sarah-blog

Early morning in El Yaque 13 February 2012

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:02:54 +0100

Postcard from El Yaque 11 February 2012

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:59:23 +0100

Hi All,

Well here we are in El Yaque, Margarita Island again :0)

We had a pretty uneventful journey other than having to push the taxi out of Grant and Lisa's road because of the snow, having to unpack a couple of kilos of stuff from our cases and stuff it into our already crammed hand luggage to avoid €60 excess baggage charge, our flight to Madrid being delayed an hour (so thinking we might miss the flight to Caracas), arriving at Caracas and thinking that the nails which we were bringing out for Dave, our friend from Canada, had been removed from luggage (but they had just slipped down to the bottom of the case), our flight to Porlamar being cancelled (oh no! so thinking we would have to overnight in Caracas) and being put on earlier flight to Porlamar - which wasn't on the departure board and was an hour late so there was much confusion - but eventually we arrived an hour earlier than planned! So not an easy and stress free journey - but actually all went really, really well! :0)

We have been having a good time - great wind for windsurfing all but one day so far. We've met up with lots of people who we met here before which is rather nice. Everything is all very familiar. There are the usual pelicans, frigate birds and flying (or jumping) fish which make being on the water a pleasure in itself. We've both been enjoying getting out on the water in such nice conditions and getting some jumps off the chop and blasting along. It has been unusually quiet here so far with plenty of room on the water for everyone but I guess it will get busier as time goes on.

I had a bout of very bad sickness the second night we were here - but it only lasted about 5 hours (felt like forever at the time!) and I was fine the next morning for breakfast. No idea what caused it as I had eaten the same as Dave, had plenty of water, not been out in the sun long - the only thing I suspect is that I that maybe I am allergic to Porcini mushrooms as we had mushroom risotto made with some dried porcini mushrooms we'd brought with us!!! Almost as soon as I ate that I felt ill and only ate half of it despite it being really nice (sorry Nancy) and then within 10 minutes I was in the bathroom :-(

Other than that we've been fine until this morning when Dave woke up with an upset stomach. I've left him in bed while I sit in the garden and eat brunch and check my mails. Hopefully he will feel better soon.

My only problem now is that yesterday afternoon I hurt my knee. I wasn't doing anything spectacular. I came in toward the beach and there wasn't space to gybe so I thought I'd try to tack (which I rarely do these days as it is tricky on smaller boards). For once I actually got the tack round, and was about to sail away when I sort of stepped off the front of the board with my left foot and my right foot stayed where it was meaning that my knee bent sideways - ouch!! I just lay there for a minute or two and then thought I would have to go in, but the way round my kit was it was easier to waterstart outwards so I did and my knee felt sort of ok - so I carried on sailing for another 45 minutes or so - possibly a mistake. Last night my knee was really sore in bed and I couldn't really move it - I've iced it a couple of time and put some cream on to help bring the bruising out. It is a lot better this morning but I don't know whether I could windsurf on it... although I think windsurfing might be easier than walking actually.

Anyway, we'll have to see - maybe a day off for both of us would be good. And sitting in the garden in the shade isn't at all unpleasant. All that's missing is a hammock.

We were staying at Dave's house earlier in the week, which is a fantastic place at the top of the hill with great views and spacious cool rooms. We've moved out into our second set of accommodation for ten days and then we'll move back to Dave's. We are now where we stayed last year, although we haven't got the same room (this one is not as nice but it's fine) - but there is a really nice garden here. I'm sure Dave will have a lovely garden in time - but not yet as they are still finishing the house off (hence the need for the nail gun and nails which we brought out with us) - although he has a great living room space that is really nice to sit and chill in which is more or less what we did on Wednesday (light winds) for most of the day :0)

The only trouble is that with such nice bases it is easy to not bother to go to the beach! If your digs are a bit small and cramped then you have more incentive to get out. Whereas I could just sit and chill here in the garden quite happily :0) Shade is hard to come by on the beach. Although Ale and Nancy (who live in Dave's house too and are friends we've known for a few years) have a nice place on the beach - a kite sufing school with lots of shade and hammocks - so I may just have to have some kiting lessons so that we can go and use their shady areas!!

As usual we seem to have met a lot of dogs here. There are street dogs, beach dogs and people's own dogs. The posada where we are staying now has three dogs. One of these is a small husky (like the ones in Geilo, Norway) with one brown and one blue eye and she is very, very friendly. There are also two rabbits here who live in a hutch in the garden. The husky sits by the hutch and tries to lick the rabbits. We can't decide whether she is trying to be friends or whether she is trying to eat them. Time may tell! She also decided this afternoon that I needed a lap dog and to be honest even though she is a small husky that is still quite a lot of dog on your lap in the heat of the day! There is also Mancha on the beach - she is the resident dog at the Vela windsurf school where we hire our kit from. She is friendly in a cool undemonstrative way and seems to think she is doing you a favour when she lets you stroke her! At Dave's house there are two dogs - Saki, another husky, who belongs to Ale and Nancy, and Mica who is a small short haired dog with large ears who looks rather like the dogs on the Pharoah's tombs. She is also very friendly and loves to lick your toes. So I have plenty of dogs to fuss with none of the responsibilities of looking after them!

