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.

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 said we wanted to travel to Colombia prior Australia. In order to get some winter clothes, fur and other stuffs. With tickets (flying on July 30th) in hand and ready in the airport we checked in and made our way to the immigration area. After 30 to 40 minutes waiting a long line it was our turn to be interview by the immigration agent in the Simon Bolivar Airport, first was my wife, she handed her passport and immigration card, everything was cool, then it was me. The agent looked the passport, then the extension period in it and asked me:

- “Sir, where did you get this extension?”

- So I respond “in the Onidex branch office located in coche… Why? Is there a problem?”

- The lady in a mocker tone of voice told me: “Are you sure? Didn’t you get it in a cereal box? This passport isn’t suitable for traveling. I am really sorry but you will lose your flight until you get a new passport.”

All of the sudden I stop listening, it was like a really bad nightmare. How could this be possible? I went to the Onidex (which is the immigration and foreign control institution) to get the passport and 10 days before my departure to Australia this lady is telling me that my passport is invalid???? Is she making a cruel bad joke? She turn her head to her back and called her supervisor which took my left arm and showed me a piece of paper (at first sight appears to be a printed email, second time confirmed the first time with the exception that had a government stamp in one corner) yelling me “Sir you are unsuitable for travelling, your passport does not work due to expiration!” Then I was escorted out the immigration zone.

Man, oh man. Why was this had to happen? My first concern was to jump the big pond to aussie soil. All of the sudden my dreams and hopes seemed swift away and, Kathy & I were trapped in the bizarre world of Venezuela. Despair hit me hard, now what I needed to do was to notice the flight crew I was unable to board, then call IOM so they could make the proper arrangements to get another spot in the next plane I could board once I get a new passport. When I was able to contact IOM representative named Mariana, she did not understand what I meant with “they say my passport is worthless” so she got me into my senses and told me that I needed to go to the SAIME central offices (A.K.A Onidex, The Venezuelan government keeps changing the institutions names every two years to show that the “social revolution is really working”), head to immigrations affairs and talk to the responsible in there.

I must confess, everything here in Venezuela is a mess, so I did not have much faith in a good and quick solution for my problems, it is common to have a disrespectful treatment (as if you where begging your rights); but in a despair situation, despair counter measures and I needed sooner or later to go to the central office to fix my passport. I talked to the receptionist who told me to wait the manager for five minutes. After two or less she made me go in the office, this way I meet the immigration Officer Hilda with a kind smile and disposition to heard me out.

- “Hi, what can I do for you?” (she said)

- “Hi, I am Rod and I had issues with my passport at the immigration check point in the Simon Bolivar airport. I called the International Organisation for Migrations here in Caracas and they told me to come here. I really don’t know what or why my passport is failing to complain the checks but I really need it done quick, next week I will be traveling to Australia to reside permanently”

- “Ok I see, can I have your passport so I can take a look?”

I handed her my passport just to be filled with horror as I looked her face.

- “Rod, where did you get this?”

- “At Coche, several years ago. Can you tell me what is happening?”

- “I am afraid that your passport is currently invalid. You see, that office was not allowed to do this kind of extensions and I am afraid you are a victim of a scam. I am calling to Principal Direction. You sweat to me you didn’t pressure any officer to do this?”

- “No I didn’t. I took my passport to that office in a hurry and the officer told me he could work it out but I needed to pay a fee for that.”

- “A fee? How much?”

- “Not much really, he said something like 70 dollars at that moment... I don’t really remember.”

- “Uhms, that’s not good. Don’t worry you seem to be honest and we will do everything in our power to help you, but I got to tell you, if you need another passport for travelling it won’t be ready for the next week... ok?”

- “Ok.”

Somehow the conversation was not that bad, I was starting to have some hope. After a while she told me to go to the “Principal Directions” where I needed to talk to the director himself. I waited for an hour so he could receive me in his office. Once in he asked:

- “Who are you and how may I serve you?”

- “I am Rod and I have an issue with...”

- “Rod? You are the guy that talked to Hilda?”

- “Uhms... yeah”

- “I need to see your passport now.” (I handed it to him) “Not good... not good at all. Rod, do you know what is happening, right?”

- “No sir, I don’t. Hilda told me that my passport was invalid because the office I used to get the renewal wasn’t allowed for it.”

- “Kind of, the problem is that this passport might be taken as illegal, as you forging a fake identity, where you aware of that?”

- (almost having an heart attack) “No... Sir... How could I know...?”

- “Rod, you seem to be a good guy; and so far, no one who had talked to you told me that you offered money or any kind of bribe as most of people does. It just talks good about you. What I am going to do is, send an order to the fifth floor so you can have you blueprints and information managed by an officer. Your new passport should be ready in 10 days, but I am afraid you will lose your flight to Australia. Have you talked with the travel agency?”

- “No sir, I didn’t get the tickets in a travel agency. I had the fares from the IOM. They have limited vacancies every few flights, the next vacancy might be free within the next 6 months which isn’t suitable for me.”

