Los Testigos to Margarita

Los Testigos

The first anchorage on Los Testigos

¡Hola de Venezuela! ¿Qué tal estás? Since our trip down into the Orinoco Delta, we were yet again, stuck in Trinidad awaiting spares, this time for our propeller, however, the supplier was marvelous and these finally arrived out from New Zealand. Paul was able to do all the necessary underwater so, thankfully, we didn’t have to haul out again.

We eventually dropped the lines, shook out those white flappy things with all the trings attached, wondering if we still knew what to do with them and, voilà, we did, so we headed off overnight to Los Testigos (The Witnesses), a tiny group of islands belonging to Venezuela about 40 miles north of the Peninsula de Paria. The total population is only around 160 and most are fishermen. The islands have no air or ferry services so visiting yachts are about the only outsiders they receive. What a gorgeous spot! We anchored in a couple of different locations and enjoyed exploring around this relatively dry landscape – a great change from the rains and humidity of Trinidad.

Scenes around the island

We had planned to stay only a couple of days but, one of the great things about cruising is, ‘who needs to stick to plans?’

Margarita

After 5 days, we set off for the island of Margarita, Venezuela’s largest and also a duty-free port. It is the most popular holiday destination for the Venezuelan people and offers huge 5-star hotels, shopping centres, casinos, vibrant night life and lovely beaches. We’re currently anchored off the town of Porlamar where we have met up with old friends and made many new.

A quick side trip (it took us 3 days there & back) took us, winding through numerous islands, over to Puerto La Cruz on the mainland to drop off our chain & anchor for regalvanising, a good spot to do so. Our chain was embarrassing us by leaving long, dirty, brown streaks in the water. A friend has offered to bring it back to us in Porlamar so we returned here to wait out the time. At least here, we can enjoy jumping off the back of the boat into cleanish waters. There are over 100 yachts in the anchorage so social life can be quite active. Our activities here included an extraordinary amount of socialising as Happy Hour was a popular daily function and who are we to shun such activities?! We also managed to take in a couple of movies, something we hadn't managed to do since Brazil.

Venezuela is a Spanish-speaking nation influenced by Indian civilization and has had, in recent years, both economic and political problems. We haven’t been around and about long enough to comment on either, however in general, the people are a good-looking lot and extremely friendly and we love the vibe. There is to be a general election in a couple of weeks but it appears to be little more than a one-man race with Chavez in the lead.

Celebrating our 2nd anniversary with Sunshine

Oil is a major resource and fuel is incredibly cheap. Only we could do this – upon returning from Puerto La Cruz against wind & current, navigating past islands, sand banks & coral heads, we were having to motor, against all of Paul’s credos (we’re a SAIL boat after all!) and, yes, we ran out of fuel! Fortunately, a little wind came up after sunset so we managed to tack back & forth to Porlamar giving us two firsts in one go; arriving in an anchorage at night and dropping anchor whilst under sail. Never too old to learn!

We then proceeded to fill our tanks: 500 litres diesel + 45 litres petrol which came to the vast total of $40 (R300)! And that was from the fuel boat service which comes to your boat charging four times the price one would pay at the fuel dock. However, going to the fuel dock is not recommended for a deep keel boat and not worth the aggro and potential damage. Friends on a large power boat have come over from Trinidad especially to buy fuel as they can get almost a year’s worth of motoring from a single fill!

Beef is also reasonably priced so, for the first time, we have made some biltong (spicy beef jerky for the non-SA gang) which is drying nicely up on the stern railings. Thanks ‘Sunshine' for the inspiration and recipe – hope ours is as good.

Our stay in Puerto La Cruz was extremely brief, just enough time to arrange for the galvanizing and to join a few friends for happy hour. As always happens when Calypso arrives somewhere new and interesting, it was a public holiday! We did manage a couple of hours in the dinghy wandering around the many miles of waterways and canals in the huge El Morro marina complex. There are hundreds of luxury homes built on stilts, a little a la Venice but with quite a different flavour. Not sure I’d choose to live near such stagnant water but the concept is quite something.

Happy hour & singalong with Keith

Plans (you know, those things that get changed as soon as they’re made) are to visit more islands eg. La Blanquilla, Los Roques & the Aves before moving on to Bonaire. Reports of these islands make them a ‘must see’ and we look forward to some great snorkeling & diving.