Parque Nacional Morrocoy

Last weekend we checked off one of our Venezuelan sight-seeing goals with our good friends from Seattle who had met us in Puerto Rico the week before. But they thought San Juan was a bit too wimpy, so they braved a visit to Caracas. After a couple of days bound to the immediate neighborhood, we bolted for Morrocoy at 4:30am on Friday morning to evade any potential roadblocks/traffic.

We had a reservation at a wonderful little posada called La Acacia in a dusty little pueblito called Lizardo (which, as far as I know, is not gringo speak for lizard). With no traffic we arrived before breakfast catching the hostess off guard but she gracefully welcomed us by preparing coffee and a simple meal before arranging our transportation to the cays.

The main draw of Morrocoy is the stunning beaches that dot a dozen or two cays just beyond a network of bird-filled mangrove islands. We were able to experience two beaches during our two days, which means we can return to see others without feeling like we were repeating the same vacation.

Some cays have food service and bathrooms, while others are primitive and much less crowded. Our plan was to order lunch at whichever beach we ended up at, and one look at the beach food pics in the gallery below will confirm why. Food was offered to us right when we disembarked…”Como se dice almuerzo en Gringo?” one food guy asked another as we pulled our chairs off the boat on the second beach day. Apparently the fact that there are very few foreign tourists in Venezuela does sometimes make touring Venezuela more enjoyable. We loved every second of this lazy, sunny, beachy weekend.