Caribbean Arrival - Onward ticket to Venezuela

[Petronella]

When we arrive in the Caribbean this time next year our crew (daughter #1 and partner) want to continue on to Venezuela. Their preference would be to use ferries to work their way southwards and then hop across somehow to Venezuela.

None of us really wants them to buy tickets before we leave the UK as this will force an unwanted time constraint on our crossing unless it is some sort of flexible ticket, but we are also aware of the onward flight requirement (although onward to where?). Our current planned destination is either Barbados or Antigua as the direct flights to those locations makes it easier to meet up daughter #2 on arrival. This is by no means fixed though at present and we could be flexible with our arrival island if that makes daughter #1's onward plans any easier.

What does the jury think?

 

[blenkinsop]

We visited Venezuela in 2008, but might not have done if we had fully appreciated the security situation there. There are numerous reports of yachts being attacked. We met two who had survived such attacks, one of them in an area rated as a 'caution' rather than danger zone. We were advised against going to anchorages on or near the mainland, and a yacht suffered a fatal attack in one of those a few weeks after our intended visit there. On an inland visit, a young couple in the hostel we used in Ciudad Bolivar had been held up at gunpoint in the tourist area of the city. The marina we used in Puerto La Cruz while we went inland had heavily armed guards on the gate, and we were advised not to walk anywhere!
Look up Venezuela on Noonsite and the Caribbean 'Safety and Security' website.
Recent events suggest that security in the country has, at best, not improved.
It is a pity as the country appears to have much offer travellers.

In our time in the Caribbean, we saw little evidence of inter island ferries, except between Guadeloupe and Martinique (apparently by-passing Dominica) St Vincent to Bequia. They no doubt exist for freight, but LIAT would be the main way to travel in the area even for backpackers

 

[KellysEye]

We were in Venezuela in 2006, 7 and 8 but I wouldn't go there now by boat and I don't think there are any ferries (fortunately). There is a lack of basic foods, inflation is rampant and crime has rocketed including murders. It is a seriously dangerous place now, avoid it. When we left the Marina we went mob handed 25+ people to go to a restaurant and a fruit and veg market on the south side of the Barrio (slum). One cruiser went alone into the Barrio and has his money, watch, clothes and shoes stolen so he had to walk back to marina in his underpants.

On the armed guards in Puerto La Cruz one morning we heard a gun shot a guard had shot himself in the foot. One day we found a .22 bullet on our deck with a blunt point so it had obviously hit something.

 

[tri39]

Blenkinsop is right. I would be very unhappy with my daughter travelling in Venezuela!
Apart from the street crime, there are now political demonstrations, and it will get worse b4 it gets better.
I spoke to Donald Street at the SBS and he said he didn't expect to be able to return to Venezuela in his lifetime!!

 

[TQA]

I am assuming that your daughter and friend are flying to the Caribbean on one way tickets and that you intend to have them onboard. In this case you need to give them letters stating that they are joining your boat. Present them to immigration on arrival. This will suffice for Barbados, Antigua, St Lucia and Grenada. It will NOT suffice for Trinidad. I would talk to someone at YSATT and find the current position. Multiple copies stamped by officials originating at a Marina or Ysatt etc etc.

When they arrive you add them to your crew list. When they decide to leave visit immigration with daughter and friend and evidence of their air tickets and get them signed off your crew list.

I have done this many times up and down the island chain. Trini is the only difficult one.

Yacht Services Association of Trinidad & Tobago

CrewsInn Hotel & Yachting Centre
P.O. Box 2852, TT Post, Chaguaramas, Trinidad, W.I.

Tel: (868) 634-4938 / Fax: (868) 634-2160

Email: info@ysatt.org / ysatt@tstt.net.tt / thebay@ysatt.org

Finally as others have said I would strongly advise against visiting Venezuela just now. Columbia is a maybe but Venezuela is a no no.

 

[Petronella]

Ticket Purchase

Many thanks all for your responses. I have passed on your comments to daughter #1. She is an experienced traveller (Columbia, Boznia, Ukraine etc) but Venezuela does sound a considerable step further from what you all say.

TQA: I didn't explain properly. Daughter and partner will be crossing with us as crew so they will already be on our crew list when we arrive.

"...... When they decide to leave visit immigration with daughter and friend and evidence of their air tickets and get them signed off your crew list."

So, leaving aside whether they move on to Venezuela or another S American country, do they need their onward tickets when they arrive in the Caribbean with us or can they purchase them once there? Thanks.

