A Venezuelan wacky guy living his Australian dream

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This post is part of a bigger compilation of thoughts and thus, it might have no sense or lead to miss information. If you want to fully read it, start from here, otherwise continue reading.

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Who doesn’t know what a to-do list work for? I didn’t fully understand it till these days when you get so crowded with stuff in your mind that things when to on priority to “what was I going to do?” in no time.

In any case, my wife got me a piece of paper and told me to list everything I was planning to do in the upcoming days. As I had it mentally listed for so long, building up the list was easy… following it was the hard part :P Got to buy shipping bubble plastic, got to buy the travel bags, got to… do so many things, Oh lord!

I went from home to the streets and back all day long gathering those final details (but important) that many don’t give it importance till you are wasting so much time in things you could had done way before the visa approval.

My advice in this part, build a to-do list with every possible aspect needed for the departure… if you have near 50 items in that list, I bet you there are 20 more you haven’t thought.

With the to-do list ready and priorities assigned the following days are execute those tasks shipping those not possible for now. Our top priority was trespass our vaccine history to the yellow card (International certificate of vaccination).

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This post is part of a bigger compilation of thoughts and thus, it might have no sense or lead to miss information. If you want to fully read it, start from here, otherwise continue reading.

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Again, the searching for convenience is a most choosing what to leave and what to take with us in our moving... As you may know, several months ago we moved to a new apartment in Caracas, getting ready for the upcoming changes, at that moment we disposed several damaged, unused or worthless pieces of clothes (with disposal I mean gave away to someone, if clothes were in good shape to charity otherwise to my mom so she could use it as cleaning rag) taking ahead on this duty.

But what is the important thing in this post, how to pack our clothes. And you may say, “what? How to pack our clothes? Man, everyone knows how to do their bags!” and you might be right, but I think it was worth it to be remarked the advice someone in Australia told me once.

Try to do your luggage taking note of everything. Don’t just throw everything in the bags because you might need to know where the bloody hell you left your tie, shirt, pants, underwear, etc. And so we did, at first we start compressing our clothes (you should read the saving space post first in case you didn’t, here) trying to keep some ‘order’ into the huge mess, storing some underwear, shirts and pants here and there... What does that means?

We didn’t set all our pants in just one bag, neither the shirt underwear and so on. Why? Just in case any of our bags were sent by mistake to Uganda; seriously I don’t want to imagine the face of the aussies with me walking with shorts and no shirt on Sydney’s CBD. The same tactic applies to fur coat (for winter) or swimming suits (for summer). Most of our clothes fit into six bags and one big box which was sent by post office in Caracas.

This labour was made in parallel with packing our stuff (other than clothes). And if you want to know what kind of bags did I used, read this post.

Once done all the packaging, came the shipping.

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This post is part of a bigger compilation of thoughts and thus, it might have no sense or lead to miss information. If you want to fully read it, start from here, otherwise continue reading.

As I already said here, we had lots of kitchen aids, tableware, bathroom accessories, bedroom clothes and accessories and we decided to take everything with us that might be expensive in Down Under excluding electrical devices. Most of those things were planned to be sent by post office and few within our luggage.

So, what’s the standard procedure to pack fragile things such as plates or drinking glasses?

Easy, you will need bubble plastic, polypropylene pellets, paper duck tape, tick cardboard and cardboard boxes of different sizes. The purpose of boxes of different sizes is, small boxes will contain the fragile articles and bigger boxes will isolate (with the pellets) the small boxes from unexpected bangs.

So, let’s imagine we are going to pack our tableware. The first thing to do is protect dishes, cups and other stuff with cardboard so it does not hit each other within the “small” box. Then cover the ‘small’ box with bubble plastic leaving the bubble facing in and the smooth surface facing out; this way the bubble will protect the box from impacts and the smooth face will help you with duck tape stickiness.

Then, cover every face of the bigger box with plastic duck tape without leaving spots. This technique is great because helps to cardboard to be impermeable and stronger. Cut open the up side face to the next step.

Next, put some pellets inside the bigger box (making a soft bed for the small box) and put the tableware box on that bed, leaving an inch from side to side. Then you can fill in the spaces with small (but resistant) stuffs such as books, spoons or kitchen aids to finally add more pellets; shake every now and then the box so the pellets fall in inaccessible places, creating a better protection.

