Curmudgeon 2007/2009

UPDATE Feb 2009--after the Latest Referendum

On Margarita Island, things have changed since the last referendum in Dec 2008.

This time Chavez won the right to be re-elected over & over. Next, due to Chavez, inflation is really very high at 20 to 30% per year.

Many things are still cheap, such as ten cent a gallon gas &, diesel, utilities, food staples like milk, chicken, some meats, sugar, because there prices are frozen by the government.

Imported things are expensive by Latin American standards. Some cost more than in the states others are equal to the states or Canada and many are still less expensive.

Margarita is still one of the cheapest places to live in the Caribbean but not nearly as inexpensive as it was 4-5 years back.

However, nothing in the U.S. or most of the 1st world is the same price as it was back then with the possible exception of some electronic gadgets.

If you have dollars or euros things are still reasonable due to the "unofficial exchange rate" or what some call the black market rate

( I have heard this jokingly referred to "the official black market rate".) Presently you get between 5 and 5.5 Bolivars (Bs) to 1 USD. The official exchange rate is 2.15 Bs to 1USD. However no one except the banks and official exchange houses actually uses the official exchange rate. So, if an item cost 100 Bs a couple of years back, now it might cost 140 Bs. But couple of years back you could only exchange dollars for about 3 to 3.5 Bs per 1 USD. This helps any person with dollars but does hurt the locals due to the inflation.

There is speculation that the value of the Bolivar will continue to fall due to low oil prices and the fact that Chavez had blown billions of oil money on ridiculous projects in other countries that have produced no returns.

With Chavez in power indefinitely I have no idea what will happen to the economy and it seems no one else does either. Margarita was one of the states that voted against Chavez. Plus Margarita is actually the state of Neuva Esparta and they don't pay a lot of attention to the politics of the rest of Venezuela. The economy is basically based on tourism and fishing. On Margarita they are still building apartments like crazy. This has slowed down a little because at times it is difficult to get building materials in a timely manner. Everything has to be imported from the mainland or other Latin countries like Colombia. Venezuela has very little industry besides oil. They do manufacture a few makes of cars and have some other manufacturing plants but not nearly enough to be self sufficient.

All in all- comparing Margarita to the other Caribbean islands, Margarita is still the best value in the Caribbean.

Margarita Island—after the Vote.

Well, the excitement has calmed after the “referendum” and things look bright as the country breathes a sigh of relief after the “NO” vote on Chavez's constitutional changes. People smile and say Buenos Dias or Buenos Noches, real estate is once again booming and apartment buildings are going up. Reminds me of the Miami of the 1960's. Prices are still lower here than they were for many Florida properties way back then. The banks will lend money on apartment purchase and some contractors will give 15 year financing—even to foreigners. This is the “new” Venezuela. You must have a Residence Visa and Cedula (Venezuelan I.D. Card) to obtain any of this financing. There is a nice discount on pre-completion prices if you pay cash, and you only need your passport to buy with cash. There will be no “nationalization” of your private property, so relax.

Personally, I prefer to live in a house or townhouse. But a Condo apartment does offer more security if you don't live here full time or don't want to deal with maintenance.
Right now I have a big 2 bedroom/2 bath Apartment for sale here in Playa El Angel. You'll find photos and more information on my website http://www.discovermargaritaisland.com.
It's fully furnished, (even linens, pots & pans, t.v., air conditioning—everything!) It has a pool and is in walking distance to all the shopping, medical care, restaurants and is located in the most convenient and popular area on the entire island. The price is $58,000 U.S.D. This could also be an income property for you. It was rented for last year at $800.00 a month.

I get lots of e-mails from people who want to live on a Caribbean island...or at least think they do. Living on an island can be fun, and at times a real “pain”. Many goods and food items are imported so once in a while some things are in short supply or temporarily unavailable. Occasionally finding eggs, chicken, pork, milk, cooking oil, etc. can be a real challenge, but everyone soon learns to 'make do' and eventually most of the staples manage to re-appear in the markets. We tend to pay more for groceries than the locals do because we buy a lot of imported brands which are more expensive. Even so, food is cheap, liquor is cheap and beer is almost free-about 16 cents a bottle! Sometimes the power goes out for a few minutes or a few hours. When we lived in Mississippi the electricity went off every time we had an electric storm, so it's nothing new to us. At this writing there are ice storms in parts of the Northern U.S., and they can cause power outages for days and weeks. The only ice you'll find here is in your cocktail—which might cost up to a whopping $2 U.S.
We don't have hurricanes, floods, volcanoes, large earthquakes or tornadoes. We occasionally get tired of the same beautiful weather day after day after day... Sometimes we wake up and say, “Damn, another #$!% sunny day in Paradise!”
Our rainy season is Nov. & Dec., plus some summer showers in July/August—those are really welcome!

