Salsa - first and undisputed place on the list. However Venezuela is not a place where salsa was born, this music greatly influences local popular culture. Salsa is a mixture of African an
d Spanish musical elements adopted by regional musical histories of Cuba, Puerto Rico and other Central American countries. This music expresses spirit of the Latino people like no other part of the culture. One of the most famous Venezuelan salsa performer is Oscar D'Leon and his group Dimension Latina. Track #2 on the playlist (lloraras - you will cry). All attempts to teach me salsa didn't succeed since robots like me obviously can't dance.Cheap gasoline - Venezuela as a fifth biggest member of OPEC grants its citizens the cheapest fuel in the world. Heavily subsidized prices have been kept fixed at around 0.1 BF* for a liter since 1998, which converting is about 6 cents for a gallon. Within those years with high inflation rate (30,4% only in 2008 according to IMF**), prices of all goods have risen dramatically, living behind the price of fuel, which remains the same. Even current government of Chavez admits that the state cannot afford that, but because cheap gas is considered here more like a right than a privilege sever
al attempts to rise prices caused political instability and riots.Freshly squeezed orange juice and overall fresh fruit accessibility. Venezuela is a paradise for tropical fruit fetishists (me). Wide range of them including several types of bananas (here called cambures), mangoes, papayas (lechosas) or pineapples can be purch
ased literally at every corner of the street for very reasonable price. For even greater sensual experience I make trips to a local fruit market - Soto Rosa, where abundant of fruit just overwhelms.* Bolivar Fuerte, official rate $1 - around 2.14BF, unofficial rate $1 - around 6.5BF which I used for my calculations ** International Monetary Fund