Finally, close the up side of the box with duck tape and cover the box (if required) with bond paper. In Venezuela the bond paper is a most, because the box’s cardboard face doesn’t allow the post stamp’s glue to work properly, plus you got to remember every box’s face was covered with plastic duck tape.

This way you can forget how uncaring the handler could be.

Next thing to do, ship boxes down under.

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This post is part of a bigger compilation of thoughts and thus, it might have no sense or lead to miss information. If you want to fully read it, start from here, otherwise continue reading.

Shipping stuff over is one of the obvious tasks to do moving anywhere, and correct information is a must before taking boxes out with us (especially when we don’t have any car) so we called the post office and talked to a kind man named Jesus. He give us some directions of how to pack everything so he can check it prior handle it.

With things classified and ready to be sent from overseas to Australia we took a taxi (in fact, were two taxi’s) to the main post office in Caracas (address here), and after some minutes waiting a kind man came from his cubicle saying “are you rod? Hi! I am Jesus, remember?” proceeding to take care of our boxes and helping us to get the weight of every single box.

This procedure is really simple to complete, just go ahead to the post office, with the boxes upside open and without any pellets (discussed in the previous post) so these guys can check the content inside the boxes. Then add all the protective material you want and leave it to them.

In our case, the boxes took odd 15 days to arrive tops, and as the days goes by, it gets quicker.

If you haven’t read how we shop our bags, then click here. Otherwise continue reading “closing unnecessary things”

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This post is part of a bigger compilation of thoughts and thus, it might have no sense or lead to miss information. If you want to fully read it, start from here, otherwise continue reading.

One of those things that makes me wonder what would be a great purchase, were the travel bags or luggage. I wanted to be slick and strong enough to resist bad handling and even heavy treatment, but at the same time something easy to handle and light so I can use as much as possible in the airplane.

Checking on the Internet and chatting with my mate Victor, found a great deal with the travel bags, because are light, most cases has wheels (which is great when the content is too heavy) and once used easy to store.

And right there is the important feature “easy to store”, many people don’t realise why good bags are better than suitcases which will be nicer to look at... But when you are moving anywhere in permanent basis you most think about the space you are going to use in your temporal or final residence. In our case we bought 8 bags (maximum allowed by IOM and the airlines) in which we stuffed all our immediate things, and then moved to my parents home to finally take it with us to Australia.

And the question will be, “tell me Rod, what travel bags should I get?” the answer is, it depends on you. I choose something alike to the picture, the colour doesn’t really matter the important thing is you feel comfortable with it and you have (or will have) the proper space to save it for later.

Next you will need to close unnecessary things.

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This post is part of a bigger compilation of thoughts and thus, it might have no sense or lead to miss information. If you want to fully read it, start from here, otherwise continue reading.

Prior moving down under (which isn’t precisely close to anything) you will need to establish what to leave open and what not to. In my case bank account and everything else were closed and some mail addresses changed to a P.O Box where my family could check it every now and then for me.

This post might apply only for Venezuela, so read it at discretion.

In Venezuela the bank entities just sucks. Every single bank is a major headache and none try to give you better products, treatment or benefits. So I decided to close everything, if you choose so, build your patience, write a letter saying you want to close your accounts (credit accounts, money saver account, saving accounts, everything) and head to the branch office. Talk to a teller or office representative, if you start with the wrong foot, request the manager presence and continue finishing your accounts.

We also request the end of service of electricity, water, Internet, and gas.

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This post is part of a bigger compilation of thoughts and thus, it might have no sense or lead to miss information. If you want to fully read it, start from here, otherwise continue reading.

Something important of moving anywhere else is getting ready to the upcoming changes; weather is one of those big changes anyone would suffer. Thus Kathy and I were checking every now and then the weather forecast for a whole year and we already knew that august in Sydney is cold because of the winter, then for a moment or so I remembered the 2000 summer Olympics on Sydney (celebrated on September) when a sports reporter took a chance to review a Venezuelan and his only couple of words were “man, here is freezing!”.

I must confess, at that time I didn’t know or even thought about moving down under. But it got to my attention that a huge desert as Australia could have low temperatures, so I tried to check the Internet to find out more and was my first time to know that Australia has the four seasons, it has snow in some mountains and also has tropical monsoons at the very north.

