Margarita Tropical Villa Pool

Bed & breakfast in Playa El Agua. 10 rooms with king size beds, A/C, pool, fridges, DirecTV with HBO & CineMax, free Internet & breakfast From US$40 - See www.casatrudel.com for info!

Pool Side Room

Living on or retiring to the tropical island of
Isla Margarita or Margarita Island, Venezuela
Tropical Island Living!

This is the second page of our information on Living, retiring to
and Working on Margarita Island or Isla Margarita.

On this page you will find Supermarket food prices, Utility information
including Phone, Internet, Electricity and Water prices

Because of the total amount of information on living in Margarita Island we have broken it down into 4 separate pages:

Page One:
Climate and Weather, Property Ownership, Exchange Controls,
Starting a Business and working on Margarita Island

Page Two (you are here):
Supermarket Food Prices, Utilities including phone, Internet, Electricity & Water, Cellular phones (handies).

Page Three:
Language, Banking, House help, Nannies, Gardeners, Political Situation,
Security guards & Security

Page Four:
Schools, Doctors, Hospitals, Medical Insurance, Buying a Car and Insurance, Driving

Food Prices

The cost and choice at the larger supermarkets is not much different than North America or Europe. You will pay more for imported products however they are generally available. Here are some prices from this week's (Feb, 2012) shopping trip to one of the largest supermarkets* on the Island (Sigo Sambil). Keep in mind that the prices of the vegetables vary according to season and availability just like at home. We'll try to update this list every few weeks.

*Note: Due to continuing shortages of some products prices now reflect what we are able to buy in whatever location. It is no longer possible to just shop in one supermarket.

Venezuela now has both exchange controls and some price controls on basic items. The official exchange rate is now Bs.4,30 to US$1 however if you have US$ cash you might be tempted to exchange in the "parallel market" which flourishes.
To date there has been no official attempt here in Margarita to control the parallel market.
It is possible to get more Bs. for your dollar. Unfortunately the government now forbids anyone from mentioning the rate of the unofficial or street dollar. Kind of a "head in the sand" approach but there you are. Please remember that the street rate for tourists is considerably below the real rate however in most cases it's about 75% more than the official rate. The Bolivar Fuerte prices are listed below.

(A kilo is 2.2 lbs.) We don't buy each product every week so they don't get updated all at once.
There are a number of basic products that are price controlled which has caused general shortages. Historically price controls do not work - they just produce shortages.
Ultimately these shortages are becoming more general and things like coffee are in very short or non existent supply. Other things like rice, chicken, coffee, margarine, 1st quality meat, etc., etc. are not on supermarket shelves at various times.

We will post the price increases that we encounter starting with Jan. 1, 2011. It will be interesting to see what kind of increases in BsF. we see during 2011 keeping in mind that some products are priced controlled (& mostly in short supply) or seasonal.
The chart below was updated on Feb. 10, 2012.
The price increase for 2010 was 59.7%
The price increase for 2011 was 18.1%

From the Central Maderiense Supermarket - June 25 - July 15, 2009

Utilities

Phone & Internet information

In many ways this has greatly improved in the years that I have been here. Certainly telephone service as provided by the main company CANTV including Internet and Cellular are nothing short of a miracle in change. Everybody has a digital cellular phone and internet connections are reliable and fast even with a dial-up modem.
In the areas of the Island where it is available DSL service costs from around US$20 per month (1024 Kbps) to US$50 per month (1536 Kbps).
DSL is now generally available in most areas of the island.
See http://www.cantv.com.ve/seccion.asp?pid=1&sid=1377 for the latest rates.

Current costs for normal residential telephone service run about US$5.20 per month with every minute of local time at an extra cost.

I had an additional line installed by the phone company CANTV for a second computer and it was a trial. I started the process on Aug. 18/04 and the phone was installed Oct. 2. When I tried to activate a second Internet connection by phone, also with CANTV, I was told that I would have to wait up to 45 days while the new line went through billing. I finally added the 2nd connection on-line to my existing account and am now using the new phone line to connect without problems.
It seems at times that roadblocks are set up just to test your perseverance. Many foreigners have trouble accepting this sort of illogical and unreasonable treatment. In order to live here you must learn to either accept things as they are or create end plays to get around the problem. Losing your patience and being confrontational NEVER works here - it just puts you further behind.
That said, there is nothing wrong with asking for a manager and calmly explaining the problem although in the above case it didn't help at all.

Cellular Phones

Everyone here has a cel phone - I mean everyone. They are really cheap and can be bought on a pre-pay system where you buy phone cards and apply the amount to your account. If you have a local credit card you can also buy one that will be billed monthly. We recently purchased a Nokia N8 and arranged a "Post Pago" plan that costs around US$25 per month and includes 1 gb of net surfing. Phone cards are available in all sorts of denominations from BsF.15 right up to BsF.120. Call costs are around US$0.50 per minute for outgoing calls.
There is no charge for incoming calls.

In order to activate your foreign cel phone or handie you would have to visit one of the cel phone companies and buy a SIM card for your "unlocked" cel to work here. If not you can buy a "throw away".
There are a number of offices in the Sambil Shopping Center that do this.

There are three large cel companies here that control 100% of the market. The biggest is Mobilnet which is owned by the national phone company CANTV (owned by the government) - the other is Movistar (formerly Telcel) (owned by Bell South) and a third called Digitel which is growing.

Our experience in dealing with these companies is that Mobilnet is cheaper in per minute costs and easier to deal with. Others may not have had the same experiences as we have had. Since the government took over Mobilnet the service has deteriorated.

Electricity

Electricity is now run by a company called Seneca Socialista (Corpoelec) which is now owned by the national government and the paying of the monthly bill and dealing with problems continue to be the dread of all who live here.
Long payment lines and insensitive service reps continue to be a major problem. I use between 1500 - 2200 kw per month at costs running between US$45 - $50 monthly. For the month of Jan 2012 we used 1825 Kilowatt hours at a cost of around US$40 or 2.2¢ per kWh. The more power you use the higher the kWh charge is. You can multiply these amounts many times if you are going to have A/C. If you live on the north side of the Island and have a little air flow in your house you shouldn't need A/C. (Have to add that we added A/C in 2008 & with global warming are glad that we did). Garbage pick-up is also charged now on your electric bill. Mine runs less than $2.00 per month and is based on electrical usage - use less, pay less.

Water

The water service is the worst run company in the country. HidroCaribe is still a government entity and is totally inefficient and difficult in the extreme to deal with. I have been receiving monthly bills for more than 7 years for one connection that was closed and more monthly bills for a connection that doesn't exist. Many visits and letters have been unable to resolve the problems as no one seems to have the power (or wants to accept the responsibility) to correct the errors. 
You are always best to buy a property or business that already 
has water service installed & working that is being billed correctly. 
The actual charges for water are now much higher than previous years (Sept. 2011)

If you need some time to find a rental place I can recommend my vacation property as an affordable & comfortable place to stay for a couple of weeks / months while you are looking around and getting oriented. Have a look at Margarita Tropical Villa (Casa Trudel Bed & Breakfast) which offers rooms with private baths, A/C, DirecTV LA, pool, fridge, microwave and king size beds. The property is close to Margarita Island's most popular tourist area and beach, Playa El Agua . You can just send me an e-mail at margarita.island@gmail.com .