 

[Tradewinds]

TCM (Matt) has usually carried one-way crew on his Atlantic crossings (& circ) maybe worth a PM to him if TQA doesn't get back to you.

 

[TQA]

They can buy their tickets in the Caribbean, the day before you get immigration to sign them off if you like.

An e-ticket printout is fine.

Again Trini is the only one where difficulties may arise, consult with YSATT beforehand. Immigration officials there have a severe touch of 'epaulitits'.

 

[ChrisE]

We were in Venezuala, briefly, in 2011.

My impression was that Caracas is a seriously dodgy place, we were provided with a guard in the taxi driving from the airport to the hotel, but not sure about the rest.

For instance we spent a perfectly delightful week in Los Rochas, an archiplego about 70m N of Caracas.

 

[Petronella]

That's excellent news TQA. Many thanks.

J

 

[Rhapsode]

We visited Venezuela last September from Trini by ferry. If your daughter still wants to go after reading the forum's comments the following may be off assistance:

Documentation
• Passport
• Valid Yellow Fever certificate
• Copies of passports in black and white.
• Boat documentation if sailing out of Trinidad and Tobago.
• Return air tickets if flying out.
.
Travelling money

There are a number of police checkpoints on the roads in Venezuela. A few of these target tourists as an easy touch. Two sets of people who were travelling at the same time as us got stopped. The men were made to strip and generally intimidated into handing over cash. They were questioned about where they changed their US$ and asked for receipts. We were told that receipts aren’t a requirement unless you’re travelling with US$10,000 or more! An old Venezuela hand advised us that the police aren't allowed by law to search the ladies so the best policies are (a) for the girls to carry the money and (b) if a man is questioned to firmly but politely refuse to handover cash and ask to speak to your embassy. Eventually the police will get fed up and go and look for easier victims.


Ferry
• Pre-book ferry tickets at Pier 1 in person. Wrinklies (over 60s) get a 20% discount. Discounted price in September '13 was US$186 per person. An additional port tax of TT$75 pp has to be paid on the morning of departure.
• The ferry goes on Wednesday mornings from Pier 1 at 08:30. Best to be there by about 07:00. The trip to Guiria takes three hours. Venezuela is UT – 4.5 hours so clocks go back 30 minutes to get Venezuela time.
• It arrives at Guiria at 11:30 local time but clearance takes a long time. Don’t expect to leave the ferry much before 13:30. You are first checked for Yellow Fever vaccination date, then Immigration and then Customs.
• Once ashore your first stop is the ferry office in Guiria town centre (Acosta Asociados on Calle Bolivar) to reconfirm your return tickets. If you are over 60 you don’t have to pay departure tax so you can get your tickets stamped ready for the return trip which means that you can go directly to the port on your return. For the under 60s – you will have to go back to the office on your return to pay departure tax. I think it is about US$25 per person at present.
• Boarding on the return trip is slow. First all the arriving passengers have to disembark and then you have to queue up for a baggage search can be quite lengthy depending upon the number of passengers embarking. You are then allowed on board two or three at a time where first your ticket is checked and then the immigration check and passport stamp.
• On arrival back in Trinidad the officialdom process is also very slow. Immigration is done on board. Once the ferry has been cleared all the passengers are lined up ashore and checked by sniffer dogs. When that’s complete you move on to queue up for the Customs’ check. They are thorough! By the time we got through it was after 21:00 and no maxitaxis were running and no taxis were available in the port area. Best to book transport before you go.

Travel by public bus can be done but it is difficult. Best to use an agent who will arrange your travel by private car (with vetted drivers). we used Ben Rodriguez <Benjamin(at)angel-ecotours.com> who had an excellent team of drivers but was on the expensive side. We also travelled with mauricio rodriguez <mauricio22116(at)hotmail.com>. Either of these will also be able to help with changing US$.

Venezuela is certainly a beautiful country - we are determined to return to see more of the country - but not just yet!

Buen viaje!

 

[tcm]

They can purchase the tickets once there. They arrive as part of crew (as you do) and it's only *some* places that want to see plane tickets to "sign people off the boat". No problem these days - tickets are in a printable email.


other relevant issues...

It's worth taking a small cheap printer/photocopier if possible (and an inverter to drive it if needed).

For other official stuff that you may need to sign, praps get an Official Boat Stamp made, the self-inking ones that you can sign a date - name of boat, port of registry, Reg number - makes things look nice and official.

