SAMPLE ITINERARY

**Expect Changes**

Day 1: Arrivals all day:

Arrival into Caracas, Maiquetia International Airport.

Transfer to lodging and dinner at the hotel

Day 2: The Bolivarian Process and Regional Integration of Latin America

Breakfast and Orientation Meeting: Participant introductions; presentations by trip leaders and a review of GX codes of conduct and expectations.

Overview of recent Venezuela history.

Visit Simon Bolivar's birthplace and neighborhoods where Bolivarian Circles are active.

Visit at the UBV (Bolivarian University) with Margarita Lopez Maya (academic) or Judith Valencia (Presidential Commission): the burial of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), the rise of ALBA (The Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America), and the importance of Regional Integration of Latin America

Meeting with TeleSur representative Latin America's first multinational media corporation

Viewing of "Venezuela and the Third World War"

Day 3: Breaking Through US Perceptions of Venezuela

Visit to Barrio 23 de Enero, popular poor neighborhood organized into autonomous collectives. Speak with community leaders. Visit to health and educational missions in the neighborhood. Meet with members of Colectivo Alexis Vive to speak about neighborhood organizing and political participation.

Visit Catia Tve & meeting with members of local communal council

Visit to pre-school and kindergarten initiated by community members and operated in homes in the barrio of Antimano. The schools were started in order to meet the basic educational needs for children who have not been able to access education because of their distance from established schools.

Day 4: New Rights and Participation

Meeting with Ezequiel Zamora National Campesino Front (FNCEZ): The Frente Nacional Campesino Ezequiel Zamora (FNCEZ) is possibly one of the most important and autonomous social movements currently in Venezuela, composed, composed of approximately 30,000 20,000 campesino families across the country. Meeting with the Comites de Tierra Urbana (CTU) or Urban Land Committees, are a social movement organized over the last six years to overcome the lack of adequate housing and ownership of land experienced by an overwhelming percentage of Venezuelans.

Day 5: New forms of Culture Expression and Education

Visit to Casa de Cultura (La Pastora, Caracas: A four-story former movie theater occupied without government authorization by the local community in April 2006 where much of the regional organizing of the neighborhood has been based. Locals have organized hundreds of meetings, community and cultural events including dozens of music, art and graffiti courses

Meeting with Frente Francisco Miranda, a student movement committed to using their education for organizing and empowering their communities.

Day 6: Rural Development and Cooperative Economics

Trip to Barquisimeto

Visit to Center of Citizen Participation in Barrio La Carucieña (community radio, community televison, organic community garden, visit to new squatter barrio "Libertad Bolivariana")

Trip to Carora: meet with one of the first communal councils established in the country

Day 7: The Social Missions

Sanare (1 hour). Visits to coffee and local agricultural cooperatives.

Bus trip to Bojo (1/2 hour), walk to Las Lajitas (45 minute uphill walk on good path -- bring good shoes, water, umbrella, sweater, sunscreen!!)

Visit to agricultural cooperative of Las Lajitas

Walk and Hike to the agricultural cooperative of Monte Carmelo (1/2 hour on steep downhill path)

Picnic lunch/Rest Conversation with community members of Monte Carmelo (women's co-op, rural youth leaders)

Visit to educational missions (talk with students who are members in 1. Mission Robinson-the basic literacy campaigns, 2. Mission Rivas-the high school and 3. Mission Sucre- the University Level.

Day 8: Barquisimeto and Health in Venezuela

Visit to Centro San Juan, a center for education and traditional Venezuelan music based on afro-venezuelan heritage. Performance of Traditional Venezuelan music by children's music group.

Visit to Mission Barrio Adentro, the Cuban doctors program, where over 14,000 doctors live and attend for free in poor neighborhoods, offering general practice. Talk about Barrio Adentro II and III programs with medical professionals, and the training of Venezuelan medical workers.

Historic walk around central Barquisimeto, time for shopping.

Day 9: Land and Housing Reform in and outside of Caracas

Return to Caracas

Visit with Frente Ezequiel Zamora, an organization working for campesino/farmworker rights and land reform in Venezuela.

Visit with Urban Land Committees and social programs committed to urban housing reform. Talk about urban migration and poor neighborhoods on the hills of Caracas.

Day 10: The Future of Venezuela, and Taking Knowledge Back to Your Community

Meeting with the Afro-Venezuelan Network (rights of afro-venezuelans in Venezuela).

Visit Organoponico de Simon Bolivar, an urban, organic agricultural cooperative in the center of Caracas and walk around the Venezuelan history mural at Parque Central

Visit to Plaza Altamira to meet with Opposition Group Clase Media en Positiva, an interesting middle-class opposition group.

Farewell Dinner

Final wrap up and strategy session. How will you take this knowledge back home? What are the next steps? Final reflections.

Day 11: Farewell!

Return to Maiquetía Intl. Airport in Caracas for Departures