That is about all our news for now, so I'll sign off...

Best wishes to you all,

from

Sarah and Dave

Postcard from El Yaque, 7th April 2010

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:45:06 +0100

So, what can I say. Our holiday in El Yaque, Margarita, Venezuela is over and we had an altogether fantastic time. In the last two weeks the time just flew by and we spent quite a bit of time socializing with all the nice people we had met,

so I just didn't get a chance to send a final 'postcard'. So, I hope you will forgive me and let me update you now with what we got up to in those last two weeks...

After my trip to the hospital and subsequent days off the water with Dave diligently applying ear drops six times a day, it was great to get back out windsurfing! Dave had gone on his own for a couple of days whilst I sat on the shore or back in the room - and I was keen to get back out there and really enjoyed the feeling when I did! We had a few good days on the water and then planned a trip to the nearby island, Coche, so that we could have a lesson on flat water with Nancy from the old Club Margarita. Unfortunately the day we picked happened to be lighter winds, and at Coche the winds are always a bit lighter than at El Yaque, so we ended up on big kit - not ideal for trying to duck gybe which was our first goal. However, we both tried and tried and eventually, I managed to get one round - although only one! We both had lots of near misses and know what we need to do - we just really needed more wind as the boards were just stopping in the light winds. That's my excuse anyway and I am sticking to it!

In line with Sod's Law, the day after our trip to Coche the winds picked back up and in fact went pretty ballistic. Two days later I was on a 4.0M sail on a 77L board - my smallest kit yet - with Dave on a 4.5M on 84L - both having a fantastic time. We were chatting in the edge of the water, both excited about how things were going, when I stepped back and felt something prickly under my foot. Oh No, the dreaded sea urchin. I had already seen a couple during the holiday but now I was pretty sure I had found one with my foot! I lifted my foot and and sure enough, two spines sticking out, which I plucked out. I was just about to get back on my board, when I thought I should probably go up the beach and check whether there were any other bits in my foot. Well, there were about twenty little black dots. I showed Wuicho (one of the guys at the Vela Centre) and he produced a pin and patiently set to work on my foot. I have to say he was brilliant... wiggle, wiggle, flick and one by one the spines came out. There was only one that he couldn't get, it had gone in straight and deep. (I suspect it was one of the spines I had casually pulled out in the edge of the sea and maybe if I had been more careful I could have got it all out together - but hey!). Anyway ten minutes later I was back out on my board with only a slightly sore foot. I must admit that jumping was a bit painful - or rather 'landing', but I wasn't going to miss any of the action :0)

The strong wind continued for the next four days - which was just great, as we were both ready for this sort of wind this time - not like the point earlier in the holiday where we had both come off the water thinking that everything was just getting too much. No, this time we were definitely up for it and enjoying it. By the fourth day, I was even trying duck gybes on a 4.0M on a 77L board - something I wouldn't even have contemplated at the start of the holiday.

That evening, we were invited to a BBQ at Nancy and Ali's at the posada next door to Casa Nora (where we were staying). Mmmm, mmm - lots of lovely beef, sausages and fresh bread. We had a great time and ate and drank lots in good company. Ali had hurt his foot kiting (he told me he changed his mind mid jump - always a recipe for disaster) but he managed to man the grill and cooked some great Uruguayan beef.

The next day dawned cloudy for the first time since we had arrived. The cloud made the wind much lighter and we went down to the beach to watch Sandra and Mathias (from Switzerland) kiting on their last morning. The sky and sea were grey, but it was still lovely and warm - just like a July day at home :0)

I walked along the beach collecting shells in the edge of the sea - and managed in thirty minutes of cloudy weather (after 7 weeks of sunshine) to sunburn my back. I suppose it served me right as I had said to Anne Grethe that morning as we left Casa Nora to be careful and still wear sun cream! I had put cream on my shoulders - but not on my back and that evening I could quite clearly see the fingermarks (pale) against the red sunburn!!

The wind picked up again the next day and we met up on the beach with Al (the co-owner of Casa Nora), John Magne and Anne Grethe (from Norway) and Herb (from Canada). Anne and Herb stayed on the pier whilst the four of us sailed together in great winds and Anne managed to get some good pics - although I don't think she had a long enough lens to get my jumps on the bigs waves! No, really, it was lovely to have someone recording what was a great afternoon on the water, thanks Anne, and it was good fun to sail with Al and John and great to have someone to confirm that I do actually make quite a few jumps :0)




From then on the winds continued and we had four more great days on the water. I won't bore you with the details - just great days, windsurfing in lovely conditions...

Meanwhile on the land, we were involved in Al and Nora's Killer Mountain Biking Challenge, only in a judging capacity, as there was no way either of us fancied attempting it ourselves. The 'mountain' might not look that difficult - but it is all very loose and technical. It was great to be involved and see the effort that all the competitors put in. A really enjoyable day, rounded off with pizza in the evening with everyone involved.

On our last but one evening in El Yaque, we headed out with Ali, Nancy, Herb, Dave, Asa and others from Nancy's posada for some fast food, Veno-style. We went to a roadside grill and shared plates of grilled beef, chicken and sausages and cold beers - all delivered to the table within moments of us sitting down. What a great idea!

