PHONING AND TELEPHONES

Adícora is served by a limited number of phone lines, and many residents and businesses have been waiting years for service. Hence, you will never a find a phone in your room or rental house, and many businesses, including many listed in this guide, are without their own lines. To make a call from town, you will have to use one of the town's public pay phones.

The CANTV phone center is located across the street from the Catholic Church, next to the police station. It consists of four pay phones that operate with the use of phone cards (tarjetas). Unfortunately, the center is manned by only a very bored guard, and you cannot buy the requisite phone cards there. You must go to the Ice Factory/Liquor Store across from the Supermarket to purchase phone cards. With the phone cards, you can call anywhere in Venezuela and internationally.

To phone internationally, get yourself a good supply of phone cards (Bs. 5000 cards are available), as international calls will suck up their value fairly quickly. Phoning the US is about US$1.00 per minute, Germany is US$2.00. International calls are made by dialing "00" followed by the country code, the area or city code, then the number. When phoning within Venezuela, but off the Peninsula, dial the area code followed by the phone number. Include the first zero of the area code, if there is one. (When phoning from outside of Venezuela, dial the country code, "58", and drop the first zero of the area code.)

On the North Beach, there is a phone bank next to the Guardia Nacional cabana and a pay phone capable of international calls at Rancho Cacique. The Medical Clinic also has two pay phones outside the building. The easternmost of these two phones will accept incoming calls should you like to arrange to receive a call back. The phone number is (58)(069)88-177.

Both AT&T and MCI operate toll free numbers in Venezuela from which you can place calls to anywhere in the world using their respective calling cards, as well as collect calls to the US. No phone card is needed. Dial AT&T "USA Direct" from a Venezuelan pay phone toll free at 800-111-20, and MCI's world service at 800-111-40. You will be put in touch with an English speaking operator. These services are convenient and easy to use, but much more expensive than using a CANTV phone card. Calls to the US start in the region of $7.00 for the first minute, calling card or collect.