La Playa

This past weekend we took an amazing trip to Chichiriviche, a lazy tourist town on the northern coast of Venezuela. We left late Thursday evening and were thankfully able to sleep for a good chunk of the twelve-hour bus ride. Around 10AM on Friday we arrived at our Posada, a small hotel run by an old Italian couple and headed out for a tour pretty soon after, during which we explored a couple different caves and saw a sunken ship. Afterward, they brought us to an island off the coast that is part of El Parque Nacional de Morrocoy. There we jumped around in the waves and tried fruitlessly to body surf. At one point we had an old log pushed pretty far out and were attempting some logrolling. We explored a little further down the beach and discovered the heaps of trash brought in by the waves. Venezuela is a beautiful country, but has some pretty serious problems with trash. We spent most of the day there tossing around a frisbee (which cost us $27 back in Mérida!), and then headed back to Chichiriviche, where we ate a simple dinner and then headed out to an outdoor market with handmade goods (geared towards tourists). Saturday we got up pretty early and headed out to Cayo Sombrero, where we did some snorkeling near a reef and saw some puffer fish, sea stars, plenty of coral, some small jellyfish, and schools of other tropical fish. It was a pretty amazing and peaceful experience, something I'll probably never forget. Later on we explored Cayo Sombrero, Cayo Muerto, and a few other spots. The beaches were absolutely indescribable; picture your typical postcard tropical beach and then multiply by ten. I bought a pretty cool hat, which cost me 50 Bs. or a little over $3. We also ran into a guy from the states who is playing baseball in Venezuela and lives with his wife and young daughter. It was pretty interesting to hear his story about moving permanently to Venezuela. Sunday morning, we pretty much just ate breakfast and got back on the bus. At about 4PM, we were driving down some mountain roads and stumbled upon a long line of cars, at the front of which was a tree blocking the road. We got out for about an hour and watched some locals clear it away with a chainsaw and manpower (we obviously would have liked to help, but the machismo Venezuelan culture already provided plenty of eager men). This weekend was honestly something out of a dream; I've always known beautiful places like this existed, but seeing them with my own eyes is something I'll always remember.