Los Roques
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Only fifteen more school days until break!
We had a four day weekend not too long ago. It was nice; we went to a place called Los Roques. It is an archipelago about an hour off the coast by plane. It is a bunch of rocks in the middle of the ocean and boy is it hot! It’s a National Park and considered to be one of the gems of Venezuela so it is extremely clean and well kept.
We went there with four other folks from school. We stayed in a great little posada. The pueblo is tiny, the streets are dirt. There are only two motorized vehicles on the island and they are there for garbage collection etc. We arrived on Thursday morning and went straight to the beach by boat. The sun baked down on us in midday. We crawled under our umbrellas and sought out every inch of shade we could possibly muster. We dozed, only to be awakened by lizards skittering over the tops of us. We had a nice dinner at the posada and then quickly fell asleep.
Friday found us back on the beach. This time it was a different beach; less crowded than the first. The water at both places was aqua and gorgeous, although the reefs were all dead and the snorkeling was lackluster at best. Two days frying in the sun was plenty for me. I took the first boat back at 3:30 with Sonya. We showered and headed off to a bar for sundowners and a sunset. We eventually met up with the others and found a great spot with these giant bean bag chairs right on the beach. Again we ate dinner and fell asleep.
Saturday I got up early to climb the highest hill on the island (a ten minute walk in flip flops). There is a shell of a lighthouse there and a decent view of the island and the surrounding water. When I got back, Zman and I decided to forego the beach and hang out “in town” together. We had a great day! We went to the little park until it got too hot. At that point we headed back to the posada for a card game and a few chapters of The Witches. We also explored the town, finding the school, the market (for chocolate), and the licorería (for cool drinks).
Can I just take a moment here to say how dumbfounded I am at our son’s thirst for reading? The kid is amazing. The Witches is a chapter book by Roald Dahl. It is the fourth Roald Dahl book we have read to him. Although there are few pictures and they are merely line drawings, he is enthralled. He asks for more and more and more. When my voice is hoarse and in need of a break, he wanders off to ask someone else to read to him. He summarizes the story and predicts the outcome. His attention span is phenomenal.
Anyway, the others returned midday to inform us that they had finally found some decent snorkeling. We packed our things and headed to our little plane. The flight was uneventful. We ended up back in Caracas by five and arrived back home by eight. It was a fantastic getaway.
Now we are home counting the days until break again. It will go quickly as we have many plans for the upcoming weeks. Saturday we’re heading out to Barquisimeto for the weekend. There are some artisan markets there we want to hit before we go home visiting. We are going with some friends who will not be returning next year. They do not have a car and thus have had limited opportunities for going places.
Next week is our tenth wedding anniversary and the week after that is my fortieth birthday. Hopefully next weekend will find us purchasing a new tent for our summer adventure in the Gran Sabana. The weekend after school gets out we are going out to Barinas for some rafting and then off to the Gran Sabana and Angel Falls for two weeks. I’ll try to remember to take pictures.
MJR
Only fifteen more school days until break!
We had a four day weekend not too long ago. It was nice; we went to a place called Los Roques. It is an archipelago about an hour off the coast by plane. It is a bunch of rocks in the middle of the ocean and boy is it hot! It’s a National Park and considered to be one of the gems of Venezuela so it is extremely clean and well kept.
We went there with four other folks from school. We stayed in a great little posada. The pueblo is tiny, the streets are dirt. There are only two motorized vehicles on the island and they are there for garbage collection etc. We arrived on Thursday morning and went straight to the beach by boat. The sun baked down on us in midday. We crawled under our umbrellas and sought out every inch of shade we could possibly muster. We dozed, only to be awakened by lizards skittering over the tops of us. We had a nice dinner at the posada and then quickly fell asleep.Friday found us back on the beach. This time it was a different beach; less crowded than the first. The water at both places was aqua and gorgeous, although the reefs were all dead and the snorkeling was lackluster at best. Two days frying in the sun was plenty for me. I took the first boat back at 3:30 with Sonya. We showered and headed off to a bar for sundowners and a sunset. We eventually met up with the others and found a great spot with these giant bean bag chairs right on the beach. Again we ate dinner and fell asleep.
Saturday I got up early to climb the highest hill on the island (a ten minute walk in flip flops). There is a shell of a lighthouse there and a decent view of the island and the surrounding water. When I got back, Zman and I decided to forego the beach and hang out “in town” together. We had a great day! We went to the little park until it got too hot. At that point we headed back to the posada for a card game and a few chapters of The Witches. We also explored the town, finding the school, the market (for chocolate), and the licorería (for cool drinks).
Can I just take a moment here to say how dumbfounded I am at our son’s thirst for reading? The kid is amazing. The Witches is a chapter book by Roald Dahl. It is the fourth Roald Dahl book we have read to him. Although there are few pictures and they are merely line drawings, he is enthralled. He asks for more and more and more. When my voice is hoarse and in need of a break, he wanders off to ask someone else to read to him. He summarizes the story and predicts the outcome. His attention span is phenomenal.Anyway, the others returned midday to inform us that they had finally found some decent snorkeling. We packed our things and headed to our little plane. The flight was uneventful. We ended up back in Caracas by five and arrived back home by eight. It was a fantastic getaway.
Now we are home counting the days until break again. It will go quickly as we have many plans for the upcoming weeks. Saturday we’re heading out to Barquisimeto for the weekend. There are some artisan markets there we want to hit before we go home visiting. We are going with some friends who will not be returning next year. They do not have a car and thus have had limited opportunities for going places.
Next week is our tenth wedding anniversary and the week after that is my fortieth birthday. Hopefully next weekend will find us purchasing a new tent for our summer adventure in the Gran Sabana. The weekend after school gets out we are going out to Barinas for some rafting and then off to the Gran Sabana and Angel Falls for two weeks. I’ll try to remember to take pictures.
MJR
posted by Bronx to Timbuktu at 3:02 AM
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