Living Expenses--
We totaled our expenditures for food, cleaning supplies for the house and 4 rental apartments, liquor, beer, gas for the car and “miscellaneous stuff” and for all this it's about $500 U.S. per month. We don't 'skimp' on food or anything else, for that matter. This did not include car repairs, marina fees and supplies for our boat, insurance, imported appliances, and clothes. Well, not actually that much on clothes...”formal dress” here is when you wear shoes. You could go year 'round in your bathing suit and nobody would pay much attention...unless you happen to look like Pam Anderson, of course!
However, the locals dress well and you must wear proper attire (long pants for men) if you go to any government building.

The rest of the story- It is very difficult and frustrating to try to get anything done here. People do not keep appointments or are habitually late for them . Workers are not skilled and it is darned difficult to find anyone who takes pride in his job. You can find some good workers but it is an on-going search. The same is true for mechanics, roofers, electricians, in short, all the 'trades'. Not just my opinion...many people who have lived here for years (and all over the world, too) say that Venezuelans in general and Margaritenos in particular are basically lazy. Maybe it's the climate, but most Caribbean people just aren't very work-oriented. They're like some welfare people in the States...wouldn't take a job no matter what the pay. I don't care if saying this isn't politically correct—to me, politically correct is an oxymoron anyway. A friend of mine used to do a lot of boat repairs in the Bahamas. He says you could leave your shoes and tools on the dock and they'd steal your shoes but leave your tools, because they couldn't sell the tools (nobody wanted to work). It's not quite that bad here—they'd steal your tools too! Almost every place here has a security guard so both your shoes and tools are reasonably safe.

I get inquiries from lots of people wanting to know “can I work/make a living there?” Not knowing these people, that's an impossible question to answer. All I can say is I came here with a very small nest egg to invest and I've done quite well over the last few years. And I've seen others bring hundreds of thousands of dollars and go broke....

Pet Peeves- one of many, after all, I'm not called the Curmudgeon for nothing!
I give a lot of free advice when the questions are intelligent and answerable, but get really irritated after answering dozens of questions for someone who then decides to visit the island. Since I have Vacation apartments I naturally would like them to stay in one of my places. You wouldn't believe how many people (after many e-mails from me answering EVERY conceivable question they can think up) write
“we'll be coming to the island and staying at some all-inclusive resort...maybe we can buy you a beer while we're on Margarita Island.” So, if this is you, don't ask me...ask the staff at the “all-inclusive”. They won't know the answers, and you won't get any better impressions about island living than you would if you'd gone to Wally World, but it's your choice.

I TOLD YOU SO--
A few months ago I sent out a special mailing about a business for sale here. Jak's Restaurant (the little restaurant/bar on the beach.) No one seemed very interested in seeing the potential (a beach bar in the Caribbean!) One of the owners has since “gotten off his ass”, hired an excellent cook, started promoting the place and building the business back to it's former glory. He's hired entertainment to play a couple of evenings a week, opens for lunch and attracting the “yachties” again. Now Jak's, (actually now named the “Sunset Bar & Grill”) is booming!
My lady and I went there last Thursday for dinner and couldn't even get a table the place was so packed! And the one of the owners is a friend of mine! The other owner (a Venezuelan) still wants to sell his 2/3 share. He price has gone from $18,000 U.S. to $100,000 U.S. in less than 4 months.
When I sent the special mailing you could have bought the entire 'turn-key' operation for less than $40,000.00 U.S.D.
This is STILL the least expensive Caribbean island for vacation, retirement, or starting your own business.

Traveler's News
A front page article recently in “El Sol de Margarita”, the local paper, (http://www.elsoldemargarita.com.ve) reported that Aeropostal Airlines..called AeroPissedOff by those who know...may be ordered to suspend operations (such as they are) due to the high number of customer complaints. If you're holding tickets on Aeropostal, or considering travel in the future, it's a good idea to double-check with your travel agent for the latest information.

Well, that's it from the Curmudgeon for now—there are fish in the ocean and my boat's ready to go!
So, Anchors Away!
—Have a Happy New 2008 from Margarita Island
The Curmudgeon

CURMUDGEON'S CORNER AUGUST 2007

Once again its time for the Ole curmudgeon to tell it like it is. I realize it’s been a long time since I last wrote, but I’ve been busy. My business partner & I just returned from Florida where we bought a Bertram Flybridge Cruiser—sport fishing boat. We had “her” shipped to Martinique then cruised her here to Isla Margaritia. There should be an article coming out about our adventure in Escape From America magazine on the internet in September.