Then, finally, it was our last day on the water and luckily the wind continued to blow. I even managed to get a duck gybe - ducked the sail, got the boom in my hands, changed my feet - wooo hooo, I was round - and celebrating - when I fell in, much to Mary's amusement as she was just behind me. As Mary said later (laughing lots), 'At that point it was harder to fall in than to stay on the board'... and I still managed it. Doh! We agreed that you have to sail at least a board length after the gybe for it to count!!

That evening we went out for a meal at Mobu, the pizzeria, with Al, Nora, Kathy, Tom, Lindsay, Dave, Asa, Herb, Mary and us - our last night and Kathy's Birthday!! We had a great meal, rounded off with Oreo cheesecake, made by Lindsay - Mmmmmm! Just a shame that Alex didn't feel up to coming as he had been ill a couple of days before and was still recovering.

The next morning, after a final breakfast of pancakes and pear and walnut muffins (my favourites, thanks Nora) we started our journey home - which took all of 25 hours - and eventually reached a wet and dreary Heathrow - what a welcome home.

So that was it... eight weeks of fun in the sun, lots of great people, all in all the best (windsurfing) experience we have had.... yet.

We are definitely going back - all we have to decide is.... when :0)

Postcard from El Yaque 12 March 2010

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 16:08:38 +0100

Well, where can I start. It is now our sixth week in El Yaque, Margarita. The last two weeks have gone very quickly. Nearly two weeks ago we had the excitement of the Canada/USA Ice hockey final. Now, that may not seem particularly relevant, but bear in mind that we are staying in the house of two Canadians, one of the guests at the time was a Canadian Ice Hockey player, Erik, and another guest, Dan, was from San Francisco. Also consider that the Canadians were on track to grab the biggest gold medal haul in the winter olypmics if they won gold in the Ice Hockey. Now, maybe you can imagine the atmosphere in the house that day. There was some confusion about the time of the match - at first thought to be 6pm local time, but we were at the beach at 4pm when we got a call to say 'the match is on - NOW'. By the time we got changed and got back to the house the match was well underway - don't ask me which half, quarter or third it was in - but Nora was beside herself with anxiety as the Canadians were 2-1 up - but she wanted more. When the USA scored with 20 seconds remaining and took the game into 'sudden death' overtime, you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife. Luckily the Canadians won and I don't think Dan was really too disappointed and we all went out to celebrate at the pizzeria! Nora was very happy - and Dave is now a convert to watching Ice Hockey - thanks, Erik, for that - another sport to add to the list of those that Dave watches!!

The light winds we were experiencing when I last wrote, lasted for 4 or 5 days with one of those days being totally windless. After that period the winds picked back up although not quite as strong as when we first were here. We had about 6 days of nice planing conditions and were definitely improving our windsurfing - more jumping, gybe practise and starting to try duck gybes. For those of you who don't know, a duck gybe involves 'ducking' under the sail whilst turning the board around downwind - and when done well it looks really cool. However, when done badly it can result in some quite spectacular and crowd-pleasing dismounts!! I think any crowd watching us try would have been well pleased!! Neither of us managed to nail one, but we were getting closer and then the wind died again. Last Friday, the wind was marginal for planing, so we spent the afternoon practising heli-tacks instead. Hard work - but good fun - and nice to practise them in just sub-planing conditions rather than just really light winds.

On Saturday, it was very light wind again and with even less wind forecast for Sunday we decided that we would hire a car. Having already tried to book one in advance earlier in the holiday, I had been told that was not possible and the car could only be booked on the day you wanted it, and that the car hire place, 'El Gringo, car hire' was only open from 10am. So at 10am on Sunday we went down to hire a car for the day, only to find that 'El Gringo' was not open!! Whether that was because it was Sunday or whether it opens at 'Margaritan 10am' which could be anything up to 2pm, I don't know. Anyhow, on Kathy's advice we went to the El Yaque Hotel and spoke to the receptionist there who said we could hire a car, well a jeep, for 210 Bolivars (about $40) a day (half the price of 'El Gringo') and we could pick it up at 12 noon. So we popped back to Casa Nora, packed a bag for a day out, and went back to the hotel for 12 noon, which came and went... and 12:30 too... Then the receptionist made a call, and told us that the car wouldn't be there until 3pm. At which point we said we would hire it tomorrow instead - but, 'No', for some reason that was not possible... and by now we were hiring the car for 3 days as that was the minimum hire period - I can't quite remember when that was mentioned!!! So, we said we'd leave it!! But of course, that couldn't be allowed - and a few phone calls later, a taxi arrived to take us to pick up the car, with the explanation that the traffic was heavy in this direction so that the car couldn't be brought to us, but clear in the direction towards the car so we would be able to get there. Did I mention that the whole of this conversation was conducted in Spanish as the receptionist spoke no English - that was rather tricky, to say the least, as we speak no Spanish!!!