- “Well Rod, that is your task, find another spot and I will try to get your passport in 10 days. Deal?”

- “Ok Sir, thanks.”

I went out that office, with a good feeling. Not just that my passport issue was about to be solved, I also felt that Venezuela has opportunities with people like these working in government institutions. There is hope for Venezuela so my kids (whenever they come) could someday know their past.

I waited with much stressed (almost driving crazy to Hilda calling her every two days) the resolution for my passport and after 10 days I went back the central office in ‘Plaza Miranda’ to find a gorgeous new passport. The new passport had a biometric card with all your information checked with international institutions, every single page is made of cotton paper (similar to the money paper) with the pictures of Venezuelan heroes such as Simon Bolivar, Sebastian Francisco de Miranda, Andres Bello and so on.

Next we called the IOM to confirm that we had the passport and to book to another plane. As someone told me “innocents are protected by god’s hand” in 4 hours I had my new plane ticket to Sydney, Australia via Santiago de Chile and Auckland, New Zealand. The travel day was September 7, 2009, arriving the 9th of September of 2009 (9/9/09) down under.

In the meanwhile we had several farewell parties, some with the family and some with mates. Then ‘Da day’.

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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.

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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.

I am not going to tell how the last two days in home were, lots of crying and few sleeping sums it up. It was hard to take a look to my family through to glass door that separates the check-in area and the duty free and I could not held it, I started crying what I was holding last three months when chatting with my siblings, or mom and dad, or godmother, but there was no turning back because ahead was my future and my offspring waiting for a good life.

After a while the plane parked at gate 6, we board it and take off to ‘Santiago de Chile’. My advice here, if you can reserve (book) left plane seats you will be able to have a spectacular view of the Andes mountain system, second height in the world. Quick note on this plane, do not sleep, you will understand it within the next few lines. Once in the airport (if you have a notebook, netbook or macbook) you will have free internet access, so you can send some information to your beloved ones, but if you are low on battery (as we were) I got to tell you, Chile’s power plugs are different to those in America or Venezuela; instead of two flat sticks it uses three rounded sticks, so unless you got time to buy the proper adapter you won’t be able to find a computer or plug to use the internet. What we did was, changed some dollars to Chile’s currency, then got a phone card (5000 pesos is too much for calling, try to get something cheaper as 5000 gives you more than 20 minutes on calling to mobiles) and dial to my mom’s mobile and Kathy’s dads mobile.

When the Qantas flight arrive (or in our case was a LAN plane with Qantas connection) the adrenaline tops and your heart is pumping hard... finally you are about to see (in 17 more hours of flight) to Australia.

Quick note on this, if you really paid attention to not sleeping in the first flight you should be pretty tired at this moment, which is great! As soon as you are ready in this airplane (Santiago de Chile to Sydney, via Auckland, New Zealand) buckle up your seat belts and prepare for sleep as much as you can; easily you might sleep 13 hours (till you get New Zealand) then stop at Auckland, refresh yourself in the bathrooms and buy whatever you want to, then jump back to the airplane and keep dreaming for two more hours. If you did it right you will be fresh as an apple when the airplane touches land and you will be totally ready to endure 14 hours of Jet lag.

Many people told me that I would be disappointed with Sydney’s International Airport and well I kind of was... The airport was a racking mess; some sections of the airport were under construction but, what the hell... I was moving to Sydney not the airport! I headed to immigration, gave our passports and visas and with a pretty nice tone of voice, our officer looked into our eyes and said “Mr, Mrs... You are very welcome to Australia, have a nice stay.” I ran to pick up our luggage (which arrived in perfect conditions), headed to the luggage inspection area were the officer took our card, checked it and made us open two or three bags, looked our shoes (which we cleaned with soap and water, then brushed with vinegar so it were sparkling) and let us go. Once out, you watch a bunch of flags hanging from the ceiling saying “welcome to Australia”, “welcome Down Under” and at that very moment, I could hear was Iz singing this beautiful song...

- somewhere over the rainbow -

Finally, Australia is here for us to take... Now we need to get a job and make a decent living.

If you thought these were the last posts, aren’t. My target is Australia, not just to get here, but to live it.

Thanks for reading and till next time (that should be explaining how I have my apartment or so).

If you have come looking for the answer to life, universe and everything else... I just gotta tell you the answer is 42.

If you have come looking for answers to Australian life might be a little different. (But the answer might be 42 as well, he he)

Anyway, today is the towel day, annual celebration of towels in tribute to Douglas Adams and his “Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy” (which have become on my favourite books).

It seems there are tons more fans out there including Google, HP and other huge brands.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

On March 19, 2009 (the day when my visa was granted) my wife sent an email to IOM requesting information and prices related to airplane tickets... And you might ask... IOM what the hell is that?

