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Venezuela
We finally made it to South America, the third continent we had ever been to, on July 16, when we arrived at Puerto La Cruz in the State of Anzoategui in Venezuela. We had stopped at several islands off the coast of Venezuela first, like Isla Margarita, but that's when we made it to the mainland.
We left for a visit home on 7/23, came back to PLC on 9/19. We went for a mini-cruise of the Gulf of Cariaco and some of the offshore islands on 10/18.
Unfortunately, we never got back to PLC after our cruise that started 10/18. The national strike started December 2 and we left finally on December 17, 2002, taking 3 days to make the trip back to Trinidad along the north coast of the country. It was a great trip but we were sad to leave.
We finally made it back to this beautiful country on April 25, 2003, stopping again in Los Testigos, Margarita, La Blanquilla, La Tortuga and La Borracha. We got back to Puerto La Cruz on June 3.
After over 3 months in PLC, on September 21, we left and made a straight run to Los Roques, a wonderful archipelago about 150 miles northwest of Puerto La Cruz. From there, we went the 30 miles west to Islas Las Aves, again, fantastic places to see.
From Las Aves de Sotavento, we left Venezuelan waters for Bonaire on November 14, 2003; we came back on January 8, 2004, arriving at Chichiriviche, a small resort town about due south from Bonaire. We made a pretty fast run (10 days) to Puerto La Cruz since we had a good weather window for going east - a rare thing in the winter months when the Trades can blow for weeks at over 25 knots. We had 10 to 15 (and under) for the trip back.
After we got back, we stayed in Puerto La Cruz for over 7 months, which was MUCH too long, but we still like it and plan to go back. We left on August 24, 2004 and had a fairly easy trip east to Porlamar and stayed for a few days there before running to Laguna Grande to escape from Hurricane Ivan and then finally heading back west towards La Tortuga, Los Roques and Las Aves before going to Bonaire.
We came back to PLC in time for Christmas this year and had a nice time with parties and seeing people during the holiday time. We need to haul the boat and finally see Merida before we leave again.
We did what we needed or wanted to do (haul the boat and see Merida) and stayed about 8 months in PLC. We made a direct trip to Los Roques on August 9, 2005 and had a pretty good trip, taking about 25 hours.
We arrived back in PLC on November 17 after a 5 day trip from Bonaire along the coast. I immediately started fixing several things that had broken during the trip. We're planning to leave the boat in the water here and make an extended trip back to the States. We haven't been back, even for a visit in 2 years, and we have to take care of some things and probably go back to work for a little while (oh well, sigh!!!). But, since the boat will be here, we have to come back eventually (at least within 18 months, since that's the longest period a foreign flagged boat can stay in Venezuela).
Click on the image above to get a more detailed map.
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