O.K., let’s set the record straight on some things. I keep hearing people who write to me that Venezuela is becoming Communist. This is total B.S.

As I’ve said before, Chavez is attempting to convert the country to Socialism, an entirely different thing. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because much of Europe is under a more socialistic type of government and Canada has a socialized medical system. Here that means that if you can’t afford to pay for medical care you can go to a free hospital. In the states that’s only possible if you’re on welfare or are an illegal alien.

The Chavez government is not taking individual property away, but is “nationalizing” energy and communications businesses. I’m sure if you read the news about Venezuela with any regularity you are familiar with the government taking control of CanTv (the phone company) and other ‘strategic’ businesses and taking ruling control of the international oil companies that do business in Venezuela.

There is one instance where they government may confiscate private property. If you own a lot in the city that is overgrown with weeds and full of trash, or has a derelict building on it that might attract drug dealers the city will give notice to clean the property. If you don't they will clean it up and send you a bill for the cleaning. If you don't pay then eventually they can confiscate the property and sell it. Just like in the U.S.A.

The economy is strong. See http://www.dailyestimate.com/article.asp?idarticle=10449 for more information on this. Here on Margarita Island there is a huge building boom and people are buying vacation apartments as fast-and sometimes faster- than they can be built. Venezuelans now have access to more affordable credit and they are using it to buy homes, apartments, big screen TV’s, and cars. There is a waiting list for new cars and those who can afford to order several cars at a time and as soon as they take delivery there is someone willing to buy the car at a good profit to the seller due to the demand for new cars. If this isn’t ‘capitalism’ I don’t know what is! To me that’s a good example of Capitalism…find a need and fill it!

Many foreign investors are buying hotels and other tourist related businesses and it seems a new “family owned” restaurant or small business is opening every week.

To make communism work, cultural, ethnic, and religious differences between the governed must be eliminated. I haven't seen any evidence of anything like that here.

I personally don't want anything to do with any “organized” religion, but there are many different faiths represented here and it seems that so far there is no government intervention or suppression of the ability to worship as one chooses.

I don't usually talk about politics either, but again I've gotten so many e-mails requesting information about the current political situation as it affects the island and I will say this...Chavez was democratically elected by a wide margin. Chavez to date hasn't started any wars. Can we say the same for King George? Is Iraq a democracy now? Do any of you really give a damn if Iraq is a democracy? China is communist, but that’s o.k., right?

Look around your house and see how many of the things you own are made in China.

I just read that we (the U.S.) just pledged 750 million to Pakistan because the ‘tribal’ areas on the border may be harboring Taliban & Al-Queda militia. Does this make any sense? And the Government Accounting Office says they can’t account for 190,000 weapons sent to Iraq between 2004 & 2005. Now you know why I seldom mention politics in The Curmudgeon’s Corner…Back to my point.

Things here are actually less restricted than in the U.S. Yes, there is corruption, but not on the scale of Enron, WorldCom, etc. In the U.S. the president is ignoring the law, the constitution, and the bill of rights.

Here most of the “corruption” that would affect you would involve having to bribe an official to get something done in a more or less timely manner.

It’s usually a small “propina” to expedite whatever you need as the system is very slow. This is a common practice almost anywhere in Latin America and in much of the world.

Also in my e-mail I’ve heard from several people who are afraid to travel here because they have to go through Caracas airport. Well, my lady is a little 5’ American Blonde and she travels through Caracas alone on her way to the states 3 or 4 times a year and has never had any problems. I’m know that they are installing an indoor moving sidewalk between International and National terminals so the change of planes to Margarita Island is even safer and more convenient. You never have to venture outside the airport where security is everywhere. Parts of Caracas are dangerous, but then so are parts of any large city. But you don’t have to be afraid of the airport in Caracas.

I guess my bottom line is that the island is getting more attractive as a safe and very affordable tourist destination every day. If you want a Caribbean Vacation for pennies on the dollar or are looking for a place to retire and still live well, Margarita Island is an exceptional value. If you’re not ready to retire but, like so many disgruntled and disgusted Americans, are looking for a place to get away from the U.S. and start or invest in a business-- Margarita could be a great opportunity.

As to costs here…I defy you to find a fully furnished, newly remodeled Studio vacation apartment in an upscale hotel resort anyplace in the Caribbean for $300 U.S.D. per week. Well, this is what I charge for one of my vacation studios. You can see photos of this and other properties on my website at www.discovermargaritaisland.com

Thanks for your attention, gotta go 'cause the fish are biting and the beer is on ice…until next time---The Curmudgeon