| Ok, so this was the hardest bit of information to be found in the whole of our travels around Central & South America….. is there is ferry service between Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela….. and the answer is YES….. The ferry is operated by Pier 1 Cruises (Trinidad: (868) 634 4472 and Venezuela (294) 98 2155 6, so no email or website that we could find) and leaves every Wednesday……. yes, only once a week…… the times are as follows: Chaguaramas – Trinidad & Tobago: Check In Time: 7.00am Cut off Time: 8.30am Departure Time: 9.00am Arrival Time: 12.30/1pm Guiria – Venezuela: Check In Time: 3.00pm Cut off Time: 4.30pm Departure Time: 5.00pm Arrival Time: 8.30/9pm Departure Tax: TT$75 – US$13 from Trinidad TT$138 – US$23 from Venezuela Price: Once Way $92US Return $184 The price had recently gone up……but in Venezuela, the price is in US$ so if you have to pay in the local currency, they will inflate the cost… Chaguaramas in Trinidad is a 20-minute taxi ride from Port of Spain….. and Guiria Port is practically in Guiria, so it’s only a 5-minute taxi ride to the center… We brought our return tickets from Trinidad and found them to be cheaper, as the Venezuelans seem to change the price, or should I say the exchange rate and the departure tax price to suit them and to earn extra money…… We would recommend buying your tickets in advance, although either of our ferries were full, so you could just walk in a get a ticket on the day……. Customs on the Trinidad side take approx. 1 hour, they are very thorough and search everything, with dog control and on the Venezuelan side take 10 minutes….. a couple of army soldiers and a stamp… Please be careful when catching a taxi from the Trinidad side when you arrive late at night, as we got stung big time, the taxi fares go up to 50%…yes 50% more between 10 pm and 6 am……. well that is the official taxi, and there is only an official taxi waiting…….. usually during the day it cost approx 50TT$ to get to the port, but we were asked to pay 238TT$….which of course we didn’t pay but had to argue and it took about an hour to finally come up with a reasonable price……. do not trust a taxi with the name Michael Colin Espinet….often called Colin in an Executive taxi….. he is a con artist and will try and rip you off……. After our run-in with him, we, unfortunately, saw him again at the ferry port from Trinidad to Tobago and his eyes lit up when he saw us…..he didn’t recognize us…..but we remembered him and said there was no way we would trust we would go anywhere with him….. he is a fat white man…….and extremely greedy…………. Guiria is ok, but nothing to rave about, as you arrive at mid-day, it’s easy enough to catch a bus or shared taxi to wherever you need to go, rather than stay in Guiria…… And the ferry from Chaguaramas is only 20 minutes taxi from Port of Spain so easy to stay there……. |
