However, while lacking organised tourism, Caracas is anything but dull. Having a contact like Pierre helps me go beyond bar-room discussions and see how one of the world's most controversial leaders, Hugo Chavez, is impacting on day-to-day life in the barrios. It may only be one side of a highly polarised city, but it's undoubtedly the one most of us are interested in.
On my first night in town, I find myself pulling up a chair among the San Augustin locals at their weekly Consejo Comunal meeting, one of Chavez's initiatives to get communities actively managing their own development. It's a small group of no more than 10 (plus Pierre and a university friend), but all are engrossed in discussions about setting up markets to sell food straight from farms to combat inflation.
Pierre's connection with San Augustin stems from a research trip for a university project. After getting to know the locals and becoming inspired by "the revolution", he has stuck around, becoming heavily involved in plans to renovate the area's old theatre, Casa Cultural de Alameda.
Privately owned but abandoned since the 1960s, the theatre was taken over by the community in 2004 and has been transformed into a public arts centre. Although still in desperate need of repair, and with limited electric lighting, it is already being used for art exhibitions, music lessons and the weekly Consejo Comunal meetings. When Pierre and I return on a Friday afternoon, local volunteers are busy repairing tiled mosaics on the art-deco-inspired frontage, while the sound of an upstairs salsa rehearsal enlivens the street below
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