By now it was just after 1pm and we set off in a taxi, with our destination, as we thought, the airport. However, we passed the airport and carried on towards the main city, Porlamar, and soon we were heading through the backstreets of downtown Porlamar. By now we were a bit nervous, not just about the whole car hire business, but about the fact that somehow we were going to have to navigate our way back through Porlarmar!!! Just then, the taxi stopped on a street corner, and the driver turned round, gave us a great big beaming smile and said 'Person come with car!'. So we waited, no person, no car, but a call on the driver's mobile phone. Apparently we were at the wrong street corner!! Two minutes later, another street corner, and a little white Suzuki Jimny pulled up. This was our 'jeep'! Hmmm, not quite what we had imagined, but....

at least it was a car and it was only 1:30pm. So we did what we never thought we would and gave our credit card to a guy on a street corner - and were the proud owners for 3 days of a clapped out (not that we knew that then) Suzuki Jimny - although to be fair there was some considerable confusion as to whether the rental ended on Tuesday, or Wednesday. We knew it was 4pm, but not which day!!! Not to worry, we could deal with that later.

We set off and had to amend our plans of touring the western part of the island, as we were now at the Eastern tip. So instead of the planned easy trip around the unspoilt uninhabited western half, Dave was thrown in at the deep end and had to negotiate the busy roads out of Porlarmar. After a few navigational hiccups and mixed up lefts and rights (it's tricky when you are driving on the wrong side of the road, left and right seem to get swapped in your head - not just me, Dave too) we reached the road we wanted to the old capital of the Island - La Asuncion. This turned out to be a pretty town with a nice central plaza, where we ate lunch (pre-packed in case we couldn't find anywhere to buy food!) and had to be very firm with the local dogs who turned up in numbers to sit and beg and drool. To be honest, I nearly let them have my lunch as they certainly looked like they needed it much more than I did.

We had a walk around the town and then visited an old fort (sorry I'm no good with dates) which, as it said on the poster, was free to enter. However, it was a different matter when you came to leave. The security guards were very keen to show you the visitors book for you to sign and made it clear that a contribution was expected, by leaving a note of the correct denomination by the book, just to give you the right hint!! So much for free access.

We then found a road which led right up to the top of the mountain where there was a national park which was beautiful. Lots of trees that reminded me of the Banyan tree we saw in Lahaina, Maui - lots of trunks all joined together, and a beautiful view out over Porlarmar and the coast. Just below the top, there was a restaurant with the same fantastic view(see attached picture - the thing that looks like a cloud is actually a small island just offshore). , where the owner, Pedro, keeps birds - some in aviaries, but many just encouraged to come by feeding. There was a humming bird feeder and the tiny humming birds come and hover whilst drinking the sugar-water - enchanting... He also has a beautiful Red parrot, called Teresa, who he feeds and she chooses to stay there.

She is completely free to leave but just doesn't. About three months ago she laid three eggs and Pedro put them in his incubator and all three have hatched - so he now is looking after three baby parrots, who looked like the most raggedy bundles of fluff and feathers. He just dotes on them and they obviously love him...

As for the restaurant, we just had a fresh juice - squeezed from the fruits that they grow there on the side of the mountain. Fantastic!! We were too full to eat lunch as we had eaten in the plaza - with the dogs watching - and then I really wished I had given my lunch to the dogs as the food looked great - cooked on an open wood fire and served with the fantastic view overlooking the island!! Oh well, maybe another time, I thought, as we reluctantly left!!

We travelled on through a small village, Tacarigua, where the women hand make hammocks and saw the ladies sitting out on the street finishing off some hammocks, and then arrived at a coastal town, JuanGriego - just in time to watch the sunset over the sea, very beautiful.

The next day, we decided, as the wind was still light and we had the car, to go to the western part of the Island. Here we found a rather nice marine museum where we spent a couple of hours. There were lots of interesting exhibits, including fish and turtles,

but the best bit for me was a parrot they had rescued from a nest which had been attacked by a snake. Her wing was badly damaged in the attack so she cannot fly and therefore cannot be released to the wild. She was asleep on her perch when we walked up but as soon as we started to talk to her, she came and offered her back and neck to be scratched. She also kept putting a foot through the bars of her cage, at first I thought it was to ask for food, but it seemed that she just wanted to hold hands!!! Her role at the museum is to encourage people not to take parrots into captivity to be pets, but I have to say although I really agree that is a bad thing, I would love to spend more time with these obviously intelligent and companionable birds!!!

We drove around the coast of the western part of the island called Macanau, and stopped at a beach for lunch, where we watched the local fishermen net a shoal of fish. There were two boats and about half a dozen men, but try as they might, they couldn't stop the pelicans diving down and stealing fish from the net!! After about two hours, we decided we couldn't wait any longer for them to land their catch, which had seemed imminent for ages and left to continue onwards.

We arrived at the isthmus between the two parts of the island just in time to take a boat trip out into the lagoon at La Restinga, which is surrounded by Mangroves. The young 'captain' of our boat delighted in pointing out the local wildlife, and we saw oysters, starfish, and several herons, as well as lots of fish jumping, and it was a perfect end to a lovely day.

Tuesday was our last day of car hire, well at least we thought it probably was, or maybe it was Wednesday, who knew... anyway we planned to visit the northern part of the island which we had heard was very beautiful. However, during the night, my ear decided to flare up and I got raging ear ache - so instead of the planned day out, we embarked on a second trip to the hospital, hoping that this time the doctor would be available. After a few navigational hiccups, we arrived, armed with a letter written by Luzy, the housekeeper at Casa Nora, which would have passed for a doctor's referral letter, explaining my symptoms and asking for help. The receptionist explained with some difficulty (in my understanding not her explanation) that the doctor would not be in until 4pm. I thought from what she said the the doctor was in a different hospital for the morning session and she showed us the hospital on the map - in central Porlamar.

