Finally Found My Beach!

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So after leaving the craziness that was the election and the city of Coro in its entirety, I finally found my beach!!! I have left Rachel, the beautiful souled political activist of an artesana who I´ve been with for the last 3 weeks… and am currently travelling with Antonio. He´s pretty much amazing; 40 years old, chainsmoking, gay Italian hairdresser who doesn’t speak a word of English and as you probably know, I don’t speak a word of Italian… it makes speaking in Spanish a necessity, and it´s really helping me with my practice-makes-perfect mantra! He´s been fabulous company while touring the breathtaking Caribbean islands off the Northern coast of Venezuela. It´s a little ironic that everyone we met said such great things about Coro and its natural wonders and I found myself stretching my limits to enjoy it… and all I´ve heard of Tucacas is how crappy it is, and how it´s not really worth spending much time here, and yet it´s one of my favourite places yet!!
Kinda proves that you can´t really listen to what people say and that I´ve got to discover things on my own!
Yesterday Antonio and I took a lancha (aka crappy little boat) to 3 of the dozens of Islands all within a couple of hours from here. We spent most of the time in the water trying to escape from the intense sun and the oppressive heat… not that I´m complaining! At one point our lancha driver dropped us off in what we thought was the middle of nowhere, kind of beside a floating mass of reeds and told us to get out of the boat. That’s when I thought ¨This is it, I knew I couldn´t get through my trip without being robbed and left somewhere to die¨… but thankfully he was just letting us off in a calm pool-like swimming area where we ended up easily floating around in the salt-filled water for an hour! At another point we got out in the middle of the inlet and Antonio went diving for Starfish - he got one and expertly posed for a picture (as I stayed in the boat to dutifully ´man´ the camera!)

Im going to post a few pictures of the last few days here in Tucacas, as well as a few from the crappy tour we took up to the Peninsula. It was actually a little disappointing, but we got a few good shots of the tarantula and the beach up north…

In all things are going surprisingly well… Im heading out of Tucacas today to Valencia to take a bus to Ciudad Bolivar, from where I´ll do the tour of Angel Falls. After that I´ll return to Valencia and have confirmed with the orphanage that I´ll be arriving on or before Wednesday (6 days from now). I spoke with the woman yesterday and we´ve arranged for me to stay in the house for 2 weeks (including Christmas!!), and in exchange will work my butt off and pay for some food until I head to Perú.
I´ll keep everyone posted on my progress!!

Sending much love to all!

Callie

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Photos

YEA!!! My beach
Me in the warm warm waters off the northern coast of Venezuela, Cayo Sombrero.

Another beautiful beach
We were told this is the ugliest beach in the area! bring on the nice ones then!

Antonio and the Starfish
My dear friend Antonio and his catch of the day... that we promptly threw back

Comments

[Lindsey]

Wow, Christmas at an orphanage...that will be great. Be sure to take lots of pics of the kids!! Can't wait to see the pics of the beach!

[Mom]

Whaaaaaah, I want to be there: to swim in the warm water, to play in the river pools. to soak up the sun. But... if I don't look at the pictures I'm perfectly content to play in my Shop - getting ready for Santa's visit.