As the cathedral bells toll 09:00 , I'm having coffee atop the Plaza Catedral Hotel. It's an inspiring start to the day: the rooftop restaurant overlooks the tropical trees that canopy Plaza Bolívar, the city's historic core. I descend for a stroll through the plaza, where an impromptu quartet is playing guarachas . I join the onlookers to groove to these incredible musicians.

Later a carrito (a cross between a bus and a taxi) carries me up Av Urdaneta to Plaza Candelaria. Inside the plaza's 18th-century church, I revere the shrine to Dr José Gregorio Hernández, Venezuela's 'saint in a suit', and continue down to another kind of shrine: Doña Agapita's house of cachapas . The sweet corn pancakes are whipped up by the boys behind the counter. Mine is folded over a slab of white cheese, accompanied by a papaya shake.

The tour concluded, I hop back on the metro, emerging on Plaza de Francia to meet Altamira resident, Teresa, and her pals in front of the signature fountain/obelisk. Tonight's dinner is at a little place in Los Palos Grandes specialising in Chinese-Peruvian cuisine, where I have chupe , an Inca-style seafood soup. Afterwards we're beamed up to the Altamira Suites hotel's rooftop bar for martinis with panoramic views of the city. Everyone wants to go dancing, so we cab it over to El Maní Es Así in Sabana Grande. Tonight Alfredo Naranjo and his combo are putting down some irresistible polyrhythms, and we manage to slither onto the packed dance floor.