Among Caraquenos, bars are like baseball games – they’re ingrained in the culture. As someone who never really frequented bars in the states, I am slowly becoming a convert. One of my favorite locales is the 360 Rooftop Bar located on the 19th floor of the Hotel Altamira Suites.

The nice thing about this bar is that the environment is very calm. The music isn’t too loud so you can hold a conversation at a normal voice and the type of music played is a mix of 80’s and 90’s pop. There are actually three levels to the bar; all of which provide a 360 degree view of Caracas. The first is completely covered on top, but the open windows offer a nice breeze. The second level is on the way to the rooftop and it’s completely uncovered. The tables there are scattered so you get more privacy. The crown jewel of the bar is of course the rooftop (both pictures were taken from there) and you get it all – the view, the breeze and the ambiance. From there, you also get the best view of El Avila.

As for the drinks, they have a pretty good selection of cocktails (5 different flavors of mojitos). The nice thing about the menu is the list of fresh-made pizzas indicating the best drinks to complement them. My favorite cocktail there is the Cosmopolitan and it goes well with the Sabas Nieves pizza (arugula, basil, fresh tomatoes and goat cheese).

If you’re only visiting Caracas for a short time, I would recommend spending one of your evenings at 360.

Somehow this third month just came and went. To make sure that I didn’t forget this month, I took stock of my my latest realizations.

• You can never estimate how long it will take to get something done. What you may think is a simple errand can turn out to taking the whole day to accomplish (more on this in another post)
• Even when conducting business, Venezuelans enjoy personal chit chat
• Finding an apartment to my liking that is affordable is not easy – in other words, housing is limited
• Spanish is not impossible to learn, but I will probably never speak it as well as I speak English
• Venezuelans take their vacations seriously (which seems to be whenever kids are on vacation, too), so booking a vacation in advance is absolutely necessary
• Similar to South Florida, there is always something to do – theatre, concerts, museums. Caracas is culturally rich

These beautiful pictures are of Caracas. I thought they displayed what I sometimes feel about living here – it can be tumultuous, but there’s a lot of beauty.

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