LatinWorld: Land of Tepuis

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Page 3

I walked around town, visiting five of the six posadas that this tour operator owns here. All of our meals would be taken at Posada del Mar.

I walked into an exquisite buffet style dinner served in an open air porch saloon facing the beach. Afterwards, I took a walk on the beach and headed towards my room for some rest and relaxation, but on my way I was side tracked by music coming out of one of the two pubs on the island, made my way inside and had a chilled Polar beer. The Islanders are early risers, so at 10:00pm the pub closed for the evening. Not yet tired, I sat on the beach for a moment and stared at stars that seemed to be touchable. The cool evening trade winds keep the usual annoying flying insects at bay. In the 70’s, then President Carlos Andrés Pérez came here to jog and relax on this very beach, while his yacht was anchored nearby.

Next morning, with sun block and camera, I headed for breakfast where we were briefed about our day long Catamaran excursion, with snorkeling and swimming on some of the other islands this National park has to offer. Los Roques is the largest of over the 40 islands and Cayes that are large enough to have names; hundreds are still unnamed...We motored out, aboard with me were 23 Germans, 7 Frenchmen, 2 Argentineans and 5 Italians looking for adventure. We set our sails towards the blue ocean and stripped down to our bathing suits. For most part, we were sailing solo on these crystal clear waters. The Neptuno1 is one of three 52 foot Catamarans, Captain José tells me. They have a capacity to comfortably sail with 50 passengers (based on a British design) and were built in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. She’s equipped to convert into a floating restaurant; guides quickly doubled as first mates and servers. She’s also equipped with snorkeling gear and with four sea kayaks, for those of us who wish to remain out of the water.
A two hour sail to our first island, Noroquises, and we were advised that we could swim, sunbathe, snorkel or kayak for a few hours before lunch. We eagerly beached on pearl white sand and the entire group strolled off to a cove to snorkel in warm, shallow waters, marveling at the abundance of marine life; massive coral heads, mollusks, sponges, sea urchins and brain and fire coral. We swam with rainbow-colored Parrot fish, puffy porcupine fish and long slender trumpet fish. Afterwards, I chose a Kayak, headed in another direction and waded in clear waters. Then I quietly laid upon my kayak and spied on four large blue angel fish munching on coral, their fins jutting out of the water. I first thought their fins were sea fans protruding through the surface. They seemed not to be bothered by me floating next to them and continued on with their lunch. I oared up to a small island and sat there for an hour or so, relaxing. I would have loved to have a mask and fins with me, but park regulations require snorkelers be accompanied by official guides. Nonetheless, it was breathtaking to be on your private little island with all this marine life around you.