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A HOLIDAY DIARY
SUMMARY
- Getting there
- Money Matters
(a) exchange rates/banking
(b) the currency black market
- Basic geography
- Hotels in Porlamar
- Hotels in Puerto La Cruz
- Beaches on Margarita Island
- Beaches at Puerto La Cruz
- Restaurants in Porlamar
- Restaurants in Puerto La Cruz
- Casinos
- A purse-snatching in Porlamar
- Probably useless miscellaneous tips
The charter flights out of Toronto and Montreal have to be the
cheapest long distance flights in the world! Our Royal Airlines
charter flight out of Toronto, flight only, and with taxes it was
$455.00Cdn (i.e. about $335US).
For comparison I tried finding the cheapest fare through
EAASY-SABRE, which was about $650US, involving a stopover in Miami.
The charter flights land first in Barcelona (a twin city to
Puerto La Cruz), then drop into Margarita Island as they head back
to Toronto. The point of telling you this is that it can therefore
be quite a grueling all-day trip, especially in a flying-sardine-
can like an Airbus 320. An hour late, our plane got away at about
9:30a and arrived at Margarita about 5:30p local time, only an hour
before sundown. The time zone is one hour east of Eastern Standard
so the first day's sundown comes a bit early, the homecoming gives
you back the hour.
(a) Exchange rates/banking
It took Jeannelle longer than me to adapt to the money, which
is complicated by the fact that there is a thriving currency black
market. This was helpful to me, as explained below.
As at January, 1996 the Venezuelan Bolivar (called "B's" by us
tourists) traded at banks/money exchanges at the rate of about 185-
190 Bs for $1 Cdn, and 290-295 Bs for $1 US. CANADIANS BEWARE: the
arithmetic works out that you are well-advised to get $US in Canada
before leaving -- otherwise, one Canadian dollar buys about $.64US
worth of Bolivars. This is in contrast to, say, Mexico, where it
isn't worth paying for two exchange transactions.
The black market further exaggerates the difference between
the two dollars. Canadian dollars are not generally sought on the
black market, but an American dollar in cash could fetch from 340
to 360 Bolivars, and $US Traveller's Cheques would get the lower of
that range. Where in the body of this message I have inserted U.S.
dollar equivalents, I use the black market rate of 340 Bs--but
please do not expect an official hotel price at that rate in U.S.
dollars.
Once I caught on, I was able to use my arcane currency-
calculating skills to advantage. When I did not want Jeannelle to
spend money, I'd quote $Cdn exchange, rounding it up: an 18,000 Bs
necklace works out to a big $100Cdn if you see $1Cdn buying "less
than 200 Bs". When I wanted something, to emphasize how cheap it
was, I shifted gears to $US. The jeep we rented for a day, for
example, was ONLY $US50 or so, when you considered that 18,000 Bs
at the rate of 350 Bs per dollar came to somewhere between $45
(i.e. 400 Bs per dollar) and $60 (300 Bs per dollar). The little
things count!
Bank machines: both Porlamar and Puerto La Cruz had a few ATM
machines that would access your home accounts, giving you Bolivars
at the official exchange rate. Like here, though, the damn things
always seemed to go out of service at the very moment you needed
them most, and the maximum I was able to extract at one time
was 20,000 Bs. It was the Union Bank in both places that carried
the most varied list of available services, such as Cirrus, Plus
System, and Visa. Other banks had only American Express, and a
(European one?) with a name like "Suiche".
(b) the currency black market
I wish we had received before we left some advice regarding
the black market. More than likely, people going to specific
resorts will get this advice in their orientation meetings.
While you are walking the streets in tourist areas, you are
approached constantly by touts asking if you want to change money,
if you want "cambio". I would like to suggest the following
guidelines, which we broke to our regret...
 | 1. Only do the actual trade inside a shop. We did not know
it, but a lot of shop owners will exchange money without the
intercession of a tout. In any case, if the tout wants to
make the exchange in the street, change your mind not your
money. The touts seem to get their money from a shop-keeper
nearby, whence they also get their commission. Let them take
you to the shop interior to make the exchange, and they can
still get their commission thereafter. This routine is
presumably safer, too, in case there are thieves (or police)
around.
| 2. COUNT YOUR MONEY: there was invariably in our dealings an
attempt to short-change us by a thousand or two, which quickly
makes all this hassle less than worthwhile.
| 3. Do not change too much at a time: $200 at a time seems
to be a generous and reasonable amount.
| 4. Standard disclaimer: it is a black market and therefore
illegal. We heard of no-one going to jail for changing money,
but it is, presumably, possible. The most important thing
about its' being illegal is that if you are ripped off, you
have no recourse. Read on, if you want to see whence comes
all this gratuitous advice.
