Venezuela

Hi,

I'm thinking of going to Venezuela in september for 2 weeks, and am looking for some info.

We primarily want to scuba-dive, with a few days for sight-seeing and relaxing.
I was thinking of flying to Caracas, spending a few days there, and then have 10 days to spend in Margarita Island or Los Roques, to dive and relax.

Does anyone know :
- from Caracas, is it far to go to Angel Falls / Andes - i.e. could we do these in a couple of days, or would we need more time?
- What are Isla Margarita and Los Roques like? I.e. are they built-up touristy places, or are they places where you can get a sense of the local culture? We'd like to go somewhere pretty authentic.
- I think Sep is in the middle of the hurricane season - does anyone know if Venezuela is normally affected?


I've been reading previous posts on Venezuela, and I really like the look of the itinerary 'doberden' took - if you read this, can you please give me some more info!

Thanks in advance,
Ragazza.

I am hoping to go next year myself. You could do a tour with Exodus or Explore, they have some pretty decent tours on their websites but judging from your posts, you probably don't want to spend a lot of time exploring the country.

The thing to do depending on the time of year (September would be fine as it is during the rainy season), you can canoe up to the bottom of the Angel Falls (takes a couple of days); supposed to be one of the most stunning sights you will ever see. Alternatively you can fly over in a plane which I wouldn't think would be the same but could be your only option if you are stuck for time.

There are a lot of tour companies in Caimana (nearest town to Angel Falls) which can organise the above. You can get there by air or bus from Caracas.

The hurricanes don't usually reach that far south in the Caribbean but they are not unknown

One other thing, diving in that part of the Caribbean is fantastic. I was diving in Bonaire last year which is only about 50 miles north of Venezuela and I loved every second of it.

I did the angel falls trip years back 1994 ,I would really recommend it .spend less time in Caracas and fly to canima and do the trip up river in the boats,can be very scary but very rewarding,we stayed overnight in a Forrest camp under tin roof no walls and was a fantastic experience ,the rain bucketed down and the sound of the jungle alive !bring a can of beer with you as its the nicest beer you will ever have sitting under angel falls in the pool ! margarita island is lovely it was only getting developed back then so not sure whats the situation now.if you go to margarita you should try to get the overnight boat to Trinidad which we did and slept on the deck under a fantastic starry sky ,took about 12 hours i think.from Trinidad you can fly relatively cheap to Tobago where the diving is wonderful and the island is well worth a visit if you can stretch to it.

We used to go over to Tobago for the weekend when I was working in Trinidad - flight took about 20 minutes.

If you do try it, check out the Manta Lodge hotel in Speyside up on the North-east of the island. This is a small hotel with simple, but very tasty,food including about 20 varieties of bananas grown in the grounds.

A short boat ride from little Tobago which has lots of birds and little else.

The hotel owners, when we were there, typified Trinidad; Lorenza Gagliardi is Italian-Swiss, her husband, Clyde Robinson, is ethnic Chinese. Their son Sean is the divemaster.

Great place, great people!