I saw a fish this big

We got to a tiny highway town(Tucacas) to take our boat tour through Parque National Morrocoy. Morrocoy is a stretch of cayes and islets running about 30kms along the coast of the Caribbean. As we approached our first park destination, the sky filled with large birds of prey, pelicans and numerous others above the mangrove forests. With the trees and sky full of such large birds of all sorts, it seemed as though we had entered a prehistoric land. After a short stay, the boat wound through the mangrove to find us a secluded beach that seemed to appear in the forest out of nowhere. We ate and drank coconut from the trees and snokeled the coral before our next destination was scheduled. This next stop was one of the most picturesque beaches we´ve seen to date. Huge turquoise waves splashed onto the white sand that lined palm trees to our right and junglelous cliffs to our left. The stay there was short but memorable. We were torn form away after a quick swim for our final destination. As the boat hummed along the water, the jungle and mountains of the mainland were in breathtaking view to one side while the beaches of the cayes laid tranquily on the other. Our final arrival was at the largest islet in the park which housed both sheltered turquoise waters and wavier dark blue waters on each side. We laid on the beach, swam and had some fantastic snokeling before the sunset put an end to our magical tour. The weather was anything but cooperative, as rain fell in small bursts a few times and the clouds never fully parted. One could only imaging the glory of this place in blue sky and sunshine. Nevertheless, Morrocoy proved an amazing beauty that captivated us.
Adios for now!

Need Agua!

The border crossing from Colombia to Venezuela turned out easier than we imagined, thanks in part to a small bribe the entire bus put together to speed up the process. Our firststop was in Corro, Venezuela's first capital before Caracas and now a colnial town home to many of Venezuela's oldest religious artifacts. We visited Venezuela's oldest church as well as it's oldest synagogue, which had floors of sand. We also syumbled upon a free concert one night of what was supposedly Venezuela's best orchestra. Coro lies just off the Peninsula de Paraguana, which holds a number of different unique ecosystems. We took a landrover out of the city and after just 5 minutes we were struck by the immeditae change from shrubbery total desert. We parked, took off our shoes and began playing in the enormous sandbox. Pillowy soft sand spread for miles in every direction. Hills and valleys of sand dunes were exhausting to climb with the sun beaming down on us. We felt as though we were suddenly in the middle of the Sahara.

As we took off from the dunes we came across a lagun with a pink haze looming near the shore. As we got closer we could see that it was a group of flamingos feeding on shrimp. From desert we drove through arrid mountains filled with cacti as we headed for a hike in the nearby rainforest. The province of Falcon, Venezuela is one of the 3 regions where the amazing red Cardinal is found and luckily we spotted a few. The rainforest was followed by a dip in the rough waters of the beach at the very tip of the Penninsula, where in the distance Aruba could be seen. For such a small Penninsula it held an amazing amount of diversity.
Hasta luego!

No Snow in Colombia

We took off from one beach to had to another, a small fishing village tucked away in a bay just outside of one of the major cities on the coast. The village of Taganga is small and quant with beautiful beaches around every corner and surrounded by semi-arrid mountains. An easy climb up the mountains gave the perfect persepctive to pinpoint a small beach all to our own. The heat blistered so intensely on the rocky mountains that the smell of sauna filled the air. Lizards and snakes scurried out of our way as we made our way down to the water to escape the heat. We swam in the sea for as long as possible before the sun took its tole on us and it was time to leave.

Our next adventure began with jumping on the back of a pickup truck and hanging on for our dear lives with 20 others as we made our way up into the jungleous mountains for a few days to escape the sun and take in some new scenery. There was not much to do in the tiny town of Minca so that´s exactly what we did. The mountain looked back on a beautiful view of the city of Santa Mart miles away on the coast, which is where we headed to next before it was time to bid adios to this great country. Colombia was an unscheduled stop in our journey that we are definitely glad we made.

Los Gringos Part Dos

We began phase two of our adventure with a flight over the turquoise waters and remote islands of the Caribbean. Our first stop in South America was the sun drenched coast of Columbia. We landed in Cartagena during the busiest week of the year. Hotels were booked, streets were filled and prices doubled. Every mainland Colombian seemed to be vacationing in Cartagena and it was a change to feel like some of the only white tourists around. We stayed in an apartment inside the old town which is completely surrounded by a giant protective wall built to keep out pirate attacks. We walked the narrow European style streets with balconies overhanging courtyards filled with people dining and drinking.

The beaches surrounding the city were packed full of people young and old, so to get away from the crowds we took a boat ride 45 minutes out of the city to Playa Blanca and before our eyes the sand turned to gold and the water turned a heavenly blue. We stayed and played on the endless stretches of white sandy beaches for a few days before heading off to our next beach destination.

Adios, muchachos!

Panamania

Being so close to the border we decided to dip into Panama and visit the small islands in the Caribbean, Bocas del Toro. The route to Bocas was by boat through a network of narrow canals surrounded by lush, bird-filled greenery. We arrived the night before New Years and Bocas was rockin'! We ran into friends we had met along the way in various countries left, right and center. Bocas was the place to be and we knew everyone. We brougth in the New Year celebrating in the Parque Central with our friends while the locals lit an endless supply on deafning firecrackers. Then with our international crew we snuck in by boat to the hot bar in town, Wreck´s Deck. The bar´s patio was in a circle around a small shipwreck in the sea, lit up like an aquarium to wathch as colourful fish swam through. As the night progressed and drinks were had, partiers were both willingly and not one by one joining the fish. A few days of recovery later we headed off to Panama City in a car full of Americans.

As we crossed the bridge over the Panama Canal we came across a city like no other we´d seen in Central America, with a skyline of modern skyscrapers surrounded by water and palm trees. Panama City seemed cool, but our eagerness to start the next phase of our trip, not to mention that we just hadn´t had enough beach time, sent us on the first flight out to the Caribbean coast of Colombia and the beginning of our South American adventure!
Stay tuned...