One fine day I accepted a young tout's promise to get me a rate of 345 Bs. We were led to an area under some trees, on the busy sidewalk along the tourist street "4 Mayo" in
Porlamar. Already I was getting uneasy, because there were many, perhaps 5, other young men who seemed to be standing around -- and to be privy to our deal. I only really wanted to change $100US, but felt I'd better do $200US because it was travellers
cheques. We were made to wait, while some relaying of communication seemed to take place, the gist of which was that my TC's could only fetch 340 Bs after all. Jeannelle decided to also change $125US cash, so I tried to use this as a bargaining tool to keep the price at 345 Bs for my
TC's. In the event, Jeannelle made her own deal, I made mine. After an uneasy 5 minutes of waiting, one of the young men came up with a bundle of Bolivars for me, and another with a bundle for
Jeannelle. It was made out by gestures that we should put the money in our pockets, not make things too obvious. I had signed my TC's and handed them over, but I did know enough to count the money, Jeannelle did the same. My bundle was short by about 20,000 Bs (!), and Jeannelle was short by 3,000 Bs. I handed the money back, and got back my
TC's, all under the pretext that they were getting together the full amount from various sources, would need more time. Jeannelle handed her bundle back to her fellow who wanted to confirm her alleged count, and thereafter she was given back a corrected bundle of money. Just then things went rather tense, as the touts indicated in low voices that the two men near the wall were police, and told us to keep our money out of sight. After another few minutes of standing around, I suggested we meet outside another hotel area down the street to complete my transaction, and off we went. So can you guess what really happened? It's not hard to suppose that no-one showed up outside the hotel. But in the 'excitement' the bundle returned to Jeannelle by the tout was short by an even greater amount, being 13,000 Bs ... a very handy commission for changing money worth 43,000 Bs. We can only guess if the real police were there, or involved in this kind of scam. Following the above guidelines would in any event have avoided this loss. Of course, like for STD, the best advice of all is to "abstain".
If you are planning to go there, you will of course take a
look at your atlas. The north coast of Venezuela is wonderfully
warm even in the coldest January. In the evening, the cool breeze
is still short-sleeve shirt weather, very pleasant. The noon-day
sun is intense, and a sunburn from it is no joke.
The island is "mountainous", unlike, say, the Bahamas or
Cozumel. We even visited a rather nice waterfall, Fuentiduenos.
One must, however, keep in mind that the climate is almost desert-
like, which is especially obvious out at the deserted western
peninsula called Macanao.
Porlamar at the southeast corner must have at least half of
the approximately 300,000 inhabitants of Margarita (this last
figure from the Net, as the published population of the state Nueva Esparta). Nested in the mountains in the middle is the capital of
Asuncion, no village either. Across on the western side of the
main island is the beautiful peaceful city of Juangriego, probably
the same size as Asuncion.
The airport is on the southern coast of the main island. The
half-hour taxi ride from the airport to downtown Porlamar was 2,000
Bs (=$7US).
We arrived "air only", and because it was a late arrival, we
spent about 3 tense hours in a taxi going around to major hotels
looking for a reasonable room for a reasonable price. Porlamar has
lots of good hotels. Because it was early January, our rough goal
was to pay less that $50Cdn per night. Bargaining for prices at
several decent hotels like the Stauffer was not going well -- in
the circumstances it was obvious to them that we needed a hotel
soon. The going rate seemed to be around 16,000 Bs ($50US or so).
Finally, we hit the jackpot at the MARGARITA VILLAGE INTERNATIONAL
RESORT, where we found a very comfortable room for 12,000 Bs.
($35US). Although mainly an all-inclusive resort, this low-rise
settlement allowed for paying guests like us. It was filled with
Germans, always a sign that there is good value. We stayed there 3
nights, before travelling to the mainland.
