Blogs from Los Roques, Insular, Venezuela, South America - page 3

France et Guy ont quitté Tortuga hier soirà 18 heures; ils ont navigué toute la nuit et sont arrivés à Los Roques à midi trente aujourd'hui. "Nous venons de nous ancrer il est midi et demi en arrière d'un îlot avec des mangroves tout près de l'entrée qui se nomme Buchyaco dans 25 pieds d'eau. Position 11.47.95N par 66.34.37W Par chance que notre amie Nathalie nous avait donné les waypoints pour l'entrée, car le chart plotter de Raymarine encore une fois était à coté de la track. Cette fois nous avons ajusté l'offset en N S de -2,186 pieds et E W -217 pieds. Chaque fois, comme chacun à qui nous en parlons, c'est impensable d'entrer dans de tels endroits de nuit ou même avec une mauvaise visibilitée. Nous sommes rendus et l'eau est superbe. Nous ... read more

Arrived in Caracas airport on the 28th Jan. at night. Once in the lobby was surrounded by a couple of hustlers trying to buy dollars. First i thought they are selling counterfeit money, but eventurally came to trust them and changed few hundred dollars because they offered a higher rate of and amazing 2.8k. than the official exchange rate which is 2.1 k Bolivares. Later i found that i could have exchanged for much higher rate of 3.4. The dollar is in high demand due to Chavez´s reform measures, which has induced some panic and so there is a big demand for the dollar. This is so despite the fact official market rate is 2.1, indicating markets are not officially effected. One of the hustlers was also a cab driver and took me for 1.5 times ... read more

Venezuela We didn't get to see too much of Venezuela, we were tempted by a cheap flight and free camping on the Carribean Islands of Los Roques, an Archipeligo of Coral Islands just off the Venezuelen coast. So we spent 8 days there relaxing on the beach. Life was simple, we caught a boat to one of the small Islands called Crasqui and pitched our tent on the beach and spent the days swimming and snorkelling. We had to bring all our food and water from the main island, Gran Roque, and we cooked everyday on our little gas cooker. After 3 days we caught another boat to an island called Fransiqui. The story was pretty much the same here, great snorkelling and swimming and 3 islands to explore. Dave went on a few coconut hunts ... read more

Hola, We arrived in Caracas with our taxi waiting for us to take us to our overnight posada, the airport is right next to some, what can only be described as slums and our posada not in an area that much better, we didn´t venture to far out that night and we were quiet glad we had pre-booked our first night in advance. After experiancing the most disorganised airport terminal we´ve ever enountered we managed to board our rickerty 19 seater plane for the jouney to Los Roques. The views from the plane of los roques were something else hundreds of small coral islands with deserted beaches and the most shades of blue and turquiose sea your ever likely to sea with ther odd taxi boat running people between islands. One of the 1st things to ... read more