The IOM is the International Organisation for Migration, responsible for gathering information related to migrants and how to help them. The very same day we got answer to some of our questioning but, didn’t have any price nor confirmation related to anyway airfare reservation. Basically we didn’t had anything but a “When and where do you want to fly? And could I have your passports and grant letters?”

Anyhow, those things were sent right away hoping to get a really good discount. Meanwhile looking at some web sites such as Orbitz, Expedia, and Farecase live I notice airfares from Caracas to Sydney (flying Caracas, Santiago de Chile or Argentina, Sydney) were around the US$ 1,800 (flying with Aerolineas Argentinas) to US$ 2,600 (flying with Lan Chile) each ticket, economic class every single day of July and some of August. We expected to be some value, but not really that high since July – September is low season in Australia.

Flying through the U.S would be cheaper than those prices but my wife doesn’t have U.S Visa and going to the yank embassy sure isn’t pleasant. So at the moment, that isn’t an option.
Four weeks later, we get an email from the IOM (yeah, it was too much time for our taste…) saying there is not even a single spot for us in a plane during July… They took the free good will to reserve us a spot in August first week and we had to pay the tickets before 2nd of July, at the awesome and very low price of US$ 1,200 each flying with Lan Chile up to Santiago de Chile and Qantas from there on.

Here comes the first handy tip:

You will need 4 to 6 months ahead of schedule to even think of doing anything with the IOM. They are highly demanded and vacancy isn’t available all the time within the next 4 months. By the way, I should remark they asked for my grant number… so, don’t bother if you don’t have your papers yet.

We replied to that email saying we loved the date, and the price, and in the upcoming weeks we wanted to gather the money to go and pay for it; it seems that email was lost somewhere between my email server (Google Mail - GMail) and theirs email server, but the truth is, two weeks afterwards, I receive a not nice news, my airfare reservation with Lan Chile and Qantas was cancelled due the time between the information sent and the “lack” of confirmation….

So, here is the first “not to do” tip or second tip.

Do not confirm with an email. Calls are cheap and there is no way to miss it unless you can’t contact the person.

After a couple of minutes, Mariana (the gentle IOM representative) told us to wait a bit more, to send one more time those emails with copy to her email address and she was going to do everything in her will and power to get us back the reservation. Thankfully for us, it was early this month and the august booking wasn’t lost and replaced by any other aspirant, so all we have to do was go and pay with a check management or certified check.

Here comes the third handy tip.

Prior ordering the check, ask for IOM’s identification number and proper name to be printed on the check. Here in Venezuela exist bunches of restrictions when issuing those type of payments and the bank’s branch office manager will going to request it from you.

Finally, I head up to the IOM offices in “La Castellana” (here in Caracas) with almost no clue where the offices is and it was a hell of a midday walk. The address here in Caracas is “Residence Ana Luisa, Transversal Av. between Mohedano and Eugenio Mendoza Av. La Castellana” (here is the map to get there from the subway station).

For those living in Venezuela and willing to buy their tickets with the IOM I can tell you, is not nearby the subway station and the residence name is almost hidden (that’s why I pinpoint it on maps).




Here comes the fourth and fifth handy tip (only if you are in Venezuela).

Nobody knows the Transversal St, don’t bother to ask. All you need to do is walk (or drive) to the Mohedano Av. And head up four to five blocks then right... you should be able to see at the right side a sign saying the name of the street named “Transversal”, turn right, third house from the corner. Green and black from, the other near house is named “Emma”. If you want to walk or drive the Eugenio Mendoza Av is kind of the same thing... Turn left instead three blocks after the McDonalds.

The residence is four town houses... All of them named “Ana Luisa” but in the door bell button there is a nearly visible sticker (top left button) saying “OIM” (Spanish spelling for IOM). Once pressed it will be matter of seconds to pay and go wait your e-ticket.

Well... That’s all for now.
Cheers and till next time.

I just had post this earlier, but rushing around to get the money, get things done before departing and working is kind of a pain at the moment :P

Anyway, shortly after getting the grant, my wife and I went to the sanity department to get shotted with the yellow fever vaccine and it was pretty much easy. Well, to be honest I was the only one receiving shots cause my wife had to donate blood to my godmother, meanwhile I got a very sore arm for a couple of days; not because of the yellow fever, I got 4 other shots (those were the just in case... you never know...)

So what? What’s the point with this post? Oh, you got to remember to get this vaccine 40 days prior travelling, got it remembered today be the airfare seller by saying “if you do not have the yellow card (the international vaccine history card) you will have to wait in quarantine in Auckland, New Zealand till Oz is pretty much sure you don’t have it, ok?”

Even though I got shotted, my history board isn’t yellow... So I have to go back to sanity dept and ask for the international one, already called and is pretty much simple, all you got to do is take your white card, go to sanity dept and ask for the international card, within some minutes you will be done and ready. Here in Venezuela is pretty much common not provide the yellow card when you get any vaccine, so they are used to being called and asked for the same thing.

Cheers and till next post.