Our friends from the flight, Karyn and Dan, stayed at an all-
inclusive for the whole two weeks called VALUE CLUB RESORT, which
used to be called the Decameron. The rooms, they said, were not
great, but the price was very cheap, and the cooks made a real
effort to keep the food interesting. We inquired about their off-
the-street rates, and were told that the all-inclusive price would
be $50US per person per night. The resort looked like a really
swinging, fun spot..maybe the free drinks had something to do with
that!
When we returned to Porlamar from the mainland for the last 5
days of our holiday, we went directly to LA PERLA, which had been
recommended by friends in Canada. The room cost 14,668 Bs ($43US),
was big and clean, with good beds. One disappointment was that the
pool was out of service for almost two days, and the hotel
generally had an air of being deserted. The hotel building is as
good as any, we were surprised that no Canadian tour operators had
it in their 1995-96 brochures. Probably its location far from any
beach and a good long walk to downtown were negative factors. I
suspect in the busier season this hotel fills up.
If money were no object and I had my choice of hotels that we
saw, I'd say the MARGARITA INTERNATIONAL RESORT (the newer, high-
rise part of the resort village we stayed at), and MARGARITA HILTON
would be at the top of the list.
One taxi driver who spoke good English recommended as budget
hotels the MARIA LUIS and the KANARATA, the latter of which we saw
on our first night, and which looked OK (it was full then, so that
should say something).
We spent five days on the mainland in Puerto La Cruz. When we
arrived, we went directly to a hotel listed in Fodor's called
CARIBE MAR, at the west end of the seaside tourist drag. It was a
decent budget hotel, the price 5,500 Bs ($16US). We were
uncomfortable, however, with the lumpy beds, the bedside lights
that didn't work, the giant cockroach I found basking on my wet
beach towel. The only consolation was the excellent satellite TV
reception. After a night, I asked for and was graciously given a
refund for the rest of the booked time, and we walked almost next
door to the towering RASIL HOTEL, where for 9,450 Bs ($28US) we had
a splendid room with decent beds. It is a fine hotel constructed
perhaps too ambitiously to include a small mall of shops. This was
to us a wonderful bargain, which I doubt will be available in the
high season.
From off-shore, the Puerto La Cruz skyline is framed by the
two better hotels, on the west by the high Rasil where we stayed,
and on the east the lower but longer HOTEL MELIA. This last is the
most expensive in town, and where most Canadian tour operators send
folks. We spoke to a Canadian couple who said the upstairs rooms
did not live up to the standard of the fancy lobby area...but
perhaps they expected too much. We neglected to inquire for the
exact price of a room there. If the bar prices were any
indication...expensive!
Finally, out on the El Morro peninsula, the striking landmark
to the west of Puerto La Cruz, there is nested among the luxury
condominiums a gorgeous new luxury hotel the PUNTA PALMA. The
guests there when we dropped over for a drink seemed to be mainly
French Canadian. This is not surprising, since two of the large
condo buildings back on the beachward drive are wholly owned by
Montreal groups. Hotel Punta Palma had a lovely pool, and even a
tolerable little constructed beach (El Morro is a promontory, no
natural beaches on it). Again, if I had had the money, I think I
would have stayed at this resort.
There are several other decent budget hotels in or near Puerto
La Cruz, but we are not aware of any other tourist class hotels.
The best beach that we went to was PLAYA CARIBE on the
northwest coast, almost straight across the island from Porlamar.
The sand is clean, and the waves are gigantic. A taxi from
Porlamar to there was 2,500 Bs. To return, we went to Juangriego
by taxi (400 Bs), and from there by local bus back to Porlamar (80
Bs each). On the beach, you must rent a sun canopy if you intend
to spend any time there and not ruin your holiday with a sunburn;
this costs 800 Bs for the canopy and 2 chairs. There are beach
restaurants, the most striking of which is the MOSQUITO COAST. The
Canadian consul there (more later) Terry Bannon is a partner in
this clean well-run restaurant. If it ever gets completed, the
stunning 90%-finished KOKOMAR RESORT just down the beach will be
one top holiday destination. It is apparently a victim of
Venezuela's latest and ongoing banking crisis, and lies there
frustratingly unfinished, deserted.
The very long wavy beach at PLAYA EL AGUA on the northeast
coast was always considered the best, until Playa Caribe got
developed. Again, this beach has surf. There are numerous
pleasant-looking restaurants. We spent our first beach day there.
