Puerto Colombia
Impossible
Caribbean
Puerto Colombia is a fishing village on the Caribbean coast (east of Caracas). It is located in the Henri Pittier National Park and can only be reached by travelling along Via Choroni, a tight and windy mountain pass. It took the truck some time to navigate this road and didn't help that poor oncoming vehicles got the fright of their life on seeing us around corners - our horn makes it sound like a moped is approaching not a ginormous truck!
Despite a few hiking options in this town, I instead opted to chill at local beaches for a couple of days. Stayed at a nice little hostel with a hammock outside the balcony, in which I spent many an hour lounging.
Playa Grande, lined with palm trees, is the main beach in the town, so this is where we headed on our first day. It was slightly littered, but nothing compared to the rubbish we have been seeing up until now. The waves were fierce and it was impossible to go swimming as just trying to get past the break proved too much of a challenge for me. The day itself was quite overcast, as a mist came down from the mountains - it was quite deceiving though and I may have got a bit sunburnt - oops!
The next day a group of us hired a dingy and got two locals to drop us off at another beach. On the way out I shared the front seat with Tony and Heather. We were pounded about like rag-dolls as the sea was very rough. We soon learned that the sound of the engine cutting meant we were on the crest of a wave about to slam down hard (only took us a few wallops before we got wise and braced ourselves by lifting our rears off the seat). Unfortunately Tony took a bad knock on one landing and dislocated his knuckle - luckily he was able to pop it back into place, but ooh the noise it made, not for the faint hearted! Poor Duncan and Angela were seated in the back of the boat and were completely saturated when we landed on the beach; just as well they had time to dry off in the sun! We pretty much had the beach all to ourselves, there were just four other tourists around (but as we made to leave later in the day, the crowds visibly increased). Duncan and Tony went diving, and the rest of us snoozed and read on the beach.
While in Puerto Colombia we celebrated Vanessa's birthday, where Pete served up a mighty feast. The entertainment highlight of the night had to be when Mikkel presented Vanessa with a tortoise and a tinsel bow on top! The tortoise was found in the hostel's garden and the tinsel was obtained by shimming up a telegraph pole! Much merriment was had when Anthony (Mikkel's roommate) recalled how he discovered the tortoise in their shower, after being momentarily stumped as to why there was a cucumber on the floor.
I'm suitably relaxed now and ready to face the adventure capital of Venezuela, but first we are off to the wildlife haven Los Llanos!
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