The idea of arriving to Australian land, looking as ice cube didn’t like me too much, so we figured to buy some winter clothes, blankets, quilts and the list goes on and on. After a long listing of stuffs, we went to the only store in Caracas which could have anything alike just to find out it was extremely expensive; another solution must be found, maybe to somewhere colder than Venezuela, but where? The only nearest place to Venezuela with cold weather could be Bogota in Colombia.

I should say something here, you might be thinking “rod, are you out of your mind? How could be any cheaper to travel to another country to get stuff instead just trying harder in your own country?” and you might be right, it should be cheaper to take a deep look if you are talking about a regular basis economy. But in Venezuela things work different, every Venezuelan has a limited access to foreign currencies such as American dollars, these limitations also applies to companies, thus a parallel market to acquire dollars exist in which the American dollar is valued 2.5 to 3 times more than the government admits, plus 90% of the products consumed within the country for daily operations is based on imported merchandise. As consequence, every single good in a store / market / shop tags a price with is 400% inflated related to the same product bought in the US or other country. If you sum the expenses of traveling outside Venezuelan borders + the good price (if you buy big contents, not just two things) you will be having more things and you traveled somewhere else and get to know something.

So, back to the travel, the thing was getting to Bogota, make the arrangements for a cheap hotel or hostel, and acquire the knowledge of where to shop. At that very moment, an angel falls to my sight. Alex, a mate and moderator from my forum ‘aussie neighbour’ emerged from the nowhere giving some directions and offering me some stay for few days.

Once everything was set and ready to go, we went to an online travel agency named “despegar.com” (take-off.com in Spanish) and shopped two tickets headed to Bogota. With the tickets and everything ready, we went to CADIVI (the Venezuelan responsible for releasing dollars to the market) in order to get the approval in our credit cards so we can buy our clothes.

The train seemed to be unstoppable until an issue occurs.

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This post is part of a bigger compilation of thoughts and thus, it might have no sense or lead to miss information. If you want to fully read it, start from here, otherwise continue reading.

In the last post I was telling about issues I had with my passport and several things we needed to get done to get some winter clothes and flight planning to Australia. But in the meanwhile some farewell parties occur.

I must be honest from the beginning, after saying good bye and godspeed you to so many good mates, I deeply wanted my party because says you are almost there, hold on good things are coming. Even though many asked me when my farewell party was meant to, no one really offered himself as host for the party, so the time went by and I started losing hopes on this, till my dear mate frank from the Pineda’s five blog, told me to go to his house for my farewell. This party was meant to be one or two weeks before departing (original departure on August 7, 2009, party planned for July 25, 2009).

At the same time, my mom was planning for my birthday (11th of July) a farewell party as well, so my closest mates, family members and neighbours could say something to us and say bye bye. At my birthday many people came without even knowing I was leaving the country, bunch of people told me “wow, here are so many people leaving to Australia... Why?... mates of you?? Why???... you too leaving????????????”

Anyway, my mom had invited many people in order to be strong to avoid being crying every now and then, but could not help it when was time for the cake; my dad as well hugged me tight wishing me the very best. It is hard for anyone (especially parents) to see their offspring go, even harder when is faraway, so if you are planning to move down under and you have close family you got to be strong and hold it for the last few days; why? Remember that in first place you were the one choosing to move elsewhere to have a better and prosper life, hold tight to these ideas against the general comments such as “sadly, you are leaving your family behind…”; being down under is not just your opportunities, it will open as well opportunities for your family members whom decided to stay.

The next farewell was in frank’s place, we had some ‘choripanes’ with is a hot dog with Spanish sausage instead regular pork meat sausage used in the hot dogs. The choripanes are kind of common here in Venezuela although I have not ever tasted one, so it was cool. Plus many mates from Valencia in Venezuela and other places came by to meet us and say goodbye as well. The evening surprise was having Victor and Raul call (on Skype) and having some knowledge transferred to us of their experiences in Perth. At the end it was a good night with good food and good company.

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Is that all? Nope, those parties were taken place before my passport issues, obviously in the meanwhile I didn’t had any intention of parting but with the plane ticket and passport ready to go I was in the mood again. Frank called me again but this time the party was exclusive, on one of the gorgeous beaches of Venezuela with crystalline water, little fishes swimming around you and fine food, all this for us and the Pineda’s five.