The fun starts when you invite people to the boat perhaps to arrive in one island, and leave from another. Best option is to let them buy a return to/from the original island, and use local flight for them to hop back to that island.

If you want people to take a one-way flight to the boat (prhaps when taking on crew and returning to europe, frinstance) then they may need an Official Letter from the boat for immigration along the lines of , "this is to confirm that John Smith passport number 123456677 is joning the boat name BOB, reg no 12345 in London, currently at anchor in Rolly Bay, and which is due to sail towards Azores and Europe on around dd/mm/yy, signed John Smith, Skipper." Yes, you even need a letter for yourself, if you take a one-way flight to your own boat.

If you land, and immigration is closed, and you gotta go, and you leave them on the dockside, then they risk being deported, as hapened to crew who wanted off the boat in Antigua when we had flight to meet in Martinique - they were marched off to buy a tickt and get on the next flight back to the uk, ahem. So, don't do that.

I spose you cn think of your boat as an airliner (!) with the skipper/boat being the responsible carrier for those people whilst in the country. No need for an onward ticket cos they live on the boat until/unless they get a ticket to somewhere else. in the meantime they are attached to that boat as crew.

If everything gets awful complicated, sail to a french island. These behave as though they are the only country in the world, and don't give a hoot about your previous exit papers, or lack of them. You just clear in (type some rubbish into a computer, print it and they sign and stamp it and you give the five euros of whatevr...) On exit from the Fr island, get clearance paper (you type stuf into a computer and print it, they sign and stamp it, you give them 5bucks again) and then you're fine to continue to the other (often ex-british/dutch etc) islands with lovely clearance paper from the previous island.

hope this helps

 

[BeBe]

We have been to VZ twice...but will not go again. Based on our circle of friends, there is about a 5% chance that a visitor will be murdered...I think you can double that if the visitor has limited local knowledge. We have lost 2 friends in VZ to murder...1 on a boat and 1 on land.

Bill

 

[temptress]

I have just dropped off crew in Grenada. NO PROBLEM. Immigration authorities just wanted informing and customs were not interested.

The Caribbean is very laid back, just take it easy, fill in the forms when prompted and relax. Everything takes a long time and noone ever hurries

Just have a other rum punch.

When the couple before us stressed the customs guy in St. DAVIDS just before we arrived there it all took a long time. We went to a nearby rum stop and invited the customs guy to join us. We cleared in very smoothly after that.....

 

[Petronella]

Thanks for all the information guys. Some of the checking in/out stuff will come in really useful no matter where daughter #1 decides to go in S America. As for Venezuela - hmm doesn't sound worth the risk to me.

 

[SimonJ]

Am now in Dominica. Have had crew/visitors/family join and leave in various islands including as St Lucia, Barbados, Trinidad, Antigua. Obviously they do need tickets but never have we been asked whether they have them. You do have to change your crew list on leaving to reflect change and sometimes you need to do this before the person flies out at port immigration office. Each island can be different but they will always tell you what to do.
As others have said you would have to be crazy to go to Venezuela. Plenty of alternatives exist!

 

[TQA]

Antigua is picky about changing crew. If you go to immigration to take someone off your crew list you need to have the person concerned, their passport and if they are flying out a copy of the ticket.

If they are moving to another boat that skipper needs to be there with their crew list at the same time.

Antigua is currently applying their customs and immigration rules pretty strictly and skippers have been fined substantial amounts for infractions. It is their island and their rules.

Trinidad is the other island to be careful about crew changes. The rules seem to change there so make sure you have the up to date poop.

 

[Rum_Pirate]

St.Kitts and Nevis are moving toward making very easy to go through Immigration and Customs.

 

[KellysEye]

> Everything takes a long time and noone ever hurries


We used to take book in each and sit down and start reading to prove we had more time than they did. It cut the waiting time down by more than half, the worst were the USVI's in 2005 (it has improved) and Anguilla. To be specific about the USVI's we had no books and there was only one immigration officer to be seen and no customs officer in sight. After about half an hour a lady arrived from her office and we filled in the immigration forms then she disappeared back to her office. Another half hour later she came back to the customs desk. That's when we started taking books.

Another good one is there was an immigration officer in St Lucia who if you asked for a pen to fill in the form he would give you one with blue ink. Then when you handed it in he said it had to be black ink. So then you were stuck if you didn't have a black pen on the boat.There were so many complaints that he was moved to the airport.