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June 1999- After a long night of clubbing I headed to the beach with Tom and Rob for the three-day weekend. Tom had recently returned from a road trip in the States and bought a surfboard so we were all itching to try it out. We went to Cuyagua, which is generally regarded as the best surf spot in Venezuela. The trip there was an exciting one. The first 100 kilometers to Maracay took us a little over one hour but the last 50 kilometers from Maracay to the beach took us two hours. This was due to the first part being freeway while the second section is a narrow, two-lane road winding through the mountains down to the coast. The buses and full size cars on the road made sure that I was always paying attention to my driving. We passed some beautiful beaches on our way to Cuyagua, but no waves were breaking to we continued on to our original destination. According to the Lonely Planet book the last two kilometers of the drive to Cuyagua is sandtrack, which Rob viewed as an advantage. He thought that this would ensure few people on the beach during this crowded holiday weekend. Once we showed up it became clear that the book needs to be updated because the entire way is paved and the beach was crawling with people. |
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We were all a little intimidated by the real surfers, so we stayed away from the biggest breakers and just practiced on the smaller waves. While one of us was surfing the others would just be swimming in the ocean and body surfing. The rest of the time we just hung out on the beach. We had brought a some snack food but ended up eating lunch at a small kiosk on the beach. That night we walked into town for dinner, and on the way there we were dinner for the mosquitoes. The actual town of Cuyagua is a mile back from the coast along a beautiful meandering stream. This is typical of towns of the region and dates back to previous times when it was advantageous to remain hidden from the coast to keep from attracting unwanted attention from buccaneers. We ate fried fish in a small restaurant before returning to the beach for the evening. I spent the night in my sleeping bag, but Rob just slept in a sheet and Tom slept in his surfboard bag.
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Sunday morning after an early swim we went to the beach shack for a breakfast of empanadas. When we came back some kids were standing over our stuff, which were covered in the sand. My Nalgene bottle had been filled with sand and Rob's library book was buried. The (very guilty looking) youngsters tried to tell us how some other kids did this but they had chased the offenders away for us. It was obvious that the little rats buried our belongings but there was not much we could do about it. It was a good reminder to keep an eye on your possessions at the beach and we were relieved that nothing was missing. After cleaning things up we were back in the water. Rob turned out to be the best surfer of the bunch, however we all had fun. We went to dinner in the town again and the evening passed much as the night before. Monday morning Tom and Rob wanted to stay into the evening but I dislike driving in Venezuela at night. We ended up leaving around midday. The drive back was not as eventful as the drive there and we made it home without incident. All in all it was a great trip, in fact the picture on the main page of my site comes from this trip to Cuyagua.
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