Expectations, Security, and Requirements

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The organizer/tour guide expects you to maximize this opportunity to learn everything you reasonably can about Venezuela's fauna (especially insects) and flora. Keep your eyes and ears open. Bring a camera and a notebook, and use them. However, you will not have the opportunity to bring insects (alive or dead) back to the USA because of the difficulty of obtaining Venezuelan export permits for insects because they are considered "wildlife."

General security: The trip employs a UCV driver for the UCV vehicle that is rented as road transport during the trip. He will be with us on all road trips in Venezuela and will stay overnight with us at the park. He does not speak English.

Security at Parque Nacional Henri Pittier: Park guards stationed at the park headquarters (Rancho Grande) have radiotelephone contact with Maracay for emergency use. Custodians are stationed at the station as well--they are friendly and very helpful. Park guards and custodians (not surprisingly) do not speak English.

Spanish: You will meet people who speak little or no English. So, here is a good opportunity to practice your Spanish!

Medical Insurance: Students are required to have medical insurance and also to buy emergency medical evacuation insurance. The latter can be bought on the UF campus and cost $10 in 1999; its purpose is to evacuate you to a hospital in the USA if you are seriously injured.

Inoculations: It is strongly recommended that you bring your tetanus and hepatitis B up-to-date.

Arthropod transmitted diseases and poisonous snakes: Dengue fever, transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, occurs in some cities, but this mosquito is absent at Rancho Grande where you will be spending the times of day when the mosquito normally bites. Mosquito-borne encephalitis occurs in Venezuela, but also in Florida (where we have not noticed your concern). The following diseases occur far from where you will be: malaria (transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes), Chagas' disease (by triatomine bugs), and yellow fever (by Aedes aegypti and Haemagogus mosquitoes). Yes, there are poisonous snakes within the park boundaries. But there are poisonous snakes in Florida, too.

Venezuela: It is strongly recommended that you obtain and read a guidebook about Venezuela before you go there. Read about its history, geography, and culture, politics -- and everything you can about its fauna and flora. Overall, you will find the people friendly, the landscape beautiful, and the rugged climate stimulating.

Church Services: There will not be an opportunity for you to attend church services.

Finally, in many ways you are an ambassador for UF and the USA, so think about your behavior.

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