In October/November 1995 I travelled in Venezuela. This south american country can be reached at a comparatively low price via  Isla de Margarita, a popular holiday island. Starting there, one can travel the whole country comfortably and cheap by plane.This is caused by the fact that Venezuela is a country with rich natural resources and therefore gasoline is cheaper than drinking water!
Unfortunately, one can't get along very well on english and some knowledge of  Spanish or Italian is a big advantage. Anticipating this, I had written down the address of my german speaking guest family on a note, but  this didn't help much since the number of illiterates seems to be quite high . After my taxi driver managed to figure out my note with the help of a few colleagues, he drove me to the hotel. Judging by the duration of the trip, I could easily figure out the fact that Venezuela is a big country!  The fare rate is agreed upon before start of the trip and paid on arrival, preferrably in US $. In October 1995, 100$ were worth about 17000 Bolivar.