Here are some links that describe the overall economic situation, to give some additional clarity:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Venezuela#Money
http://www.bulletproofretirement.com/public/80.cfm
http://www.bulletproofretirement.com/public/47.cfm
http://www.gkcaracas.um.dk/da/menu/E...orhold/CADIVI/

Sorry the 2nd and 3rd sites look schmucky, but they really do know their stuff.

I take it, then, that flights in and out of Caracas are notably more expensive than one would expect from, say, Bogota,, though not at the full 3x the exchange rate difference would indicate, since there's arbitrage opportunities for established companies. So if you paid "face" price in USD, you're losing out, but if you paid "parallel market" price, you'd be getting a discount. Is this the case?