Christmas on the beach
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2007
1
37
91
Trip End
Jun 25, 2008
Rio Caribe,
Venezuela
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
We both really liked Rio Caribe, which used to be the most important port for cocoa in the world, but we were not sure if we were charmed by it as a destination or just relieved to be able to stop.
It is a small town of 7,000 with two attractive plazas and simple buildings, brightly coloured. The pelicans are at home with the little fishing boats in the bay enclosed with shrub-covered cliffs.
We stayed at a great posada called Pensión Papagayos and it was a haven
Bay at Rio Caribe
. Similar to the hostel we loved in Puerto Viejo in Costa Rico it had a wonderful simplicity to it with weathered wood and cane furniture and fresh flowers. Plus a kitchen and dining room. We felt so at home.There was a couple staying there who took us under their wing. They live in nearby Cumana but she was from Tahiti and he France and New Caledonia.
We were too tired to join them for dinner out to celebrate Christmas Eve, (we were in bed by 8.30 after a lacklustre meal of rice, tuna and tinned peas) but we had a wonderful breakfast with them on Christmas morning of tuna, onion, tomato and coriander salad on homemade arepas, fresh bread, jam, coffee and juice. This is where I must confess to my new addiction: pear juice. It is delicious - like apple juice but with the thicker texture of pear pulp.
After breakfast we joined them on a boat ride they had organised to spend the day on Medina beach. This is where Christopher Columbus landed and declared a paradise. I wasn't so sure. I thought Tulum beach and Isla de Mujeres in Mexico were more idyllic but it was a lovely spot to spend Christmas day. Lots of other people thought so too - I've never been on a more crowded beach - but it wasn't a problem
Christmas lunch
. The little kids running around throwing sand and burying each other, the adults drinking beer under the thatched umbrellas and eating fresh seafood.I spent a good portion of the day reading the novel 'We need to talk about Kevin' by Lionel Shriver about an innately evil son who plans and executes a mass murder. It is a fascinating book written from the viewpoint of the mother who couldn't help but dislike her son from the beginning, however taboo that is. Heartbreakingly she and her husband had debated having a child, eventually deciding to, supposedly to add interest to their happy life, but the son destroyed it. It's a cautionary tale that has made me think twice about having children. Funnily enough in the past two days I've come across two charming little boys, as though mother nature is trying to make me reconsider by proving that lovely little boys do exist.
I was bound to like the first little boy who was four with unusually reddy brown hair for Latino boys who said I was pretty. The compliment was welcome because just before we left the beach a man had looked at me reading my book and dressed in a windbreaker for the boat ride with my skirt that reached my knee and asked my companions if I was a nun. It goes without saying that all Venezuelan girls wear very tight provocative clothes, even if they are chubby, and skirts are always worn mid-thigh or above. Still, I had no idea I looked so frumpy.
The second little boy was at the posada on Boxing Day and was fascinated by my camera's ability to take movies. He figured out how to take them by himself and taking videos of the walls and table kept him entertained for hours.
