Dear Venezuela,

This year we visited you, not the easiest trip of our lives. We tried several times to cross your border, after a couple of times we succeeded. The first time there were too many riots and protests going on, our contact over there tried one day before to reach the border but angry people broke his windshield. Sad. But we did not give up on you because we still believed in the beauty of you. Specially for you, we made a trip of twenty hours through Colombia to get to another "more safe" border crossing. The night before the crossing we watched the news and it was all about you Venezuela and the horrible situation where you are in. Even we got a bit scared and told to eachother "why are we doing this?". But at the end, we kept on going and crossed your border.

A taxi driver and a local, very friendly, girl were waiting for us and picked us up to get deeper inside you. But first we stopped to get our stamp and the officer was very surprised to see people from Europe. He asked us "what are you doing here?" and told us "This is not a good moment to visit Venezuela, it's more dangerous than beautiful right now". But we were determined to get to know you better. Instantly we knew that your economical situation was bad, very bad. We exchanged eighty US dollars and got a big bag of money instead. Walking through a country in deep crisis with a bag full of money, not the most comfortable position. Next to this the only cheap and affordable thing to local people is gasoline, less than a dollar to get a full tank (the cheapest place in the world). But imagine, some people were waiting for a day to get some. We drove past a row of cars more than two miles long. Immediately we got a good (or bad) image of your situation.

We made our trip land-inwards to discover more of you. First, we had to unpack our bag five times because the police was looking for dollars, euro's or some stuff to get some money out of us. Not the most pleasant way to say welcome but ok, we were still friendly to you and made our way through. We were ready for our trip to the biggest and most beautiful lake of South-America, the Maracaibo lake. And yes, finally we saw your inner beauty. After a four hours boat trip through a stunning jungle we got to a floating house in the middle of the lake. This place is known for the "Catatumbo lightning storms", the lightning strikes almost 300 times a year and you will be astonished by the most beautiful sky full of stars. Stunning. The only sad thing here is that some of the floating villages are starting to sink, people are losing there homes. But still, the people and children are not losing there smiles and joy of life. Incredible to see.

After this stop we were not finished with you so we kept on going to discover more of you and yes we did. We did a trip through your highlands, the diversity we saw was incredible. We reached Los Llanos, a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes. Here we saw in one day all the animals we wanted to see through our six month trip; Dolphins, Ara's, Caimans, Anteaters, Piranha's and a four meter large Anaconda. What a great place.

Only now, it's not the most pleasant place to live. But the locals were still very friendly to us and we did not felt really unsafe, people on the streets and from hostels were glad to see some tourists and really appreciated our visit. But I still have contact with friends who are living with you and they are sad and scared. They really love you but at the moment it's very difficult to live with you. Some of them want to leave you, some of them don't give up on you. But it's time to change your attitude, your situation and focus back on the beauty you have and bring back the joy to your people Venezuela. I really believe in you, one day you will be the most beautiful country of South America, in all aspects!

Hope to see you soon in better conditions.

Kind regards,

Travellust