I was quite happy just to take some painkillers, and return at 4pm, but Dave was keen to get me treatment and insisted that we should try the main hospital. To be honest we found it quite easily - but that was when the fun started. We could only find the Emergency entrance and thought that was hardly appropriate, but whilst we were hesitating the guard on the big metal gate called Dave over, read the letter and called us through. There were armed guards everywhere, and lots of people who they seemed keen NOT to let in. The guard took us to a porter, and instructed him where to take us... so we set off through the hospital, which seemed to be in the middle of being knocked down and rebuilt - whilst still operating!! The porter had read the letter by now, and stopped at a nurses desk and consulted with them. They pointed him onwards - and we followed. I started to get a bit concerned when I saw the signs for ECG, Cardiology etc but the porter insisted that we follow him into the ward... were he consulted with two doctors, a nurse, a cleaner - and one of the patients.

It became clear that what he was focussing on was a point in Luzy's letter which asked that I be assigned to an English speaking doctor - rather than the bit that said the doctor should be an ENT specialist!!! So here we were in the Cardiac Unit - presumably because there was a doctor who spoke English, but I could hardly think they were going to be interested in looking in my ear!!! Luckily, at this point (and I did wonder whether this was some strange dream I was having), a TV camera man that was filming in the hospital, joined in the debate, and he spoke beautiful English and also was clued up enough to realise that the important thing was that the doctor should be an ENT specialist as a priority, and English speaking only as a nice to have!! Unfortunately we did not have the name of the doctor that we had been trying to find - but by now I was doubting that I had understood the receptionist at the first hospital correctly. Maybe she had only been telling us of an alternative hospital to try - not that that was where the doctor could be found. By now, with the intervention of the TV camera man, the porter had come up with the name of a doctor and told us that we could return at 1pm - but I had no real confidence that this doctor was going to be an ENT specialist or speak English - and certainly not both!!!! So we decided, despite how helpful everyone had been, that we would go back to the first hospital at 4pm.

The only problem now was the car which we had to get back for 4pm (but as I said we were never quite sure which day) so Dave rang the chap who we hired it from and arranged that we would take it back at 10am on Wednesday. We weren't sure whether we had arranged an extension or a shortening of our hire - but whatever... So with a few hours to kill, we decided to go for a bit of a tour up the coast and back to the mountain top restaurant - where we had the most fantastic ribs, BBQ'd over the wood fire, homegrown tomato salad, and boiled potatoes with garlic butter - accompanied by papaya and passion fruit juice. All served with many smiles, with the hummingbirds feeding in the background. We also heard 'someone' talking away and found that in our previous visit we had failed to notice the Toucan who was joining in the general conversation from his enclosure down amongst the papaya plants!!

Having eaten, we returned to the hospital, with 10 minutes to spare, despite several detours!! Only to be told by a different receptionist to come back in the morning, as the doctor for that afternoon could not speak English. I tried to explain that we had been in the morning and had been told to come back and must have looked so disappointed that she spoke to the doctor and suddenly it was agreed that I would be seen. I went into the consulting room expecting to continue the difficult Spanish/English conversation, only to find that the doctor spoke almost perfect English!! She also had a device with a camera, to show me inside my ears - not a particularly nice thing to see, but interesting!! The upshot was that she prescribed two lots of ear drops, antihistamine tablets and two days off the water (which by the time of writing means that I can go back on the water tomorrow!!!). So, a pretty successful hospital visit and a nice day in the process.

We returned to the beach yesterday, feeling like we had been away on a mini holiday within a holiday, to find that almost everyone we knew had left in the intervening time, and that lots of new people had arrived. The Vela windsurf centre is much busier just now (for a week or two, we are told) so there is more competition to find the right board and sail combination - but Dave got himself some kit and got out on the water and had a good session, whilst I caught up with Lindsay, Alex and the cookie guy!! It felt like coming home!!

I can't wait to get back on the water tomorrow and am keeping my fingers crossed that my ear will continue to improve - the new drops certainly seem to be helping. The pain is gone now which is great and was a condition the doctor set for my going back on the water. I just hope that the medication is killing all the yucky things I saw in my ear - not nice knowing they are living in there...

Our wildlife encounters continue - we had a tiny bird fly up onto the terrace at breakfast one day and get stuck between the window bars and the glass - well at least it couldn't find its way out. I caught it and took it to the edge of the terrace, opened my hands and it just sat there! Then after a few moments, it flew off - straight into the house!! When I caught it the second time, I took it downstairs and let it go into a bush!

I have caught two geckos in our room, only small ones, and they don't seem to mind too much as they are happy to sit on a warm hand once caught. What else, a few frogs - that's about it, I think. Oh, and did I mention, that I got bitten by the nice parrot at the mountain top restaurant? No... well I guess that is just a story for another time...

