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After spending another night in a hotel near the airport in Caracas, I set off on Thursday morning for my last few nights in Venezuela - in Los Roques. I was slightly apprehensive that I indeed had everything booked as, after much research and emailing, I had secured an excellent deal. As it's so small, all of the posadas run on a full-board basis and I had managed to find a place that a) hadn't charged me extra for being alone (the others wanted to charge me 30% more!!) and b) had come in at less than half of the other quotes - including return flights! First challenge - to find the airline check-in desk. Oh no, I was booked on a non-existent airline! Finally asked and found it - they had a sign above the desk on an A4 piece of paper. This wasn't looking promising! They had my booking (phew!) and after paying my overweight baggage fee (you're only allowed 15kg, hold and hand luggage combined!), I proceeded to the little plane for the 45 minute flight. It was a 14-seater but had no aisles between the seats so was a bit like an extra long car with a door per seat, except for the seat behind the pilots (where I was sitting!) where you had to climb in over the pilot's seat! This plane had slightly more electronics than the Cessna back in Canaima but they were still fiddling with those screwdriver things. This time, they had labels on them - "Pull to lean". Not really sure what that means but I'm sure Peet, Paul or Jeremy will enlighten me!
About half an hour later we approached the archipelago. Oh my goodness, it was stunning! White sand islands surrounded by crystal clear aqua water - picture postcard stuff. It's very hard to capture what it truly looks like and as usual, the photos just don't do it justice!
Anyway, Los Roques - it's an archipelago consisting of about 350 islands and has a total area of about 40 square kms. It's a virtually untouched coral reef, a national park and highly protected. It only has about 1,500 permanent inhabitants but around 70,000 visitors come every year. The main island, Gran Roque is only 1.7 square kms and has 3 or 4 sandy 'streets' which mainly consist of posadas (family-run guesthouses). The weirdest thing about this place is that it's full of Italians. All of the posadas are owned by Italians and I would estimate that 95% of the tourists are Italian. The worst thing about this is the men insist on wearing speedos (or budgie smugglers as we affectionately call them!) which should be banned - especially when they come in colours like lemon and baby blue!
Anyway, I was picked up at the door of my plane by Eri and Felipe who had a trolley/cart thing of sorts for my bag and off we walked to the posada (all of a 5 minute walk - if that!). I checked in where it became clear that this really is a place geared towards Italians as they wanted me to pay in Euros. Well, funny that. I don't possess any Euros. I kept trying to explain that all I had was dollars or bolivares and she kept insisting on Euros. I finally and very emphatically said "I don't HAVE any Euros so how can I pay you in Euros?" That seemed to get the message through and we moved on to how the system works. Basically, breakfast was at 8.30am and consisted of a huge feast of cereals, homemade toast, pancakes, eggs, fresh fruit etc etc. Every day, the posada boat would take you to any island you choose for the day and you were given your own coolbox which contained 2 beers, a huge bottle of coke, bottle of water, pasta salad, sandwiches, fresh fruit and biscuits. The boat guys would set up your chair and umbrella wherever you chose and ask you when you wanted to be collected. Bliss! The latest you could come back was at 5pm as there are restrictions on boats after that time so everyone would head back to the posada where there was fresh juice, beer, coffee, piles of pizza and biscuits and the dinner was served at 7.30pm, around a big table and was an absolutely fabulous feast - every day! Most of it was Italian -influenced cuisine which suited me fine!
On my first day I had arranged to go diving so just as I was checking in, the guy from the dive shop appeared and said we could go straight away as I was the only one. He organised to drop me off at one of the islands, Francisqui, later on and off we went, armed with my coolbox. The diving was good - not spectacular but good and the creatures seemed to be double or triple the size of what I've seen before - especially the moray eels which looked scary! I was then dropped off at what I thought was an idyllic spot (that was until I saw the other islands on subsequent days!) and stayed there for a few hours before being picked up by Edgar who, despite people always making comments about my name, is the first person in my 8 months of being in Latin America to say "Ah, nice to meet you Linda; my name is Lindo", ie "Nice to meet you beautiful; my name is beautiful" which I thought was quite funny (you may have had to be there and understand Spanish to agree with me!).
The first night's dinner was a bit awkward, but delicious - nobody talked to me except for the boys who work in the posada but for all of the remaining breakfasts and dinners I was put with Francesco and Danilo from Milan who were lovely, spoke English and I think were a gay couple and Stefania and her husband (can't rememebr his name?!) from Turin who I spoke to in a mixture of Spanish and English. We had lots of wine (nobody drank on the first night even though it was included - what?!) and rum and managed to hold various conversations that we all understood in English/Spanish/Italian!
