Viva Venezuela! Part One

First off, our honeymoon was frickin' awesome.  I still am in awe of the fact that virtually nothing went wrong  the entire trip.  Given that it was 10-days in a still-developing country (Venezuela) that included six domestic flights on airplanes that, at times, were definitely smaller than an American SUV, I think that's damn near miraculous.

Here's the rundown...

We arrived in Caracas around 5:00 pm Venezuelan time and went straight for our hotel.  Located about five minutes from the airport, the Hotel Eurobuilding had a beautiful outdoor pool and a delicious restaurant attached. We swam, we relived the wedding, we ate and we slept.  It was the perfect start to the trip, allowing us to catch up on some sleep and re-charge. And we were graced with this incredible sunset. Bonus!

Refreshed and ready to continue our travels, the next morning we made our way to the airport for our first domestic flight out to Los Roques Parque Nacional.  We walked up and down, looking for our airline, Chapi Air  but only after asking an airport worker, did we notice at the very end of the checkout counter was a small 8" x 11" paper sign taped to the wall that had the words "Chapi Air" printed out in black-and-white. This was our first clue that things were about to get a little bit more interesting.

The plane below was our second clue.

Not gonna lie, I was more than a little bit nervous to fly in a 12-seater prop plane but I had no choice. Deep breaths commenced.

Here we are "boarding" the plane.  Notice where Mr Trail Mix's head is in relation to the place.  Yeah, it's above  it. He was taller than the plane.  Big gulps and deeper breaths ensued.

Who has two thumbs and does not want to spend an entire hour in this death trap?

This girl!

And then we were off!

Los Roques is an archipelago, made up of hundreds of tiny islands.  It makes for some beautiful pictures while airborne. 

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We touched down at the airport and I hopped out of the plane quicker than you could say "arepa." (Arepas, by the way, are fried cornmeal cakes usually stuffed with cheese or meat and were served with many of our meals.  I ate far, far more than was good for me :))

 Oh, and I use the term "airport" extremely loosely.  It was more like a hut, complete with a thatched roof.  But I didn't care, we had landed and we were about to spend five days of our honeymoon in a Caribbean paradise!

We through the little town of Gran Roque to our bed and breakfast,  Posada Acquamarina, thanks to the help of their manager, who met us at the airport.  It was absolutely lovely.

Every morning, all the guests would gather here in the Mediterranean-inspired common room to watch the World Cup. With such an international crowd (we met people from France, Italy, Brazil, Venezuela and Portugal during our stay) the games were really fun to watch. Also, the language barrier made for some hilarious charades when verbal communication failed!

Ahhhh, Posada Acquamarina, I would return to you for another vacation in a heartbeat, we loved our stay there. Stay tuned for our Los Roques adventures, including barracudas, sea turtles, kayaking, the freshest frutta di mar  on the planet, and many, many bottles of wine...