If you don't know much about Venezuela, It goes beyond the most beautiful women in the world, winning 6 out of 6 miss world & Universe titles cliché, not to mention the oil and our popular President Chavez. And oil has been both our blessing and our curse! Sure the gasoline is cheap – water can cost 3-times more than gas and it takes just 50 cents US to fill my 6-cylinder pick-up truck.

But in contrast to the oil resources are the unreal nature reserves. Jungle, mountains, flat savannahs, famous waterfalls and of course islands – and beaches. I bet you wouldn’t know where the name Venezuela came from either? Back in 1499 an Italian expeditionary saw the coastal stilt houses - called Palafitos – that reminded him of Venice, Italy. So he named the region ‘Venezuela’, meaning ‘little Venice’ in Italian!