Watch some pictures:
With fuel prices at some of the lowest in the world (lower even than Iran), Venezuela has a number of gas guzzlers which are many decades old. The cost of filling up a car tank is approx USD 2.5 (INR 100)
One such gas guzzler is pictured above.
It also means that variable costs being near zero, a large number of people use cars, as it turns out cheaper than public transport, at times.
There are, however, a number of scooters and motorcycles as well- and India rules the roost again: LML Vespa, Bajaj, Hero Honda; they are all here
Caracas has a beautiful, picturesque setting, with the mountains giving a perfect backdrop to an immensely interesting city. In addition, there are ugly skyscrappers, like in most of Latin America. However, the most interesting is the unusually high number of favelas (slums) that dot the landscape on the approach to Caracas.
Many of them sport pictures of their God, President Hugo Chavez, who appears to have displaced the original one, Simon Bolivar ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sim%C3%B3n_Bol%C3%ADvar ), who is more on murals and historical buildings. (Bolivar, perhaps would be the only person in history to have been the president of three countries )The slums have a life of their own, many of them tapping electricity from the poles, and buying servcies like water from water trucks which keep moving around.
Venezuela also has traditionally dominated beauty contests like Miss Universe and Miss world, winning everything that came in its way, till the tide was stopped by an articulate Sushmita Sen in 1994.
Venezuela has come back into the reckoning since, and the cosmetic industry has one of the highest per capita consumption here
Unlike the rest of the continent, Baseball is the major sport here, followed by football. With the Prez being what he is, politics is also not too far behind !
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