I've been traveling to Venezuela since December, 1979. Because of my experiences there, I lived in Caracas in 1985 and 1986. What a cosmopolitan country with a great immigrant population, fine dining, amazing art and folklore museums, one of the world's largest and oldest book fairs, hiking the Cerro Avila, passing numerous waterfalls to bathe in while looking down on the city of Caracas (6 million inhabitants), rocking merengue, salsa, cumbia, and rock music coming out of everywhere, buses that sway to a merengue beat, fine international and local dining. All this and some of the most down-to-earth, sensual, sophisticated, well-educated people in Latin America and you have a heady mix of wonderful experiences awaiting anyone going to Venezuela. I've traveled the "llanos", the great, tropical plains that cover half the country. I visited and hiked around the Andes Mountains in western Venezuela. I have swum and spent the night on some of the loveliest beaches in the Caribbean, on the Venezuelan coast. All this and so much more, if Americans embrace traveling in Latin America as they do in Europe!