The Muddy-Pants Diaries

21 August 2005 (Sunday) – Parque Nacional Morrocoy, Venezuela

Parque Nacional Morrocoy is a series of mangrove islands with amazing-looking beaches. The water is calm, clear and very warm, all characteristics of Caribbean waters. There are some corals and fishes, so it is great for swimming, snorkelling and scuba-diving. To visit these places, usually, the Venezuelan families would arrange with a boat to go to a particular beach on one of these islands and at a certain time later in the evening, the boat would return to pick up the families.

For us, instead of spending the entire day on one beach, we would be driven to a few beaches to take a look, swim and relax.

The group consisted of 4 Greeks, 4 Spanish, 2 English, 4 Venezuelans and I. We were given the option of renting a snorkel mask. It would cost another 6000 bolivares, but, well, let’s take it!

We were first brought to a mangrove area where hundreds of frigate birds roost. Wow, it was great! The frigate birds were all soaring with the wind above us. Many were sitting on the branches of the mangrove trees. Very nice…

The first beach we were brought to, I was shocked at the number of tourists there. Well, it is August and a weekend afterall. It was too crowded to be enjoyed but I spotted a path leading to the left and followed it. It led to another beach which had fewer people. This was because there were more rocks in the water in front, so I guess the Venezuelan families prefer to put their children in a safer beach. But, the rocks meant there would be fishes. I was very happy on this beach, as I snorkelled around the whole area. OK, there were many dead corals as well. It looked a bit sad here, all white, not colourful at all, but there were indeed some colourful fishes around.

The next beach had no shade at all, but there was a cliff right at the end of the beach. Spectacular view. Here, the water was absolutely turqoise in colour! By now, I had gotten to chatting with the 4 Spanish ladies. They are from the Basque region, so their names are all Basque… Aitziber (2 of them), Agurtzane and Arantza. Yes, you can be sure I got all confused and tongue-twisted!

We stopped by an area and spotted some huge star-fishes, the size of a huge plate. All red and spotted with yellow. Absolutely gorgeous.

The third beach was Cayo Sombrero, which is a huge beach with a lot of families as well. There were some fishes to see but the rocks and corals were further out. I soon got tired from the swimming and sat at the edge of the beach, enjoying the sun and the water.

Soon, a group of small girls, aged 7 to 9, came near me and asked if I was Chinese. We got chatting as they started to ask me many questions. One girl ran off to drag her mother over to show her ‘la china’. Another yelled at her sister to swim over. Yet another got her uncle over. I was totally surrounded by a huge group of girls and regarded with much curiosity. One of them, little Maria, who is only 9, actually asked me rather mature questions like ‘Aren’t you lonely travelling alone?’. I was pleasantly surprised by her questions. Another one, Stefanie had eyes which were bluish-green on the outside of the iris and gold on the inside. My goodness, she is gorgeous!

Then, my snorkel mask became a very popular item as some of them tried it on and soon discovered they could see fishes with it. They got wild about it, taking turns to go to the rocky areas to swim around. I sat there for a long time, answering their various questions about my country, my travels, about me. Later, more girls came over, these were about 15 years-old, and I had to be introduced all over again. They asked me how old I was. I told them, and they were shocked, saying that I looked 22 to 25 years old. I was very touched. 7-year-old Rosa said I looked 12!!!! Well, that’s gone too far…

Oh, they were all so sweet! I love them! They had all come as a group of about 50 from a particular town. But when I asked them where it was, north, south, east or west of Venezuela, they did not know. Hmmm… But, it was great fun interacting with them!!

By 6+pm when we returned to Tucacas, we had turned absolutely red. I was walking with the Spanish girls back to our hotels. Unfortunately, I was still in my bikini top. I had forgotten about the lusty leerings from the guys in Tucacas. So, more “¡Hola, china linda!”. Then, one guy yelled, “¿Quieres hacer amor conmigo por alla?” (Do you want to make love with me over there?). WHAT THE HEY???!?! More guys blew kisses. Gosh, after the Spanish girls left, I quickly hurried back to my hotel without looking up any further.

That night, I had dinner and drinks with the Spanish ladies and again, more people were outright pointing and smiling at me. I felt very uncomfortable and ignored everyone now. Very sweet that the Spanish ladies walked me back to my hostel for my safety.

20 August 2005 (Saturday) – Caracas to Valencia to Tucacas, Venezuela

Although Venezuela is in South America, it is in the northern hemisphere. That is why now in August, it is the summer vacation and everyone is on holidays! And I picked today, a weekend, to go to Tucacas, which is the jumping off point to visit Parque Nacional Morrocoy. Gosh, I hope I can get accommodations. Rosa had tried to call up her usual posada, but they were fully booked. Well, I guess, if I could not find any place to stay, I would have to take another bus and go on to another city. What can I do?

At Valencia, I got onto their local bus. I had no idea how long it would take to arrive in Tucacas but I had had nothing to eat since morning. I only arrived in Tucacas at 2:30pm, terribly famished. As I got off the local bus, the fare-collector told me to go to the supermarket at the corner which is run by Chinese and ask them for recommendations for a posada. OK. The fact that I am Chinese seemed very obvious to these people.

I went in and asked. The Chinese boy did not know anything. But the Venezuelan security guard tried to give me directions and a little boy even took me there. Great, I found my accommodation in less than 10 minutes. The German owner Norbert even organised boat trips around the beaches and there was an excursion going tomorrow. Excellent!

I headed out to eat. Tucacas is really just a one-street town, with nothing much to see. It is also filled with a lot of Venezuelan tourists. As it was close to late afternoon and evening now, near the boat docks, many boats were returning from the islands with families of Venezuelan tourists, all in their swim-wear and colourful sarongs and floats, all deeply tanned.

And people here kept hollering out to me, “¡Hola, china!”, “China, mi amor…”, “¡Chinita linda!”. Sometimes, I tried to be friendly and waved an ‘hola’ but other times, they looked at me really sleazily, blowing kisses or whatever, and I was really nervous and had to pretend to be deaf.