Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Junior]

Hi- I'm in planning stages for a trip to S.America- to be honest Venezuela and Colombia have always been the countries I wanted to visit specifically. However they are both apparently the most dangerous..

Has anyone experience of these countries and how do you rate them for a backpacking tourist? I have heard that Venezuela is largely safe outside of Caracas, and that there are some towns in Colombia that are tourist -friendly e.g. Cartaghena. thoughts?

[mtmelton]

i have lived in Venezuela. I never thought it was that bad as potrayed on Tv with all the travel warning and such from the embassy. Margarita island is pretty nice off the coast as well as Puerto La Cruz the port city. There is a cool German settlement that just opened up 10 or 20 years ago from the influx of immigration 70 or 80 years ago called Colonia Tovar . The numbers might be off. There is also a Murano glass factory around Caracas where you can still watch glass blowing. I think of the few masters that still do that type of stuff. Also check out Merida in the Andes near the Colombian coast. It's a cool college town. Hmm that is all I can think of now. If I think of anything else i will respond.

[bucheon bum]

Colombia is pretty safe these days from what I've heard. Don't think you need to worry, especially if you stick to the cities and/or well-traveled areas.

According to a couple Venezuelan friends, the country is going down the crapper, so if you want to go there, you probably should do it sooner rather than later. Also, the official exchange rate sucks, so you might have to look into using the black market to exchange cash.

[DrugstoreCowgirl]

My ex is Colombian. He said that Cartegena is very nice, and most of Colombia is very safe for tourists, and most of the people who get kidnapped or killed there are either involved in gangs or drugs or are kidnapped because they are in political families, but I would definitely avoid going into the jungles.

[I-am-me]

I have traveled in Colombia and its pretty safe. Bogota and Medellin are a lot safer now than when I was there but dont travel too far into the countryside. Going to popular sites is no problem. Its a beautiful country to visit and the food is great.

[hwa jang shil]

I went to Venezuela with a friend, so we were 2 males. We had no problem with crime, though we were told by 2 policeman not to enter a park because we would be robbed, that was in Caracas. Did have a few examples of I suppose what you could call racism. I'm white, friend is Indian, I had food and beer thrown at me from behind at a baseball game (Caracas) by sneaky buggers, and had a full McDonalds coke hurled at me through a bus window (Maturin) and some girl hurled some abuse I didn't understand while she passed us on an escalator. But to counter that met some really nice people, a taxi driver who tried his hardest to get us to our destination after missing a bus, he took us 50 odd miles to a junction and tried to get us a lift the rest of the way, when that failed he insisted we stayed at his place and took us to the bus station the next morning. I liked Venezuela. But the abuse I got on those 3 instances over a period of 3 weeks has put me off returning to South America for a while. On the whole people were as nice as anywhere else. Oh and I really recommend Merida too. And of course Canaima is beautiful, though unless it's rainy season don't bother seeing Angel Falls