The taxi from Porlamar was 2,000 Bs, and we local bussed back for
about 60 Bs each. The beach canopy and chairs here were only 500
Bs, maybe because we got there around noon.
If you want calm waters, there is a lovely beach between
Juangriego and Playa Caribe called PLAYA LA GALERA. It was amazing
to see its absolutely placid waters on our way back from the
magnificent surf of Caribe, which is just around the other side of
a small mountain.
Finally, PLAYA EL YAQUE on the south side of the island past
the airport is apparently heaven for the windsurfers. The water is
calm and shallow for far out, but there is always wind. Wind
surfing enthusiasts know it from their magazines and by word of
mouth. We enjoyed sitting under the palapas, taking the occasional
dip, and watching the armada of wind surfers out in the channel.
There are again decent beach-side restaurants. A taxi from
Porlamar cost 2,000 Bs to get there, but we were extorted 2,500 Bs
to get back..there is no local bus, unfortunately. This different
beach culture was worth a visit.
The whole north coast is really fine beaches, and even in
Porlamar there are beaches in front of the downtown hotels like the
Bella Vista...if you like the idea of swimming in the bay into
which the city's incredibly stinking filthy disgraceful excuse for
a river empties.
Down the coast east of Puerto La Cruz there are several
commercial beaches: Arapito, Colorada, and Santa Cruz. The road to
these beaches offers some spectacular vistas. We came westward
along it after spending one night at Cumana...the latter, nothing
to write home about.
The best beaches, however, are on the islands off the coast
which seem all to be included in Mochima National Park. It is a
simple matter to take a morning boat out to the three most popular
island beaches, Saco Beach and Puinare Beach on Chimana Island, and
Chimana Beach on another island. There are at least three little
docks at the town beach right in front of Paseo Colon, and a return
ticket (keep the ticket!) is 800 Bs (about $2.50US). Your boat, or
another with the same company, will return you about 4:00 p.m.
Each island beach has a restaurant selling fresh fish and of course
cold beers, and there are chairs and shade huts to be rented for
about 500 Bs for two persons.
To go to the more distant beaches, one can take a "tour" for
a day, for about 5,000 Bs (about $15US). The tour will include
lunch, and you will stop at several of the nice beaches, and "La
Piscina", an area of clear water like a swimming pool, where you
can snorkel. Our favorite beach was the last one on the tour,
Conoma Beach, which is actually on the mainland but supposedly
inaccessible by land.
We had no memorable meals here, but also no memorable disasters. The predominant "foreign" food is overwhelmingly Italian. One wonderful result of the Italian influence is the coffee, invariably made using a machine. The 'cafe con leche
grande' is a tasty cafe latte, for the price of a normal cup of coffee. We encountered two American-style restaurants, the DUGOUT (sports bar) on 4 Mayo, and CHEERS on Santiago Marino, both serving expensive hamburgers and fries. The MOSQUITO COAST down by the Bella Vista Hotel is apparently good, but we did not get to try it. For some reason we missed having a meal or meals over at the recommended beach restaurants on Playa El
Agua.
The Paseo Colon has lots of attractive-looking restaurants.
One of the most popular ones for tourists is the PARADOR at about
the middle of the strip. It was expensive, but impressively clean,
with waiters who take pride in their job. They make a production
of their Caesar salads created at your table side (2,900 Bs for
two), and practically everyone was ordering an interesting fish
platter that comes to the table looking like a heap of flaming
snow..which turns out to be rock salt encasing the fish. The waiter
chips away the salt, fillets for the customer the fish. Our tab
for two decent meals and wine, with no dessert, came to 9,450 Bs
(about $28US).
The best meal we had in Venezuela was at the little CHIC E
CHOC at the western end of the Paseo Colon. This is a French style
restaurant nestled in a row of three (quite decent) Italian style
restaurants. I fell in love with pargo (red snapper) on this
holiday, and the best pargo fillet I had was here, done in a light
cream sauce. Part of the pleasure was the quiet but friendly
atmosphere. We had a bill of about 6,000 Bs ($17US)...pricey
compared with the many medium-level restaurants, but far cheaper
than the Parador, or the hotel restaurants.
Of the three Italian restaurants in that little block by the
Chic e Choc, we preferred RESTAURANT DA LUIGI, which featured a
modest salad bar. With glasses of Chilean wine, salad bar, and a
la carte meals, we had a bill of 3,500 Bs. ($11US). Venezuelan
wine, by the way, seems to be AWFUL. We had it twice, that was
enough.
