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Sarah May 27, 2001
Sailing in Venezuela has got a bad rap over the last several years. Lots of
dinghies and outboards stolen, and even some armed boardings and assaults on
yachts. For that matter many people stay away from Trinidad because of the
crime. So we armed ourselves with chain to lock up the outboard, (cable is
reportedly not enough), an alarm designed by our Hoptoad friends, and all
information we could gather from the radio nets etc. before we left. The
situation had been quiet lately so we were optimistic. We planned on avoiding
the isolation of the eastern peninsula de paria where the most recent armed
attacks had occured, and sailing offshore directly to Isla Margarita,
buddyboating with Hoptoad for company and security. We actually had a very
gentle overnight sail, staying about half a mile away from Hoptoad the whole
time, and in regular radio contact, especially when fishing boats neared either
of us. Of course it turned out to be a complete non event, we saw no baddies,
and we anchored off Porlomar, Margarita, next morning where there were perhaps
20 other foreign yachts.
Margarita is dry and mountainous, and has an extreme mix of rich and poor. There
are many high-rise hotels, some of them gone bust, and rough, bombed out looking
areas, and a bustling downtown, with endless shopping malls and name brand
shops, as upscale as you would expect to see in any city. Crime is supposedly
rife, and you have to make sure the ATM machine does not swallow your card, as
you cannot trust all the bank personnel. Credit card cloning is huge, as
apparently it is not legally a crime yet. As Juan, our "yachting agent" in
Porlomar, said "the insurance companies pay in the end, and ripping off
insurance companies is not illegal in Venezuela". We never saw any evidence of
crime however, and never felt threatened, (two dinghies and outboards did get
stolen the night after we left). The anchorage is off a desolate, dry, end of
the island, with a half Km walk to the bus stop for town. Vehicles are
considerably more run down and rusted out than in Trinidad. You can only
securely leave your dinghy at places which have a guard posted. We had fun in
town though, checking out shops with more stuff in them that we have seen since
the Canary islands. Some of us even braved shopping with Juan's mum. She was a
rather fierce, brisk woman, who marched us all off in an old school bus to a big
mall grocery store out of town, where she gets commission. We all had to wear
goofy badges and carry several identification cards for this and that which I
was sure I was going to lose. I actually still have one - oops! We got into a
bit of trouble with her and overall I didn't like the setup, preferring to be a
little more independent, but the shopping was good and the transportation free!
Juan himself proved to be a bit of a slime ball, and according to all his
neighbours in the industry, and we talked to several, he is going to "fall down
his own hole", but his dinghy guard, Angel, was a delight.
Onward from there we were back to solo cruising, and we asked around the local
chandlery etc to see if this was a bad idea. Bad crime seems to be limited to
the islands just off Puerto La Cruz and we were reassured that we would be fine
on our own. This has been the case. In Mochima National park there were a couple
of other yachts and very little else except for the very beat little town of
Mochima. We screened up the boat at night because a swarm of flying ants came
out with a sudden downpouring of rain. Also we heard bats flying around the
boat, and have heard of yachties both getting bitten by vampire bats in their
sleep, and having fruit bats come aboard and poop up the whole cabin!!
For the next couple of nights we traveled on, the landscape growing on us, and
now we find it quite beautiful. East of Golfo de Santa Fe it is extremely dry,
cactus and scrub, and no dwellings to speak of, only the odd small ramshackle
fishing camp, or fishing lookout hut on shore, and no other boats besides small
open fishing boats. The shore is all hills to about 1000ft, and the rock is
red/brown and striated, making for interesting color and geology discussions.
Very isolated, and very peaceful. At night there are no lights along the
coastline, the only sign of humans coming from fishing boats working the coastal
waters. A far cry from the eastern Caribbean islands or the med where there is
always a boat nearby. There are lots of little bays, and several small islands,
and because of the islands, or the shape of the fjiordlike bays we often appear
to be landlocked. We spent one night off a small dwelling that seemed to be
completely overrun with goats. Neill went ashore to say hello and ask if it was
OK where we were (as we had been instructed to do) and found a lone fisherman
that had goats roaming free around the hills, a number of dogs, chickens and
geese. He was fairly toothless and consequently unintelligible (at least for my
Spanish comprehension), but very friendly and welcoming. He spent much of the
time chasing the goats out of his house. The following morning he came by with a
gift of 5 small tuna - what a guy. Very much appreciated since we have been
skunked lately. We went in later offering a small assortment of fresh fruit and
veggies - something he probably doesn't get much of with all those goats and no
rain. A very positive encounter for all concerned.
We went snorkeling in that bay on the advice of our guide book, the landscape
did not inspire snorkeling - loose scrubby rubble instead of white sand and
coconut trees. But in fact it turned out to be the most interesting snorkeling
we have done in a very long time - very colourful and with reasonable
visibility. Lots of anemones, feather dusters of varying hues of red and blue,
lots of brain coral and fair fish.
Now we have traveled on to the Golfo de Santa Fe. Just five crow fly miles
south and the vegetation is all green and the air much more humid, still high
hills all around. We will spend a night or two around here, and then keep
heading west where we intend to park the boat in a Puerto La Cruz marina for a
while so we can do other things. Margarita is sailing like a race boat with her
new, clean bottom, and all crew aboard are healthy, happy, and enjoying the
relaxed, quiet gunkholing we have been doing. You'll get to hear what the
children really think in the next three emails! Hasta Luego - Sarah
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