No chance to go Caracas

Saga Pearl II’s schedule for this 13-night cruise, officially dubbed Caribbean Coastal Explorer, originally included a day at the port of La Guaira on the northern coast of Venezuela. Many passengers had booked places on the all-day excursion to Caracas, the lively modern capital city 15 miles away.
But plans have now been changed and the ship is to spend a day at Oranjestadt in Aruba instead.
Captain Alistair McLundie came on the Tannoy at 9.00 a.m. this morning to relay the message that the company’s insurers had advised against visiting Venezuela. The reasons were unclear; the Captain cited recent unspecified incidents at the country’s ports. There have been a number of drug-related arrests recently and the UK Foreign Office warns of the high incidence of muggings and violent attacks in Caracas.
There’s also the Libya connection. Beleaguered leader Colonel Gaddafi was rumoured to have fled, or was about to flee to Venezuela, seeking protection from his pal Hugo Chavez, who is the country’s president-for-life.
Indeed, I had been hoping for an exclusive opportunity to confront him if he had made his escape from north Africa to South America. “Gaddafi goes Caracas” would have made a half-decent headline, don’t you think?
Aruba is not, by all accounts, a very interesting or appealing subsititute. But what the heck, at the very least I can spend the day topping up my tan on Saga Pearl II’s sun deck.