About Zory

Venezuelan living in beautiful Petoskey, MI. Passionate about traveling, photography, cooking, books, cooking books, and languages.

Getting to Los Roques

Posted on 2012-05-02 by Zory

In a recent visit to Venezuela we decided to take a few days off from visiting with family and friends to experience the Los Roques archipelago. Declared a National Park in 1972, Los Roques is located about 128 kilometres north off the coast of Venezuela and has around 350 different cays or small islands magically decorated with coral reef, mangroves, white sand, and impossibly beautiful turquoise waters.

El Gran Roque is the largest island and also the only one that is populated, with around 1200 people living there. It has its own little air strip, a church, a school, one vehicle (the garbage truck) and a handful of unpaved streets where people walk barefoot on the sand.

That is where we landed after a very early 40-minute flight from Maiquetia Airport’s National Terminal on a Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander, a very small plane operated by Chapi Air.

We made it there safely, but most likely we will not be flying with them again (my fiance has flown this plane before and he was not impressed, to say the least). The largest airline flying into Los Roques is Aerotuy, I think we’ll give them a try next time. Once we landed, Miguel from the posada (B&B) El Paraiso Azul was there to greet us and help us carry our stuff to the place we would call home for the next 2 nights. Once we paid the park fee (different for Venezuelan citizens and foreign visitors), we were officially in Los Roques!

We arranged our entire trip through this posada and that worked well for us for this first visit; we were also lucky enough to have the place to ourselves during our stay. There are many posadas in Los Roques, and they all seem to be very well-organized, offering a package which includes all your meals, non alcoholic drinks and transfers to the closest cays including chairs and a very-much-needed umbrella. After we ‘checked-in’ we were informed by our innkeeper Lucia that trips for the cays left at 9:30 am and dinners were at 7:00 pm. We changed, put on tons of sunblock (bring lots of it!), went off with Miguel to find Juan, our ‘lanchero’ (boatman) for the day and then we were off to Madrisquí. Once we got there Juan set us up with the chairs and umbrella, set our cooler with food and drinks in the shade and left us to enjoy this view for the day… absolute heaven!

My favourite beach in Costa Rica… so far!

Posted on 2012-02-09 by Zory

I’ve only visited a few beaches in Costa Rica, most of them in Guanacaste, on the Pacific Northwest region of this beautiful country, and I’m already having a hard time picking a favourite one. By the way, I live in the Pacific Northwest in North America… coincidence? I don’t think so! Although, depending who you ask, I could also say I live in the Pacific Southwest ;). But back to Costa Rica, if I had to pick my favourite beach, I think I’d have to go with Playa Avellanas.

The laid-back atmosphere and the lack of souvenir shops definitely contribute to Avellanas making it to my #1 beach so far. I also loved that this beach offered two distinct areas to explore. Walking to our left we found rocks that created miniature tide pools where little fish swam freely. There was also a hut with some funky artwork made from driftwood, and a collection of perfect little round shells that I absolutely loved.

Walking to our right we found a spot where a small river met the ocean, perfect for a peaceful swim.

If I had to pick a favourite moment at my favourite beach it would definitely be sunset. After enjoying some delicious ceviche from Lola’s Beach Bar and watching Lola (a 400 pound pig) cooling off in the sand closer to the water, we settled back and watched people milling about as the day wound down.

And then we where mesmerized by an absolutely stunning sunset…

After that it was time to go, so we collected our things and made our way to our car.

However, for some the day in Playa Avellanas was far from over…

Morning stroll in Saanich

Posted on 2012-02-02 by Zory

Today is my birthday and as my gift to myself I decided to take the day off from work. I think this may be the beginning of a new tradition: no working on my birthday! To top it off the sun came out after a few rather gray days, so to start the day I went out for a morning stroll around Saanich, which is where I live these days.

First I stopped by my favourite duck pond. I never get tired of looking at these fellows, they’re such a work of art!

It was a glorious morning, the sky was clear and blue, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping away all around me, I’m sure they were happy to see the sun too! It was lovely to share the path with cyclists, runners and fellow walkers.

This particular robin seemed to be enjoying the sun as much as I was.

I found this duck basking in the sun in Blenkinsop Lake; quite the hairdo, don’t you think? 😉

As I walked along this lovely path I thought about the years that are now behind me and all the experiences I’ve had, good and not so good, which have shaped me into who I am today.

I also thought about the years still ahead and all the experiences I will hopefully get to live and learn from. I can hardly wait to see what’s around the corner! 🙂

Vieron las lapas?

Posted on 2012-01-12 by Zory

As we were leaving the restaurant BBQ Tres Hermanas (3 sisters) in Guanacaste (after having enjoyed one of the best beef tenderloin I’ve had in a very long time), the gentleman in charge of watching the parking lot asked me and my mom: “Vieron las lapas?” (did you see the lapas?), “alla, en el Guanacaste!”. Confusion set in. I knew we were in the Guanacaste region, but until then I had no idea this part of the country was actually named after Costa Rica’s national tree.

Once it was clear the Guanacaste he was talking about was a very large tree across the road from where we were, we began to wonder how he expected us to see a “lapa” from so far away. You see, in Venezuela a “lapa” is a rodent. He kept pointing to the tree and insisting, so I snapped a few pictures as far as my camera’s zoom would go, to see if we could figure out what he meant. When we looked closely, we realized he was talking about macaws, as we saw one peeking out from a hole in the tree.

The gentleman explained that the tree was a nesting area for several macaws, and that if we went across the road we would be able to see them up close. So we went and we saw.

While admiring the beautiful colours on this majestic bird, I couldn’t help but think how the best way to learn about a country, its land, its language and its people, is experiencing it first-hand. It’s the same way my parents helped me and my brother learn more about our homeland, Venezuela: road trip after road trip from one region to the next, pointing out the geography, reminding us of the history, teaching us to appreciate the people and inviting us to try different dishes. I felt very lucky for this wonderful opportunity which allowed me to learn a little bit more about the magical land that is Costa Rica.