On Friday I went diving again in the morning and was dropped off at Madrisqui Island. We couldn't see my umbrella but the dive boys said they were sure the posada would bring it soon so I sat under a permanent shade there and stole a chair. I should have known something was wrong but just assumed all would be ok. At 4pm boats started to arrive and took various people home. The beach was getting emptier and emptier and at 5pm I knew there was something wrong and I had been forgotten! There were 2 houses on the beach so I walked towards one of them and spoke to a few blokes who were drinking rum and who just grunted at me and pointed me towards a couple so I went to speak to them and in my bad Spanish tried to explain that I had a problem and my boat hadn't come to get me. They looked a bit confused (I had probably said something completely different to what I thought!) and then asked if I had the posada number. Ah, no - good point. As they talked between themselves, I almost texted someone to get them to google the posada and text me the number back but I didn't have to resort to that! We suddenly spotted a boat at the far end of the beach so the man sprinted the length of the beach to stop it from escaping and they agreed to take me! We then had to go back to my shady spot so the captain could lug my coolbox back onto the boat and I made it back home where the boys were waiting for me at the pier with marginally concerned (but not concerned enough in my view!) looks on their faces. Apparently the dive shop took me to the wrong island so nobody knew where I was! Great! Anyway, no major damage done and I rushed off to the dive shop again (to shout at them!) to get ready for my night dive - I'm sure tiny island life does not involve much rushing around so I must have looked very funny that day with a very concerned look on my face and walking faster than the local snails. Anyway, the night dive was really nice and for the first time I got to watch a moray eel gobble up a fish and then become very aggressive and chase some pretty big fish around. He kept looking at me with an angry look in his eyes so I got out of there pretty quickly! It was really dark when we got back to the pier. I hadn't yet been out in the dark so assumed it was always like this at the pier as there is nobody there after 6pm but as I stumbled in the general direction of my street, it didn't get any lighter. There was a total power cut on the island (which actually happened a few times in the subsequent 48 hours!). I took a wrong turning and got totally lost - no idea where I was. Now, in the grand scheme of things, getting lost in a 4-street town isn't major but it was made worse by the fact that it was pitch dark, I had no light (except for my phone which was useless really!) and I do not possess night vision goggles. Anyway, I retraced my steps back to the pier and realised where I'd gone wrong and made it home where I showered by candlelight!!
On Saturday I couldn't dive as I was flying the next day so I was taken to Cayo Fabian which was wonderful - basically a tiny strip of sand that was about 5m wide and 30m long (and got smaller as the day went on and the tide came in). It's a good thing I wasn't on this island the previous day as nobody would ever have found me - just my coolbox, umbrella and chair floating around! It was gorgeous and I don't think I have ever in my life been so enthusiastic about sand and sea and just lazing around. Truly paradise.
So I've made various non-human friends these last few days. On day 1 I had a continual audience of seagulls and a gorgeous black labrador who came to keep me company and lay down beside me for most of the afternoon; on day 2 it was lizards of various kinds who thought it would be funny to scuttle in and out of my bag and across my feet, freaking me out every single time. Today it was weird-looking invisible crabs with huge eyes. And then later on when I get back to 'town', I attracted another dog that wouldn't leave me alone and followed me home - just because I showed it a bit of attention; honestly!
So, my time in Venezuela is now over. I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised. What with the media hype about how dangerous it is (and it is hype, believe me - except for Caracas) and some of the things people have told me, I was half-dreading adding it to my schedule. I actually think that Michelle and I have visited different countries because our experiences couldn't be more different. Maybe it makes a big difference if you are a lone female traveller but I have only met fantastic people who couldn't do enough for me. So, in contrast to Michelle, I have had hot showers (well, some of the time), I have managed to get laundry done very easily and only for a couple of dollars, my guides have been very respectful, super friendly and generous (and not expecting a tip and actually buying ME beer/rum), I have been fed so well that I have put a ton of weight on in 2 weeks. With regards to the people, they have been welcoming and smiley and very hospitable and not for self-gain, and that includes the women who I have had no problems with - a smile and making a fool of yourself with bad Spanish usually goes a long way. I guess this is why we all love and loathe different places in the world, but based on my experience I would definitely recommend Venezuela.
So, a final stopover in Quito before heading back to Blighty for some home comforts and civilisation!
- comments
RT Great finale, see you Wednesday. No fear of Morays here. Safe flight. Wine ready in copious quantities. R & J xx
Ana I was very interested in reading this comment on Los roques . I am planning to visit this place next year. i would like to know the name of the Posada that did not charrge the extra 30% for single people many thanks Ana from Buenos Aires