The biggest secret of Venezuela is that it is actually the cheapest country in
the world. I am not kidding: The cheapest country in the world is this one!
You wouldn't know if if you saw the affluence, but the cost of living is just so
LOW here that it is incredible. No other country compares. Not even the previous
record-holder, India. Venezuela undercuts everyone in cost of living.
Here are the facts:
> In London, ECA International says that as far as the cost-of-living
> is concerned, Venezuela is the CHEAPEST place in the world...
> Japan was the most expensive in the 108-nation survey with Britain the
> cheapest place to live in Europe, less expensive than either Spain or
> Greece!
> Although exchange rates have affected Venezuela's calculation, the last
> 6-months have seen it drop some SEVENTY places in the rankings to replace
> INDIA at the absolute bottom!
> ECA compiled the survey using information supplied by 760 multinational
> member companies and the calcs include the cost of consumer goods and
> services -- groceries, clothing, entertainment and transport.
Let me find some
10 other things that will probably surprise you quite a bit:
- The country is the oldest, unbroken democracy in south of the border.
Despite coup attempts, there has not been a dictatorship for nearly fifty years.
It has been called 'the Switzerland of the South' due to its stable, democratic
politics. It has also been called 'the Saudi Arabia of the South' due to
its immense oil wealth.
- This land has a long history of freedom. Simon Bolivar, the liberator
of most of Latin America - the hispanic Thomas Jefferson - was born here
and Venezuela was the first colony to win independence.
- More unspoiled areas and more designated natural parks and wildlife
reserves than anywhere else within a three-thousand mile radius.
- It has more tropical coastline than any other country in the
Caribbean. Yet at the same it has peaks with snow, just a short drive away.
Eat a banana on the beach in morning, build a snowman in the afternoon!
- Gasoline is the cheapest in the world, at less than 11 cents a gallon.
This is because Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the Western
hemisphere. And you can also mine precious and semi-precious stone. Or pan
for gold here, if you want!
- Prices. A main course in a restaurant will set you back $2 to $3. Excellent
locally-produced rum at $1 to $2 a bottle. Low taxes or no taxes on imports,
including cars.
- Communications are modern: Internet is booming here. Telecommunications
are good, with the highest concentration of PC in the region and with the
highest number of celular phones per capita in the entire Latin and Caribbean
basin.
- Wide, modern highways. High-tech architecture. Many imports. Every day,
an English-language newspaper and several other English-language publications
are produced locally for the expatriate community.
- Top quality vacation homes can be rented from an amazingly low $380/weekly and upwards.
Or buy your own tropical beach hideaway, prices start at just $20,000 to $30,000.
- A real country. Not a small island where everything has to be shipped in
at inflated import-prices, Venezuela has its own food industry and prices are
so low they are truly HARD TO BELIEVE. It is cheaper living here than at home.
Literally: Can you afford to stay away?
There is so much to do in Venezuela. The country is modern, with more McDonald's
Blockbuster's and KFC's than anywhere else in the region, wide freeways and
celular phones. Yet at the same time, you know you
are in a South Caribbean land: pumping salsa and merengue rhythms pump out
into the warm tropical summer night, happy faces dance by and the rum is
flowing.
In the day-time, relax in a peaceful lagoon, sip a tropical fruit-juice (choose
from over 100 different varieties) and take it easy as you watch the world go
by.
I would like to introduce you to Venezuela. The name means "Little Venice". When Colombus first discovered this Paradise, he thought that the indian custom here of building houses on stilts in the lagoons reminded him of Venice. So he named the country like that.
