With a cup of tea and a cigarette, I spent some time looking for an interesting subject, a story to tell; and I asked myself: Why not tell them about my hometown? tell them what life was like before and now in the city where I was born and where I have lived for 35 years.
Caracas, is a cosmopolitan city with a lot of variety in its environments. Today, defining it in a single word is not a simple task, but I think I found a unique way to define it. "Complicated" .
That's right, a complicated city full of mixed feelings for those who live here. When a Caraqueño talks about his city, doesn´t stop feeling love and hatred for the city, or living between two times, past and present; the relationship of citizens to the Venezuelan capital has become Bipolar. I will explain the Why.
Citing the late singer Gustavo Cerati, Caracas is "the city of fury." Today it is classified as the most violent city in the world, with an average rate of 130.35 per 100 inhabitants , it is a city that reunites to more than 3 million habitants in a valley of 776 kilometers squares, which is equivalent to about 482 miles.
In spite of the violence, and to which all the citizens, at some moment of their lives, have been victims of the crime, or they have lived it through a friend or near familiar (those who have good luck). There is a positive way of life among its citizens.
Caracas , has 2 faces, one diurnal, where hundreds of thousands of people move from west to east and vice versa, to go to their places of work. From very early hours of the morning, people can be seen moving around in their vehicles, motorbikes, buses, and the train; or as we call it here, the Caracas metro . At 7:00 am, the city's main motorway, which runs through the city from end to end, looks like a parking lot, from the large number of people who move to their jobs. In the 35 years that I have lived in the city, this situation has always been the same.
There are periods, where the collapse in the streets is slightly reduced, can be seen in the months of July and August, where children and young people leave school holidays, or as they are often called in the summer holidays, many people use this period to leave the city and travel to other states, and most common, is to visit the beaches of the country
Going back to the day to day in Caracas, Mondays and Fridays, are days of bank collapse, if you need to do any activity in your bank, it is advisable not to go, in these 2 days, because everyone does it and you can lose the whole day in the bank.
The days near the fortnight, everyone is in the streets, in the banks, in the markets, in the offices, shops, etc. So you need to be willing to waste time, doing whatever you need to do.
A characteristic place of the city, it is the center of Caracas, to travel there is an adventure, it is a totally convulsed sector, since all the national public agencies, in addition the excessive marches and concentrations of pro-government activists, carry out their activities and everything is concentrated here; so it is often a habit, for reasons of time-saving, caused by heavy traffic, to move on foot. All government paperwork is done from the center of Caracas, so it is very common to meet people from other cities of the country here.
Another very busy and visited place of the Venezuelan capital, is Plaza Venezuela, an area of Caracas where two natural parks are located nearby, los Caobos and the Botanical Garden , where many people visit them to exercise and share a feeling of being in a natural environment, without needing to leave the city. Also located is the Central University of Venezuela , which is considered the alma mater of the country, and where thousands of students are mobilized to study their professions. As an anecdote: I presented the internal test for computer engineering in 1999, and 27,000 applicants, I was in the position 2,739, of course, there were only 1000 quotas, of which half are as a benefit to university workers.
Although the biggest attraction of the plaza Venezuela, at least I speak for myself, is to go to eat hot dogs and hamburgers there, are famous for the variety of junk food and great taste that can be tasted. That is why when I speak of Plaza Venezuela to my mind comes this:
There is another daytime mode of distraction for the caraqueño, and is the one to visit and to make life in the commercial centers, like the sambil in chacao , cristal park , shopping center recreation, city tamanaco; also the Parque del Este , and if you are risky, the Parque del Oeste in Catia. I do not want to extend myself with this, since I am not elaborating a tourist guide, but telling how those who live in the city of fury try to escape the routine and the regrets of everyday life.
And the biggest distraction of many is the visit to the national park el avila , a mountain that runs through the valley of caracas and where many hikers visit daily to exercise and connect with nature, the last time I went up, I came back injured from a knee and an ankle.
There is a Caracas at night, where many escape the routine of their work, especially on Fridays and Saturdays, this is the other face of the city, here if we can talk about before and after, because we used to have a very lively nightlife, the fashion was, to visit Las Mercedes, where they were the disco, clubs, bars and restaurants of fashion of the city. Nowadays, because of crime, the city is becoming more alone at night, the new way out of the routine is to meet at friend´s houses, drink a few drinks, listen to music and return home early at night or early in the morning, is also very popular, to meet in certain squares and streets near the liquor stores, to listen to music and drink from the cars, but this activity is extinguished after 10:00 pm (10: 00 pm), the most daring can stay until 00:00 (12:00 am) and extend until 2 in the morning.
The night is now taken by the motorcycle driver, displacing ordinary people from the night activity of the city.
Pic: http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2014/11/141121_venezuela_caracas_vida_nocturna_dp
Only a few, as in my case, that we went out at night to work, we were able to witness the change; the desolation and the abandonment of the Caracas nightlife.
I conclude this article by saying that despite the political problems, the economic crisis that we live, the great number of deficiencies that exist in the country, we are still looking for ways, adapting to the situation of living in this increasingly dismal capital and empty. in the city of fury.
