Vagamundos 3.1 - 2004 - The taste of Venezuela

Choroní Church.

After a few days in Caracas, during which I was literally devoured by mosquitoes (it’s ironic that I managed to sleep in a hammock while traveling in the Amazon Basin without facing any insect problems, whereas in Caracas I had to use a mosquito net in bed), I headed towards the coast. Due to lack of time, I had to leave the interior, the savannah, the mountains and the parks of Venezuela for some other trip.

Choroní. Nobody seems to care about the signs

One of the places I would recommend is Choroní, founded in 1616. It still preserves its colonial architecture around Plaza Bolívar. Santa Ana de Asís church is the best example.

One arrives in the city through a narrow mountain road, crossing Henri Pittier Park, 40 minutes off Maracay, going through a rain forest of great beauty, which features impressive bamboo trees that virtually create a vault over the road. I was told that monkeys sometimes jump on bonnets in search of food, but I didn’t see any.

Playa Grande, Choroní

Playa Grande forms also part of Choroní, but people tend to rent “peñeros”, small motorboats, to get to other beaches, more quiet, like the ones of Chuao or Cepe.

What was not quiet at all that day was the sea, the fiberglass boat made tremendous leaps on the waves, which rebounded right on one’s kidneys. The faces of the fellow boat passengers didn’t do much to inspire trust to the captain, despite his saying that he had been sailing these seas for 15 years.

The road to Choroní. Spectacular views

Choroní’s main attraction is the tambourines, an authentic expression of Venezuela’s three ethnicities, as described with sensual beauty by historian German Fleitas in his book “Words in the wind”:

“three slow centuries of mixing bloods, sounds, flavors, gods and demons. After colonizing and blending, there was blending all the time, “el mestizaje” (=mixing races). Guitars with drums, maracas with zambombas, tambourines with Indian flutes, prayers, psalms and spells, indigenous with Andalusians, islanders with devils, guaiquerí, musical “galerones” with “luongos”, “maremares” with “jotas” (=type of Spanish folk music) and drums, Spanish courtship dances with “curbeta” drums and in the end, the sorrow of the Indians with the black people’s hot blood and the strumming of Spanish guitars, “fulía” dances, weeps, four-string guitars and on earth there was a new man and in the air, the “joropo” (=popular Venezuelan dance and music), the nation’s soul transformed into sounds”.
Simply beautiful.

If you add Santa Teresa rum to this cocktail, you start understanding many of the things that are happening in Venezuela, both the good and the bad ones.

Airplane at Los Roques

A place that fascinated me is Los Roques, an archipelago of 50 islands in the Caribbean, 168 km north of Caracas, declared a national park in 1972.

One should ideally arrive in a sailing boat, but for backpackers this is still not affordable or accessible, therefore the only option is to get a flight from Caracas (for approximately 100$), Margarita Island or Maracaibo.

Los Roques, aerial view

Arriving by air is anyway marvelous; you see a sea in all tints of blue and turquoise green, as well as reefs, coral reefs, lakes, islets and white coral sand beaches.

You land on Gran Roque Island, the only one that is being inhabited, and you forget your problems automatically. The runway is small, with several potholes and the sea borders its two sides. The planes are 10-seater light aircrafts or 50-seat airplanes and the terminal is a wooden cabin.

To see the panoramic Olympus picture of Los Roques, click here.

At Los Roques islands

The only decision you have to make every day, as the guest houses work on a full-pension basis, is choosing which island to get to with the peñero (=light fishing boat). You could be the only person on the island, if you chose one of the most remote ones (in which case it’s better going with your partner).

The indispensable accessories include an umbrella for the beach, sun block, snorkelling gear, sunglasses and a small cool box full of Polar beers and rum, if you have already adapted to the Venezuelan taste.

Diving at Los Roques

The fishing boat leaves and comes to pick you up several hours later. The combination of solar radiation, white sand and transparent waters can change your skin colour within few hours if you don’tt taken precautions. You could be transformed into a red-skin, a person of mixed race, or you could even roast.

Some islands have funny names such as Francisqui, Nordisqui, Madrisqui y Crasqui. Los Roques is one of the best diving sites in the Caribbean, as there are dozens of coral reefs and scores of sea fauna. I booked my diving package with Epsilon Dive agency in Caracas and I almost missed the boat, as my flight had a delay and when I arrived on the dock, the boat was fading away in the horizon.

Diving at Los Roques. Amphora coral.

Luckily, the boat was contacted by radio and they returned to pick me up, otherwise I would have missed a great dive along a reef almost 30 meters deep with thousands of corals and all kinds of fish, shell fish and cephalopods.

After the first dive, they leave you for a few hours on a small island, so as to eat and relax on the beach. Later, there’s another dive, at a different spot. There are more than 30 diving spots.

Los Roques. Pelicans at the diving agency

Next one wasn’t that nice because there was strong wind and the water was muddy. In any case, I managed to use for the first time my new watertight Olympus µ[mju:] 400 digital camera, waterproof up to 40 meters below surface, deeper than the 35 meters that my PADI diving certificate enables me to go.

