- the nasty X rays used for drug control
- the military controlling people at every step
- some other picture you consider worth taking on your route to your place
Thanks!
Well, I remember there was a huge Chavez picture, we came back to Germany in October 2009 I dont remember seeing one now - but maybe I got to used to it.
ReplyDeleteWhen you go out of Vzla things change now. In Jan. 2009 you still had to line up before you can go to the counter of your airline and an GN will controll your ticket to go in. Thats not anymore. Also Air Iran is not anymore beside Lufthansa.
The Airporttax was now 137,50 - to 115 in Jan.
Duty free Shops are now more and better and u even got an smokers lounge at gate 22.
You will be asked at check in if you have dry milk, coffee etc, and I would recomend to say no. Otherwise they will take your boarding card at your gate and your passport and you have to go to the runway where they check youre luggage. It takes a long time and in my case the GN did not take a look at the dry milk I was taking but all other stuff.
Sry no pics.
Hi, Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen this?
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/diplo/de/Laenderinformationen/Venezuela/Sicherheitshinweise.html
It has grown and grown in the last years.
A friend of mine said she recently came from Venezuela and she had to go through a "weird scanner" with others (God knows what weird is), they took her passport twice, they had to sign something.
The tax is outrageous. I had heard about it, it is the highest in the Americas. As far as I understand, they do not allow the tax to go into the ticket, which would be more practical for most, which means they want to get the dollars directly, without anyone knowing who gets what.
Somebody is making some money like that.
The last time I arrived there, as soon as I got out and onto the waiting group a guy stopped my luggage trolley and said he would be taking it "porque ahora son socialistas". So: it is not possible to use trolleys from the waiting line to the exit as normal in North America, Europe and probably a lot of other places. I just took my things in my hand because I find it so stupid these guys charge for that.
Last time I left there was a huge control of every man and woman after the immigration and last ticket control. I remember I put on my glasses and took out a book and kept reading it while waiting to be searched and I was one of the few they did not control. My book may have scared the military. :-)
So: always take a book with you