Fishing in Margarita

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:28:21 +0100

Postcard from El Yaque 25 February 2010

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:06:48 +0100

I can hardly believe that we are now into our fourth week in El Yaque... The last few days have been light winds - I have not sailed since Sunday - keeping my infected ear dry (the other one now!!!) to see if that helps it heal. No one has really sailed for the last two days - yesterday the water was flat calm and like a mirror - totally different to normal. And for one day it was really nice. I think that if it carries on though, people will get frustrated quite quickly. It's ok for us as we are here for a long time - and for me as I am keeping my ear dry it means it is no sacrifice at all. Maybe it is my fault that the wind has stopped. I don't think that I 'd better mention to anyone that I'm pleased the wind is not blowing - I won't be popular!!!

We went to Porlamar on Tuesday to go to the hospital to see a doctor about my ongoing ear problems. Unfortunately the ENT specialist is at a conference in Caracas this week and won't be back until Monday - so that wasn't very successful! But the journey there was quite an experience as local bus drivers were demonstrating about the lack of security on the buses (as there have been cases of the drivers being mugged). Their method of demonstration was to blockade the road with branches and tyres (which they appeared to plan to set fire to). The police were stopping traffic at the exit from the highway prior to the demonstrators' blockade - to avoid confrontation, I guess. So we ended up going through the streets of downtown Porlamar - along with all the rest of the cars from the highway. Luckily, Nora had taken us in her truck rather than us hiring a car, which we had discussed. She managed to navigate her way through the maze of tiny back roads and we we just about to rejoin the highway, when a group of protestors blocked the opposite carriageway of the road we were on. Vehicles on our side slowed down to look, much to Nora's disgust and frustration - and hey presto, the protestors managed to block our side of the road about 4 or 5 cars ahead of us!! Of course the drivers of the cars/trucks in front of us got out and remonstrated with the protestors - and managed to 'negotiate' the removal of the barricade (I think it was along the lines of 'let us through, or else!!') - at which point the cars pushed their way through the gap. Nora was close behind in our truck, but not before one of the protestors could throw a tyre and stone down in front of the truck. Nora looked at me and said 'We're going for it' - I agreed, and she put her foot to the floor and went straight over the tyre. The guy who had put it down was just thinking of adding another, but I think he saw the look on Nora's face and jumped back out of the road pretty quickly!! So all that - and then we got to the hospital and no doctor!! As I say it was quite an experience though :0) And we did go to the local shopping centre (very modern and stylish) and had lunch. Well, it seemed a waste of a trip otherwise!!!

On the windsurfing front, as I say it has been quiet since Monday - but last week was pretty full on. We have both been enjoying getting on what is small kit for us and getting comfortable on that. We don't normally go far beyond the reef as we tend to be practising turns and jumps so cruising out into the ocean just lengthens the time between the turns! But, as lots of the others at the centre go way out, we decided towards the end of last week to join them out there and see what they were all getting up to. It is nice to sail further out - a bit quieter - although of course the more people go out there to find the space, the less space there will be!! The only trouble I find is that as I go from chop to swell - all the happens is that my jumps get bigger, and bigger, and bigger!!! I know the idea is just to cruise over the swell, but I have got so used to looking for bits of chop to jump off that when I see a nice big wave I can hardly resist it :0)

On Tuesday last week Dave decided to take a day off and rest his tired muscles. I went out on a 4m on a 92L board... I had been back and forth a few times when I decided I would go in and change down to 84L. So I went back to the beach and found Dave sitting with Alex with a pair of binoculars... apparently they had been analysing my gybes. Alex said that to come out planing I just need to stay sheeted in and not open out my sail too early. So, I went out again leaving Alex and Dave (now joined by Lindsay) with the binoculars - no pressure then! The first gybe on the outside went well - keeping sheeted in a little longer seemed to help with the speed, although I still struggled with the rig flip - but made it. The inside was a different matter. Remember, I am pretty stacked with power and had been going in to change down boards, which I hadn't done as I was going to be watched practising gybes. So every time on the inside I went in with loads of power, tried to sheet in hard - and ended up crashing and burning time after time. On the outside I was making about 50% and the board did seem to go round quicker - but before I had been making 90% on the outside and about 30% on the inside. Now, I was down to 50% on the outside and 0% on the inside!!!! But, hey, I kept trying.

I crashed so many times and luckily didn't do much damage to myself - apart from an ankle bracelet induced injury can you believe. I must have trapped my foot one crash and my ankle bracelet (only made from thread) dug into my ankle and broke the skin. Oh no, another injury requiring our rapidly decreasing supply of waterproof plasters. I think I will have to approach all the guests who are leaving and instead of offering to buy their unwanted Bolivars offer to buy any unwanted plasters!!!

The following day - after all the previous day's crashes with virtually no injury - I managed to bang my hand on the mast - and within minutes my hand was huge!! I spent the next 48 hours icing it for 20 minutes at a time - and that really seemed to help. I wore my glove too and kept my hand up as much as possible - so that was Ice, Compression and Elevation - the only bit I was missing from the recommended (RICE) treatment was Rest - and somehow I just couldn't bring myself to stop windsurfing (as it didn't hurt when I was windsurfing) but I did make the sacrifice of letting Dave carry all the bags back and forth ;0)

Dave's injured foot - after 24 days - is still healing. What started out as a scrape of the skin got deeper and deeper and is now back to about the size of a 5p piece. Since I got my ankle bracelet injury, we have both been going out in matching ankle bandages - talk about his and hers kit!! Dave's bruised ribs (which he got from an encounter with the boom during a gybe) are now much better and before the wind dropped on Monday he was really getting back to his full form on the water. The only problem he had was getting in and out of bed as it is a sort of bunk arrangement with a ladder and quite tricky to negotiate with sore ribs!!

