Playa Colorada in Parque Mochima

The beach and lush mountains at Santa Fe

The beach and lush mountains at Santa Fe

Palm trees and a boat on the beach at Santa Fe

Birds perched on a boat

Sunset at the beach

A dolphin jumping out of the water

From the boat on the way to the islands of Parque Mochima

Ruins of a pier on Isla Arepo

Tropical scenery on one of the islands of Parque Mochima

La Piscina in Parque Mochima

Another sunset on the beach

Another sunset on the beach

A old destroyed building on the plaza in Cumana

San Anotonio Fort in Cumana

San Anotonio Fort in Cumana

The castillo in Araya

The fort in Araya from the beach

Ruins of the interior of the fort in Araya

Walls of the castillo in Araya

The arid peninsula east of Araya

Looking out towards the salinas from the fort in Araya

A view of Araya and the beach

Cumana, Venzuela

Parque Mochima and Araya

July 21, 2008

I am a rock

I am an island

And a rock feels no pain

And an island never cries

- Simon and Garfunkel

Despite my best intentions to arrive at the small fishing village of Santa Fe before it got too late I didn´t arrive until almost 11pm due to various delays. The shared taxi dropped me off at the end of the short road into town and I had to walk about half a mile to all the hotels located right on the beach. It was dead quiet and totally deserted but I found my way to the end of the road where there was a police station that I had to walk past. Upon seeing me the police called me over and told me that I should pay them for a secure escort to the hotels because it was dangerous, or so they said. I told them it seemed very calm and safe but then they told me this had changed recently because yesterday someone had been murdered. In my opinion they over-embellished with that detail and the fact that all the beach hotels were only about 100 yards away made me decide to forgo the 50 Bolivar escort fee and walk it on my own. Of course I arrived safely and without incident and was able to find a place for the night.

The next morning the town wasn´t so deserted and there were lots of fisherman selling their catch and other little stores that were open. I caught a mini-bus down the road to Playa Colorada, a small beach with red sand in front of lushly forested small mountains. The beach was fairly nice but with all the little stands and chairs and umbrellas set up it wasn´t anything special. Some afternoon rains forced me back to Santa Fe to hang out for the rest of the day.

The following day I took a boat trip to some of the islands of Parque Mochima, which, according to my guidebook, was supposed to be another one of Venezuela’s highlights. On the way out to the islands I saw lots of dolphins swimming alongside our boat. The first beach we stopped at was Isla Caracas and both the beach and the water were littered with trash, a not so attractive sight. There was a section of coral reef there that was clean and did have some colorful fish to look at and so we did some snorkeling there for about an hour. Then we went to a touristy island that had an expensive and overpriced restaurant that was ignored by our group. After we all ate the food that we had brought with us for lunch it started to rain and continued to rain for quite a while. Because of the rain we didn´t stop at La Piscina, which is a shallow water section between two islands, Isla Arepo and Isla Arepito, but I think the snorkeling there wouldn´t have been as good as that on Isla Caracas.

That night in town there was some type of party going on in the main street and they had speakers blaring music and some type of dance contest. Mid-way through this party some police vehicles came roaring down the main street with sirens on and the whole crowd was forced to part so that the police could get through and get to the police station at the end of the road. When the car came to a stop outside the station they escorted four people out of the vehicle and into the station at gunpoint before driving back up the road. About 15 minutes later they came roaring back down the road and the crowd had to move again. I was standing on the edge of the crowd near a bunch of teenagers on bikes and they seemed to be upset at have to move aside even further to let the police get through. I think one of the teenagers said something to police because after the police car cleared the crowd it suddenly stopped and the two police got out with guns in hand and walked back towards the kids waving their guns around and yelling at them. The music was too loud for me to hear anything but the police clearly weren´t happy, although they got back into their car and drove off after staying to watch the kids for some time. I thought that was the end of things for the night but shortly thereafter from somewhere a bottle sailed through the air and broke on the ground. Suddenly the music shut off and the police came running in with their shotguns and pistols and started yelling at people. Strangely they seemed to give up after this short demonstration and walked back to the police station while the music and festivities resumed. It was quite the eventful night in such a small town.

There was nothing left to see in Santa Fe so I left for Cumana, only about an hour and a half away. It was Sunday, which in Venezuela means that most everything shuts down, so when I arrived at around 1pm the streets were quiet and I had to go to several hotels to find one at a cheap price. I was able to find an Internet cafe that was open until 2:30pm and a bakery to get some food. I wandered around the streets but there wasn´t much to see and it was sweltering in the afternoon sun. The one redeeming part of the city seemed to be the large fortress located on a hill overlooking the city. It had been reconstructed but it was still pleasant to walk around with some colorful flowers and plants and good views over the city and the Araya Peninsula to the north. For dinner there were only two places that were actually open so it was between Chinese food or a roasted chicken restaurant.

The following day I took a day trip out to the city of Aray on the peninsula. This involved a short boat ride in a packed and stuffy boat and then a short ride in a truck to reach Araya on the tip of the peninsula. The peninsula is very different from the lush tree covered hillsides of Santa Fe and Cumana; it is arid and desert-like with cactus everywhere. Like most everywhere else I have been so far in Venezuela it was littered with trash but here there were roaming bands of stray goats munching on the rubbish. In the town there were ruins of a fortress with good views over the peninsula and of the salt works that are north of the town. The sun was really strong and the baking heat was relentless. Some of the rock work on the fortress was interesting but it hadn´t been restored like the fortress in Cumana. There wasn´t anything else to do in Araya so I headed back to Cumana to try to get a bus ticket to Merida, a place I hope will be nicer and more pleasant than Cumana. So far the few places I have been in Venezuela have been rather unpleasant, the kind of places that you can´t wait to leave even after you just arrive. This is in stark contrast to the beautiful natural surroundings in many of these areas that lured me here. It´ll be 24 hours on the bus before I get to Merida, but hopefully after that I´ll be somewhere nicer.