Back in Caracas my mates Santos and Rosely (both architects) told us to gather with them for a barbie; as regular dinner or lunch were frequent we didn’t even gave a thought this one was supposed to be our last with them in Venezuela (at least for a long time) so they also planned to wish us the best on this opportunity and say goodbye. And so, this was the last time Kathy and I meet our mates to have a meal or just chat in Venezuelan soil, next time will be down under.

With parties done, everything packed and little things to do we just had to travel to Bogota (this time meant to buy nice outfits instead just winter clothes as some friends in Sydney already told us the winter was fading away) and once back to Venezuela spend the last couple of days with our family.

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This post is part of a bigger compilation of thoughts and thus, it might have no sense or lead to miss information. If you want to fully read it, start from here, otherwise continue reading.

Long time ago, I was talking to Kathy explaining the good feeling and experiences anyone could have when travels outside the boundaries of their country. Venezuela for so long was her home and only experience and somehow I was scared if she would ever going to like leaving her world behind for something yet not tasted.

Someone told me once, “visiting a country is one thing, living it is totally different; tourist could and would see everything with kind eyes, flawless and timed, meanwhile a resident will complain about several daily things as people parking were it shouldn’t, weekend drunk people or maybe irresponsible politics attitude regardless citizen rights or wishes” but what about if she didn’t even had that candy eye before traveling? Comparisons could be easy to make against Venezuela which is suffering of so much hatred and intolerance, suffering a poor politic process that doesn’t give the proper treatment to corruption or felony because is deeply rotten with those diseases. Colombia offered us a perfect comparison with Venezuela, why? Its situations are totally opposed yet suffer same diseases such as corruption and felony.

As days went by, we called or chat with our mate Alex in Bogota; she kindly offered to be our host during those days and go to shop with us. With tickets in hand we went to sleep at the Simon Bolivar Airport, mainly because it was the earlier flight at the airport and the check-in was supposed to be made at 4:00 in the morning. Once checked-in and waiting for the immigration check I could not helped to be worried.

“What if I had yet again another issue? What if the officer just wants to mess me?”

Then the officer called us, asked for our documents and took a deep look into our passports... Gave me my passport but turn his sight to Kathy and asked her “Mrs, why do you have an amendment on July 30?” She explained at that moment that my passport had an issue so we were unable to travel and the cancelation was necessary as she didn’t leave. The officer gave us the go without any other second thought. At that moment an old lady asked to us where the gate 17 was (the one pointed at our passages) and after she watched our tickets asked to stay with us; 30 minutes later we were heading to Bogota via Cartagena.

Once in Bogota, Kathy had mixed feeling between excitement and supreme rush, like being electric; after picking up our bags and setting off last couple of things, we meet Alex to go to her home, leave things there and go to a mall. As the day went out Kathy and I were shocked of how different things were; daily costs as food or anything else, compared to Venezuela were so low and so, we realised our choosing was right, we needed to leave Venezuela behind in order to have a nice family with high standards of life. Next couple of days were shopping and the final day, we headed to the salt cathedral. I must confess I didn’t imagine being in such a magical or beautiful place, something worth it to visit whenever someone go to Bogota.

Was it everything ok? No, even though we request permission to the government to use dollars through our credit cards, it didn’t work. We spend time and money calling back to our banks in Caracas just to be mocked by the bank representatives, didn’t do anything to help us or trying to solve our issues with the credit cards. The reports at stores were “oh, your credit card has problems with our credit card point... do you have other payment type?” thankfully we were prepared to pay in cash every single time.

Now, how has the fault? Is it government or bank fault?

Several days ago I was chatting with a forum member (who is going to Australia to study English) and he told me that after long conversations with CADIVI (the responsible of approve dollar requests) he had its courses approved and “paid” in dollars through a bank entity, but when he call the bank where he holds his account, they told him that there isn’t such money ready to go. As usual, he thought the bank was telling the truth and all the fault was CADIVI’s so he called back his officer just to find the bank was playing fool just to keep the dollars for its own benefit.

Our case, whose fault? Don’t know and seriously don’t want to know neither, leaving these things behind will be the best and keep moving forward. All we know is, it was delightful and we really appreciate to Alex and Stef having us as such magnificent hosts. Thank you guys for everything you were the best.

Next? Jump into the plane whose waiting to make our dreams come true.