Isla Margarita

One of the treasuruses of the Venezuelan coast

Dinghy dock at Marina Juan's

Office, bodega and shop, meeting point for cruisers

Anchorage after thunderstorm

The best place to go ashore in Margarita is Juan's Marina. He has a dinghy dock with 24 hour security, where you can also leave your garbage. Pedro and his sons watch over your dinghy for a small tip. Juan Baro offers a lot of services, welcome to all the boaters. Especially useful for us was his taking over of dealing with the complicated Venezuelan beauraucracy. There is a free bus service to one of the various supermarkets every day and you even get a discount. You can give him your laundry and get it back the same day, at a reasonable price. There is Internet and Wifi. Over the last few weeks we have seen about 3 rescue operations and Juan was always involved, going out of his way to help people in distress.The cruisers in this anchorage are definitely his cruisers.

His mother is equally helpful, she has a little shop beside his office, where you can get basic supplies

Diesel man puckers around the anchorage every morning and you can easily get your supply of the good stuff, so does waterbaby, although he tends to be a little bit more unreliable. Then you can enjoy the endless beaches of the west coast, the mountains or the mangroves in Laguna Restinga. There are of course big resorts, where all the sun thirsty northerners try to get some melatonin, but also Venezuelan city slickers. History is everywhere and we learned a lot about all those "liberators". The old forts and churches are very impressive though. The natural pearls they are still harvesting here are another interesting feature
more infos The ultimative Margarita infopage

Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, one of the oldest churches in Venezuela

Sanctuaries everywhere

View from the church in Pampartar

Castillo de Santa Rosa

Iglesia Virgen del Valle

Fishing boat at Playa Manzanillo

Cabo Blanco

Bay of Juangriego

Fishing boats

And the notorious Pelicans

Well, in the end we spent almost 3 months here. Gabriele had to go back to Germany with a serious dental problem.A lot happened to the boat as well. We have a new bridge on the pulpit now with a solarpannel and a new wind generator. Hopefully these will solve our ever present energy problem. Next project is the shipyard in Carriacou. Our bottom looks like a tropical reef and rust is everywhere. So there is a lot of work to be done...