Hotel Brisas del Mar Coche Island

We took an early flight out of Gran Roque to the Island of Margarita. The island is the country's main Caribbean holiday destination, larger than Los Roque, is about 40km off the coast on Venezuela, where the Andes meets the Caribbean, and a much larger island than we thought. It is popular with both Venezuelans and foreign visitors so is far more commercialized; the airport is set up for charter flights from Europe and North America (not that we saw much ...

... inclusive beers and cocktails with the other guests. Despite reassurances from my new friends off the beach that it is safe for me to go out around here (but only if I go with them), I decided the sensible option would be to stay in! Oh, the joys of being a girl alone. Here at the hotel there are plenty of people, so I’ve had some fun. I’ve not met any other English people, but have met an interesting mix of people including one ...

... then left us alone without even a hug. The bus to the Trinidad ferry was from midnight till 6am, the perfect time for a sleep we thought. Unfortunately the driver had different ideas and used Guantanamo torture techniques to keep us awake. This included blowing full blast AC air on us all night till we shivered through our jumpers, turning on the lights for no reason every half hour and suddenly putting on loud music for half a song (sometimes on a ...

- Having discussed the situation last night we have decide to give the capitol a miss since we cannot find anywhere that seems safe to stay. Looking at the guidebook there are some things we would like to see, but there is also a lot of crime in the area and so we are travelling onwards again. This time we are going towards the Caribbean beaches, at the moment there is one called Playa Concord that has a Lodge run by a ...

... it is difficult to get tickets at this time of the year (in fact there is an article about it in today's paper, people scalp tickets and apparently queues start at 4am). But when we arrived in Puerto La Cruz we were able to get straight on a bus bearing Chavista slogans such as 'with Chavez the people are the government'. I later discovered that this carrier is the state bus company (yes the government runs buses; also a supermarket chain). But it was a comfortable bus ...

... and chose a random name, unsure of what we would get. The day was spent sun bathing - with generous amounts of suncream!, swimming, drinking and eating - our lunch arrived and it didnīt disappoint, a huge fish, arepaīs and coleslaw, Mmmm. We explored the crumbling fort, built by the Spanish in order to protect Venezuela from other invading Europeans, before making the return journey to Cumana.

... Thousands of booths selling all sorts of stuff, fresh fish, live chickens etc. Very cool. We spent the day talking to Leo and Gaby and learning what their life is like in Venezuela and their general perspective on life. Truly quite an enlightening day. Thank you very much guys!!! Saturday morning Carlos and his wife Anna Maria took us to little place about 20 minutes from Cumana for some authentic Arrepas and cachapas. The family living in a small ...

... first class had 7 students, mostly early to mid 20īs. All spoke understandable English, and a few really were quite excellent. The second class is intended for doctors. Their English is as strong as the first class, but they understand everythig and speak much better than they give themselves credit fr. Only two fellows showed up, an Opthomologist (apparently specializes in Lazer Eye Surgery in Caracas) and a very good ...

... there were no players on the field, I am not sure I could have figured out that the stick and net combination of a field is a dugout. I did some scouting and Julio will be quite the infielder a few years from now. Alberto has converted outfielder to pitcher written all over him. Our last evening was spent on the city square, this time with only a fraction of the people there, as all tourists had left. The drummers were still there and the tunes were great as always. We ...

... We went on a fab trip to Mochima national park, where we snokelled seeing lots of coral and sea life, had lunch on a deserted beach and saw a huge pod of dolphins (see photos). In fact the trip was soo good we decided to go again a couple fo days later - BIG MISTAKE! We got caught in one the frequent tropical storms, got soaked and nearly suffered hypertherma (i know what your thinking, hypertherma in a tropical storm ...