This is an edited post from my old blog/journal from last year.

11/27/2012

Last year my favorite beach was Playuela.

I love the beaches in Venezuela!

This past weekend was my third Thanksgiving away from home but the first time in my life that I didn’t actually celebrate the holiday by eating a big turkey meal. Instead, my friends and I went to Tucacas and explored the islands of Morrocoy!

We stayed in a small “hotel” and I paid less than $10 a night because three of us were sharing a room that cost 250Bs.  My friends had a room with only one bed and it was 200Bs. It didn’t have hot water but it did have an air conditioner and if you took a shower in the afternoon the water was slightly warm. It was also a two minute drive from the entrance to the mainland beach of Morrocoy and a 8 minute walk to the dock to take the boat out to the islands.

However, my favorite part about the hotel is that the best coffee I’ve had in Venezuela can be bought across the street from the hotel for 18Bs and next door they have 15B shark empanadas that are delicious! Every day I just bought a ham and cheese wrap from the bakery that sold me the coffee and I would eat it on the beach for lunch.

When we first arrived we changed into our bathing suits and drove out to the beach that was only two minutes away and played in the water for a bit.  The only downside of that experience were these masseurs who tried to rip me off by saying that the massage was one price at the beginning and then tried to double it when it was over. It was only a 20 minute massage and she wanted $150Bs. In Ojeda I plan on getting a massage for an hour and a half for 300Bs in a nice room in my neighbor’s house!

The first day on the islands we took a little tour with just the five of us on the boat. We paid 100Bs each and we went to Playuela, swam around in Los Juanes for 25 minutes, drove around Cayo de los Pajaros (Key of the birds), drove past a cave where the Virgen supposedly appeared, and finally ended up at Playa Sombrero. We were out and about on the various islands or the boat from 8:30-5 and I only had to pay $10 US!!!

Los Juanes is like a 3 ft deep swimming pool with a sandy bottom and perfectly warm water.

The second day on the islands we went with the same guy as the day before but told him that we only wanted to go to one beach.  He told us that in that case we should go to Playa Azul and we would only need to pay 60Bs each. We were there from 8:30-4:30 and that was more than enough. Because it was a Saturday the beach was packed with people and I didn’t think it was as nice as the beaches we had seen on the previous day.  Toward the end of the day all of us just wanted to hide from the sun so we found a little shaded area in the trees.

Hiding from the sun on Playa Azul

On Sunday morning at about 8AM (after we had our shark empanadas and coffee) we started the seven hour drive home back to Ojeda.