Los Roques archipelago appeared for the first time in Spanish maps in 1529, and in 1589, Diego de Osorio, governor of Venezuela, ordered the official investiture of the archipelago.

Seagulls on the beach, Los Roques

During the 18th century, Los Roques filled with pearl seekers and pirates who plundered the boats of Guipuzcoana Company, on their route to Spain.

In the 19th century, economy depended basically on “guano” (a sea bird excrement), corals and the tannin deriving from the red mangroves wood, which caused a rapid deterioration of the archipelago environment.

Los Roques lighthouse

Fortunately, thanks to its declaration as a National Park, tourism became the main source of income for Los Roques, and it has developed in a controlled way, as no buildings of more than one storey have been built.

Facilities are basic, although, since a few years, there is electricity, an ATM and access to the Internet, which to some inhabitants has been interpreted as a threat to the originality of the place. I didn’t use the internet facilities because there are so much better things to do.

Venezuela’s gastronomy is surprising, all daily foods are elaborate and particularly tasteful; arepas (corn pies) with beans are served for breakfast, “chucho” (=skate) cake is served at lunch, and there’s also goat with coconut juice. This should give you an idea of the eclecticism of Venezuela’s cuisine. Juices are as tasty and varied as in Brazil.

Colonial church, Coro

Another highly recommended place in Venezuela is Coro and the Paraguaná peninsula.

Santa Ana de Coro was founded in 1527 by Juan de Ampνes and it’s one of the oldest cities in Venezuela.

It’s well preserved, and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1993, along with its port, Vela de Coro.

Colonial window, Coro

Cultural life in Coro is very vivid, the city boasts several museums, like the Diocesan, the Museum of Coro Art and that of Modern Art. However, the most pleasant thing to do in the city is walking through its cobbled streets, enjoying the several old churches and admire the colours of its buildings, which vary from deep blue to red, yellow and brown.. It can’t get more varied than this.

The famous house of the 100 windows indeed has all of them; I’m accustomed to Venezuelans saying “a million” to describe anything in abundance, so I took the initiative of counting them and indeed, they are 100.

There are also several parks and streets filled with tropical trees, like the Alameda.

The 16th century Coro Cathedral was the first in the country and it’s located at Bolívar square. It hosted Venezuela’s first dioceses. Currently, it’s under restoration and cannot be visited.

To see the Olympus Panoramic photo of Mιdanos National Park, click here.

Adícora

From Coro, one can get to Paraguaná peninsula, home to Mιdanos National Park, at the isthmus that connects it to the continent.

It’s very arid and flat, and from almost everywhere on the peninsula one has view of Santa Ana, the only mountain. There’s a bunch of colonial villages scattered, like Pueblo Nuevo, Moruy, Santa Anna, Buena Vista and Jadaquiva.

Enjoying the sunset

We spent the night in Adνcora, which is not precisely a beautiful village, but its location has turned it into an international windsurfing centre, due to the constant wind that blows year-round on the southern beach.

Adνcora provided me with one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in my life, as the sky changed from light blue to indigo blue, before the clouds exploded into an incredible red colour that outlined the beach palm trees, reflecting into the water.

Sunset in Adícora

Perhaps due to the jealousy caused by the natural light’s beauty, an electricity transformer started sparking and suddenly it created a spectacle of artificial fires that left the village in darkness for almost an hour.

Very close to Adícora, one finds the most northern point of Venezuela, Cape San Román, discovered on August 9th 1499 by Alonso de Ojeda, Juan de La Cosa and Américo Vespucci, who were sailing along the coast.

To see the Olympus Panoramic picture of Coloniua Tovar, click here.

The road to Colonia Tovar.

On the way back to Caracas, I visited one of these places that unexpectedly turn out to have a deep impact on you: a German city at the coastal mountain range that looks like a mirror of the German Black Forest (Schwarzwald).

They came in 1843, from the Black Forest villages and for many years they lived isolated, among other reasons because the climate is chilly and Venezuelans avoid the cold, and they managed to preserve their language, called “badischen” (a Baden dialect), the German architecture, as well as the gastronomic and cultural German traditions, and they used to dress like Germans.

Nowadays it’s a tourist centre where one can have a Frankfurt sausage or a choucroute salad, drink a hot chocolate, sip a Spaten beer and celebrate Oktoberfest as if you were in Germany.

German architecture in Colonia Tovar

People are blond, they dress in the traditional way in restaurants and shops, but luckily the everyday music is Latin, rather than that of those noisy German bands that manage to cause you more headache than the beer jugs you have consumed.

The roads both on the way up to Colonia Tovar, as well as on the way down are impressive due to the views they offer and the semicircular curves, which oblige you to drive in first gear.

Mural explaining the history of Colonia Tovar

Click to see the album of Choroní, Los Roques, Coro y Paraguaná, y Colonia Tovar.

I would love to have your opinion on this diary, in public by adding a comment below, by sending me a personal message or by participating in the vagamundos forums.

Till later!!!

Carlos

From La Coruña, Spain, July 26th, 2004

Published: 03/01/2008 00:00

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