Coming
from Las Vegas, Sin City, the town that never sleeps, I decided to go to
the Hilton Casino. I dropped the car off with the valet and stepped
inside. The casino, while smaller, was very similar to US casinos. Blackjack,
Caribbean Poker, roulette, and tons of slots in a beautiful building on
gorgeous grounds. Complimentary cocktails served by beautiful women who
I wished cleaned houses. The fun part was playing blackjack with $10,000
bills ($4) After having my fill of cocktails and losing 100,000 Bolivar’s
($40) I decided to call it a night. We also ate lunch at some small
no-name beachside restaurant by one of the marinas where Scott took us.
It is the kind where you fan the flies away to eat. Guess what? No flies
but we met people from around the world there. Most of them live
on their boats that they sailed from London, Florida, Georgia and other
islands.
What
an extremely interesting group. That is why we ate there about five times.
Leo had never been outside the United States and had never had fish cooked
with the eyeballs, teeth and lips. He was ecstatic and lunch was $8.
Scott took
us to Sambil, a local third world mall or should I say third world MEGAMALL!
This place was huge and beautiful like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills with
everything that we have in the US and far more.
Hundreds of
stores, beautiful tropical restaurants with bridges over water ponds. and
a food court to satisfy all your cravings for grease. McDonalds, Wendy’s,
Burger King, Domino’s and Pizza Hut are here as well as world cuisine.
We stuck to local flavor.
There is Venezuela’s
version of Home Depot too. Actually, very modern, nicely stocked and almost
everything you would need to build or re-model a house. There are other
very
nice modern shopping centers plus clinics and pharmacies with the same
or better prices than Canada or Mexico for prescription drugs. And many
you don’t even need a prescription for.
We decided
to look at property that you can buy for almost nothing so Scott took us
to La Asuncion which is a small clean town about 6-8 miles from Polamar.
We looked at a 3-bed/3-bath house in a ¼ acre (1300 sf). One bed/bath
was the maid’s quarters off the laundry room. The house had a chain link
fenced yard with vines covering most of the fence and a huge playpa roofed
patio that served as an outdoor entertainment area. Complete with a huge
log table, hammock, TV and outdoor kitchen area.. It was great!
The house had
a beam ceiling, 3/3, living room, Spanish tile floors, kitchen, AC, W/D,
satellite (Direct TV) phone and needed nothing. Nice neighborhood in a
quiet area. Price? $32,000 USD. In Vegas, something similar would be close
to $200,000 on a smaller lot.
Leo and I looked
at a brand new high-rise condo in Polamar with a two-story underground
parking facility with security cameras. A gated high-security community
with beautiful grounds and pools(s) weight room, sauna, party room, etc.
The condo was 1300 sf with new American appliances (W/D, micro, dishwasher,
refrigerator and stove) 2-bed/2-bath, central air, cable, phone and a wonderful
view of the ocean and pool(s) from a monster-curved deck. Price? $85,000
USD unfurnished, $100,000 furnished.
In
Vegas this condo would be $400,000 easy. Then we looked at an older two-story
penthouse, 3-bed/3-bath, den, W/D, window AC, cable, phone, and security-gated
grounds with pool. Price? Asking $32,000 The kitchen needed about $2000
worth of tile work done. Scotty had gotten me again! Unbelievable property
for unbelievable prices.
Beautiful homes
for the price of a small mobile. Maybe you don’t want to buy? You can rent
a nice apartment for $100 a month. You can rent a very nice security gated
apartment for $200 and for $300 you will have the penthouse.
So maybe rent
for a year?
If you are
65 or over the airlines have a “senior discount” with round trip airfare
from Caracas to Miami for only $125. Miami is only 3.5 hours away. And
they are adding a direct flight from Margarita to Miami early 2005 which
will make the time even shorter.
I am still
trying to find a downside to Margarita Island. I mentally went through
food, clothing, utilities, medical, rent/purchase, cars, TV, and all I
could come up with was bowling? Then I remembered that I saw a beautiful
bowling alley at one of the shopping centers.
Bottom line
is, Scott took one look and moved completely. Leo has never been outside
the United States. He took a look and has his house on the market and will
be moving by June of 05 when his SS starts. Hopefully, I will be there
sooner.
One thing I
do know is that I can live very comfortably on SS in Venezuela. And the
other thing I know is that I would rather be sitting on a beach having
a cold beer or fishing, rather than asking people if they would like “paper
or plastic”.
Another thing
I have to point out is we were getting 2500 Bolivar’s to the dollar and
the official rate is 1920 (which fluctuates) so our dollar automatically
is worth more. We needed to exchange some money, we cashed in $400 and
got 1,000,000 Bolivar’s.
One million
of anything can, and will, go a long ways. And it did. For 50,000 B’s a
day you can live comfortably and $800 a month on SS is 1,536,000 Bolivar’s
at the official exchange rate. At $800 in the US, you will be pushing a
shopping cart and eating cat food out of a can.
Leo and I figure
that if the whole economy falls apart, which isn’t likely because Venezuela
has a lot of oil, we have two choices. Move a couple islands over where
tourists have been coming for decades or come back to the US and find a
shopping cart on our Social Security.
And that Scott!
One thing is, I will never doubt him again and another thing is that bag
of hot Texas air has made a complete liar out of me cause nobody is going
to believe me, without going there.
If you have
any questions, you might want to e-mail Scott at discovermargaritaisland@yahoo.com
as he really helped me (and you don’t have to read between the lines) or
e-mail me as I am going through the moving process. I would be glad to
help.
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