Venezuela Trip Review

Just a quick note to say how much we enjoyed our recent trip to Venezuela. We were a bit wary having read so many bad things but we throughly enjoyed ourselves, didn't get mugged and found the Venezuelans very helpful.
A few things that might be helpful to other travellers: we changed $100 with a baggage handler (got 4.5 Bolivares), got an offical taxi from Caracas airport (about 190 Bolivares), stayed at Hotel La Floresta in Altamira, got the 9pm overnight bus to Merida from the Altamira bus station (only able to buy tickets on the day, but no problem getting them).
Took a trip to los llanos (ok altho the safair part involved driving up and down the highway rather than access to the Hatos). Went with Andes Tropicales (see Lonely Planet) to some Mucoposadas near Merida (Santa Barbara and Nadal del Gavilan were both lovely and run by really nice people) but the guides we paid for were not available either day, so worth checking this before you go. Then we took an overnight bus to Maracay and the local bus to Choroni and spent an idyllic week by the week - there are loads of Posadas to stay at but we went a bit upmarket as it was Xmas and stayed at Posada La Bokaina which was wonderful. Then a 4 hour taxi ride at 140 Bolivares each for 3 people direct to Caracas.
Changing $$ was never a problem and we got between 4.5 and 5.5. We felt a bit nervous carrying so many $$ but we survived. Speaking a bit of Spanish goes a long way.
Enjoy your travels!