Our wildlife encounters continue... On our return to our room last Wednesday, I was hanging out the kit to dry whilst Dave went into the room to do the important job of getting the beers. I heard a shout which I thought was 'Hey, we've got a kettle in our room' to which I replied 'Great!' as we could really do with one. Dave came out saying 'What do you mean, great - I think we should get it out'. It turns out he said 'Gecko' not 'kettle'. There on the wall was, indeed, quite a big gecko and despite my earlier plans of having a resident insect eating gecko I thought it was not fair to keep him in as we have the mosquito plug on at night and I don't think it would be good for him. We have a large ornamental bundle of sticks in our room - you know the sort of think you get from habitat - so I put that near him and he scuttled in there and I took him outside and encouraged him into some bushes. Meanwhile, Dave was busy... pouring the drinks. The following day as the sun went down we were sitting by the pool and went back to fetch something from the room, to find the gecko just peeking into our door which was slightly ajar. We closed the door and he retreated to a watching position on the wall outside our window, but I swear he was just waiting for his chance to get in. What is it that is so appealing about our room???

A couple of days ago we were having our usual drinks by the pool at the end of the day and I went to refill the glasses, came out of the room and thought, quite matter of factly, 'mustn't tread on that snake' - 'hey, wait a minute!! THAT'S a SNAKE!!! '. It is strange how used to the new wildlife I am getting - at first it really was just a 'mind the snake' moment until thought, hang on!!.... It was only a small snake - about 18 inches long and as thick as my finger and he did a sidewinder action across the path and disappeared straight into some bushes. Needless to say I didn't have the camera to hand to capture the moment.

We have been having a splendid time here - so much so that we have been looking at the options of buying a property out here. And yesterday morning we viewed two houses which are for sale. Let me tell you - they are both fantastic. If anyone is thinking of buying a holiday home this is the place for it!! So long as you like watersports and just taking it easy the rest of the time. One house is a really good business opportunity - with 4 rooms to let on the groundfloor - and an apartment for the owner on the first floor - in a beach front location, with space to build more rooms - either to let or as extra living space. The other house is just a fantastic property to live in - loads of space with the possibility of 3 rooms to let, fantastic views - but not beach front.

So now we are thinking whether this would be a good winter option for us - summer in Borth, winter here. All we would need is people to come out and holiday here for a couple of weeks at a time (or longer). So if any of you would be interested, let me know :0) It might influence our decisions!!!

Sorry this mail got a bit long - a lot has happened in the last ten days - and this is only the edited highlights - honest!

Hope you are all well in what I believe to be a cold and snowy UK.
Bye for now
Sarah

Postcard from El Yaque 16 February 2010

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:17:30 +0100

Well this is the end of our second week in El Yaque and we are still having a fantastic time.

Dave's foot is slowly but surely recovering - mostly due to the use of Aloe Vera - courtesy of a broken off piece of Aloe plant from the garden of the girl next door!! Dave had been given some the first time we came here by one of the cleaning ladies at the hotel we were staying at who took pity on him when she saw cuts on his shins were not healing. She went away and broke off a piece of plant and dabbed it one for him!!! And amazingly it worked really well. So he has been dabbing it on every day and now the scab on his ankle is only about the size of a 5p piece and is healing. It really was only a graze to start with but the salt water here plays havoc with things healing.

As for the windsurfing - it is all good. The wind has been phenomenal - in fact too much sometimes. Suffice it to say that today I was on the smallest board and sail (84L and 4m) I have ever windsurfed on going faster than I have ever gone and I had to come in after a couple of hours because even with that kit I felt I was going too fast to be safe!! And I certainly wasn't the only one. I was out with a nice chap from Argentina - and we both decided we should go in for the sake of our safety!!! (Dave had already gone in - he has more sense than me - sometimes!)

We took a day out last Friday to do a trek into the forest on the hillside.

The guide is a lovely chap who we met 4 years ago when we went on the same trek - well, the same route - as obviously each trek is different as the wildlife choose whether or not to appear. This time we saw a tarantula, several snakes, lots of butterflies, lizards... I felt one of the snakes which was fine, but drew the line at stroking the tarantula!! Me and Dave, both, the others did - more fool them!! See attached picture - and yes the spider is spinning silk for a web whilst the guy held him...

The guide also climbed a mango tree and shook the branches so we had fresh mango to eat there and then - still warm from the sun - fantastic. And he found a just dropped coconut and opened that - again lovely. Then at the end of the trek (about 3 hours or so) we ended up back outside his Mom's house and she had made lunch - Arepas - which are a thick corn pancake which gets split and filled - in this case with spicy shredded chicken and fried aubergine - delicious - and very, very filling. Whilst we were eating this his dog patiently lay there, fluttering his eyelashes at everyone! and making big puppy eyes. Needless to say when everyone had eaten as much as they could the dog got the leftovers. He was very good though - didn't move a muscle until we had all finished eating then came to me and got loads of fuss, went round everyone else picking up their leftovers, and back to me for another scratch behind the ears :0)

As for the frog saga - well, it continues....