The gambling bug has struck here. In Porlamar, the biggest
nicest casino that we saw was right on Santiago Marino about half-
way between the Bella Vista and the 4 Mayo intersection. At that
intersection itself is the Margarita Suites hotel, in which the
casino was large and pleasant-looking. We were taken by a taxi
driver to a big one in the middle of nowhere called "Le Casino".
Although large, it was seedy, and we were not at all pleased to be
significantly, and unapologetically short-changed by the girl who
cashes in the gambling chips. I'd suggest you count them by
putting them back through a one-armed bandit, noting the count, and
THEN taking them to the cash-out. Another nice and relatively busy
casino was at the Hilton out towards Pampatur.
Puerto La Cruz had several ambitious but empty gambling
emporiums. The most comfortable one that we encountered was the
small casino attached to the Parador restaurant.
We were walking past a dark empty lot on 4 Mayo when a nice-
looking young fellow asked Jeannelle for the time. She managed to
say in Spanish "9:00", but feigning lack of understanding he had
the temerity to grab her watch arm to look at the watch directly.
I kept walking for a second, then thought better of it, turned
around to see the fellow grab both ends of Jeannelle's purse and
with one tremendous yank, detach the purse from its straps.
I chased the guy back through the lot, yelling loud "Hey's" to
get the attention of people in the lighted area on the back street
we were heading for, and especially a fellow on a motorcycle who
seemed to be right in the thief's path...who was, of course, his
accomplice. Off they went.
The municipal police arrived quickly and were as helpful as
they could be, driving us around the back streets asking the folks
out in their yards about the getaway motorcycle. Although they
seemed to be able to recreate the getaway path to a major road, we
were unsuccessful in finding by the roadside on that path what we
had hoped to find, namely, the purse emptied of money, but at least
containing Jeannelle's cards, and our passports/plane tickets.
Fortunately, this incident took place towards the end of our
holiday. We had to waste a day recreating the tickets, obtaining
a police report, and other documentation. The embassy in Caracas
put us in touch with the Canadian consul at Porlamar, Terry Bannon,
who was helpful above and beyond his duty. The normal Venezuelan
folks like the restaurant owner who translated for us to the
police, the hotel manager who allowed us that night to move our
room (the room key was also on the purse), and some passers-by were
all sympathetic and as helpful as they could be.
Lesson(s)? Use the hotel safe for valuables, and leave your
key at the desk. Do be on guard for this, there is apparently a
lot of purse-snatching in the town, as we heard afterwards. Use
those money belts.
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Get a Spanish phrase book before you go, and learn your way
around it, maybe on the long boring flight. The Venezuelans are
not heavily into tourism, and relatively few speak or understand
English.
Put on your sunscreen in your room before heading for the
beach. It takes 1/2 hour at least to form the right protective
layer.
Tip about 5% on top of the 10% service that will be charged on
the restaurant bills, if the service was satisfactory.
You can bargain with taxi drivers, you do not have to accept
the 'tariff' rates they will show you. Our friends got an
astounding deal with a taxi driver: 5,000 Bs for an entire day of
driving them around the island.
Buy a big bottle of water and a six-pack of Polar beers to
take to the beach (about 600 Bs altogether), instead of using the
restaurants there. But do have a fresh fish dinner at the island
beaches. I loved the "sierra" fillet, and the little "Corocoro"
fish deep-fried with garlic.
Fellow Canadians: lose those stupid Maple Leaf pins etc. The
Venezuelans are on to us: like we ourselves well know, we can be as
noisy, dumb, cheapskate, ugly, insensitive, and obnoxious as any
European Asian or American tourists can be...the flag won't give us
any extra goodwill or understanding here.
As pre-trip, background reading for Margarita Island, try
getting the excellent article posted on Internet by the Venezuelan
Embassy taken from a book El Dorado by -??. It gives history, and
touristic attractions.
If you take the ferry to Puerto La Cruz, make sure you get the
ticket line for "first class" tickets. We were in a hurry, just
got in the shortest line-up for tickets, and inadvertently ended up
in second class: where we were literally locked into the second-
class area of the ferr
By Greg McConnell and Jeannelle Fournier
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Caribbean cruise and travel
magazine
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