Los Roques, November 13-December 7, 2008

Another night sail with YOLO and Riga II whom we met in Tortuga, and we were on to Los Roques….a gorgeous group of islands about 80 miles off the coast of Venezuela. This is a whole different Venezuela. Our friends from YOLO (Karen and Jason Trautz) are pictured above in the one beach bar we discovered on Francisquis, an island in Los Roques. The town on the island of Gran Roque is a charming village with streets of sand. Lots of Venezuelans come to relax and enjoy the beaches so there are many party boats--large catamarans that carry pleasure-seeking tourists to and from the various islands. People on Gran Roque seemed laid back and friendly. We met a restaurant owner, Pedro, who spoke excellent English and gave us a lot of valuable information, such as when the “fruit boat” would be in. We were looking to supplement our provisions, but found there were not a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables to be had. Also, Venezuela has the cheapest diesel around so we wanted to fill our boats before leaving.
There were weather predictions for squally conditions so we moved to better holding, Francisquis, a nearby island. There we found a little beach bar which served delicious barracuda, snapper and tuna for lunch--and beer! The lobsters were huge, but expensive so we held out for a local lobsterman’s catch another day. While in Los Roques we sailed to several areas, Sebastopol, Noronsquis, Crasqui and Sarqui to name a few. Snorkeling at Sebastopol was a thrill with huge midnight blue parrotfish, triggerfish --even a barracuda lurking in the reef. In other places, there was large brain coral harboring colorful snappers and goatfish darting in and out of their little caves. We often found our anchor chain surrounded by a school of small squid. When approached, as expected, they sprayed us with ink.
Watching the brown pelicans dive-bomb their dinner was amazing. They perch on the water or on boats in groups then on some signal unbeknownst to us, they fly off in a formation and do a nose-dive one after the other into the waters close by! Usually they sit afterward gulping a fish down the hatch. The scene repeats itself time after time, especially at day’s end. Very entertaining.