We sat out one eveing to eat our tea and left the door to our room open to let it stay cool. We came back in after tea and Dave went into the bathroom and found a frog - in the shower!! So once again, I had to catch and remove said frog - this time Dave was busy... drying his hands!!! any excuse :0)

Breakfast continues to be a highlight of our day - there really is something rather lovely about eating outside and because we are (sort of) self catering it is really nice to be presented with fruit, yoghurt, pancakes, bacon, smoothies etc, etc. If only we could have something similar at home - a bowl of frosties in front of the TV is just not the same.

We ate out last night too, as we need to make another shopping trip to stock up. We had a lovely meal of Margaritan 'Surf and Turf' at the Hotel California, which turned out to be strips of steak, chicken and lamb with prawn, calamari, mussels and some little chaps in shells that we decided not to bother with!!! All served on a bed of.... chips!! Not much to help with the 5 a day fruit and veg quota - but certainly topped up our protein which we need to repair all our stretched and aching muscles :0)

So, that's all our news, I think. Two weeks of wind and sunshine and windsurfing. And we are still enjoying ourselves. No time yet to be bored. I haven't even read a page of my book since we got here. We have watched a couple of DVDs - well Dave has watched them to the end, I fell asleep part way through!! He said I didn't miss much. The third DVD was great - but broke down half way through so neither of us saw the end - we'll have to look for that one when we get home!!!!

We are taking it easy this morning as yesterday was such a full on day - but I guess we should put in an appearance at the beach soon - as we will get a black mark for arriving late. No, that's not true - no-one expects us to arrive much before 11am, in fact they are shocked if we do. That way there is always someone out on the water to have tested the wind before we go out - ideal :0)

Ciao for now
Sarah

Postcard from El Yaque 11 February 2010

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:23:16 +0100

We have been in El Yaque, Margarita for 10 days or so. In fact I am struggling to remember what day it is :0)

The weather has been fantastic - sunshine from dawn to dusk - and windy pretty much all of the time. That may sound horrible to some of you, but those of you who windsurf will know that is pretty much the perfect weather. We have been windsurfing every day mostly on 5m sails or less. We've both sailed the smallest boards we've yet been on and made the biggest jumps of our windsurfing career. We are still working towards the elusive planing carve gybe - but we've been practising hard and getting much closer.

Other than the windsurfing we have had some encounters with the local wildlife... We've been bitten lots by the local mini mosquitos - I gues they are the equivalent of midges and boy are they persistent. We have just last night managed to rig up our mosquito killer due to technical difficulties with plug sockets and adapters - and the relief of a night without being bitten is fantastic :0) Long may it continue... We have also had frogs in the bedroom one morning. We were on our way out of the door when they hopped having been disturbed by the guys doing the gardening. I managed to catch one (after some concern as to whether it was safe to pick up - could it be poisonous) and shoo its mother (twice the size) out. Meanwhile Dave held on to the bags!! We have a tiny gecko who lives in our room - he hides under the doorpost whenever we go by - I am hoping that he (and the frogs) will eat the mosquitos!! We also have tiny tiny ants - which are not a problem at all - except that they seem to have moved into my laptop which I am sure cannot be good for it!!!

Other than that life has been pretty uneventful - El Yaque is pretty small - and is surprisingly quiet. Maybe something to do with Britain and America both cancelling their direct flights here. We flew via Madrid and Caracas - which was fine - just a long trip, although we did stop in Madrid for a couple of days which was lovely.

For those of you who have been to Club Vass, Dahab or Margarita, - we've met up with Nancy. She is running the posada (guest house) next door and is as friendly and lovely as ever. She worked for a while at Ricardo Campello's new kit hire centre but decided that she would rather go free lance as an instructor and also run the posada. She has a venezuelan boyfriend now, called Alli, who is a kite surf instructor and seems a really nice chap. So, if any of you are thinking of coming out to visit Margarita then I'd suggest contacting Nancy on facebook (Nancy Tyrie) - I'm sure she'd be more than happy to help!!

Well, I think that's about all our news - did I mention we are having a fantastic time - really enjoying the windsurfing and meeting some nice people along the way. Although we have only sailed in the one location conditions have been very different each day - we've had waves, chop, really strong wind, flatter water - we are just waiting for 'flat' water - but I don't think that is likely to happen unless we take a boat over to Coche, the neighbouring island - which actually sounds like a lovely thing to do anyway.

This weekend is 'Carnivale' - so that might be fun. Apparently everyone just parties a lot - although up till now we have been really early to bed - so I don't know whether we will manage to stay up!! It might be tricky to windsurf though as apparently the first 20m of the sea will be full of partying venezuelans. Hmmm - maybe a few trips around the island might be a good idea.

Anyway, I must go as it is breakfast time and we get breakfast provided on the terrace - lovely.

Love to you all
Sarah (and Dave)