A beautiful island with a woman's name, that is Margarita Island.
Located in northeastern Venezuela, it is the largest island in the country and is also known as "The Pearl of the Caribbean". With an area of 1,020 square kilometers, it is home to the warm, blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, offering anyone who visits it beautiful sunsets that are worthy of a postcard. This time, I will tell you what my experience was like 9 years after my last visit and everything I did on this trip.
Day 1 started at the international airport "Mayor Buena Ventura Vivas", popularly known as Santo Domingo. It is the main airport in the state of Tachira where every Tuesday and Wednesday of every week there is a direct flight with a duration of one hour and twenty minutes to the island. Our flight left at about 12 noon very punctual, which surprised me since in Venezuela the air service cannot be described as the best. We arrived on the island around 1:30 pm at the Caribbean International Airport "General en jefe Santiago Mariño".
it was a very quiet flight and we enjoyed reading an excellent book.
This time, the hotel where we stayed was the SUNSOL Ecoland. Despite all the situation the country is going through, the SUNSOL hotel chain has remained steadfast. The hotel is about 35-40 minutes from the airport and has an ecological theme that combines different ecosystems. It is a 4-star, all-inclusive hotel and is the chain's newest hotel on the island. Although it is not 100% finished, it offers guests many activities to do.
When we arrived we were assigned room 514, a room for 2 people with a king size bed, quite large and clean. It has a bathroom, hot water, safe, refrigerator, dryer, TV, all the amenities that a hotel with that classification should offer the customer.
Once settled in, we headed to the main pool, an Olympic-size saltwater pool that gives the sensation of being in an oasis in the middle of the desert. The hotel has 6 pools:
- 2 children's pools
- 3 pools for the general public,
- 1 Olympic pool
Each of these areas has a bar, where cocktails, soft drinks, water and beer are available.
Later that day, we went to the hotel's beach. The beach "Puerto Cruz, Pedro Gonzales" is a little piece of Venezuelan coast surrounded by small mountains, and wrapped in a blue sky that contrasts with the soft white sand.
Unfortunately, at this time of the year (April) the sea was a bit rough, which made bathing a bit dangerous, especially for people who do not know how to swim well. However, the beach has lifeguards. It is a very nice, clean and peaceful place where the sound of the waves mixes with the local music.
The next day was entirely to be at the beach. Where I come from to get to the nearest beach takes about 12hrs by car. I wanted to spend the day there, sunbathing and swimming in the delicious waters of the caribbean sea, reading a book, drinking cocktails and watching a beautiful sunset.
When you are in such perfect places you don't do many things, that's why there is not much to tell, you just want to be there trying to treasure every second of what you are seeing. This is the magic of the Venezuelan coasts: they transmit an aura of peace and unique beauty that you won't feel anywhere else.
The hotel has different installations where you can do different activities such as cycling in the surroundings, it has a private mangrove swamp that you can go through in pedal boats, it has mini golf and every night they do different shows, on weekends they take invited musical groups to the bars that are transformed into clubs for young adults.
The next day we spent enjoying all the hotel's facilities. We took a guided hike to a lighthouse, which departs every day from 5 pm. From the top of the lighthouse hill, you can watch the sunset from a privileged point.
From the beach to the top of the hill it takes approximately 8 minutes walking. When you reach the top, you will find a lighthouse that was abandoned and was there long before the hotel was built. Although it had some loose steps, we decided to climb up and take in the view from there. This was a bit risky as there was no security or lighting. Each person who climbed up there did so at their own risk.
From that point we were able to capture these incredible sunset photos.
On Sunday we decided to leave the hotel for the city of Porlamar, where the most important shopping centers of the island, parks and nightlife are located. We took a cab that accompanied us throughout the day.
First we decided to go to the Sambil mall, the main shopping center of the city. I was pleasantly surprised because I saw in it an economic dynamism that is not very common to see in malls around the country, there were many offers and good prices.
Then we went to the Costa Azul mall, which used to be one of the most impressive malls not only of the island but also of the country. In contrast to the previous one, I was sad to see how 80% of its stores were closed due to the paralysis that the planet experienced in 2020 because of the pandemic.
After this we went to an amusement park called "Diverland", which opens its doors from 6pm and offers to its public different attractions for both adults and children.
This was our last day on the island so we came to pack and rest to take a flight back to Táchira state at 12pm.
In general terms, the SUNSOL Ecoland hotel has beautiful facilities and is a little piece of paradise in the middle of the Caribbean, making you feel that you are in an oasis in the middle of the mountains combining colors, landscapes, textures and flavors that faithfully represent the beautiful country that with open arms is waiting to receive more and more tourists. I will show in images what is difficult for me to express in words.
In conclusion the island of Margarita was and is a place with many beautiful places and with an interesting history to know as this is not my first time visiting the island I did not go to many places that for the tourist are indispensable as: the lagoon of la restinga (a network of mangroves with an incredible marine fauna) this tour is done by boat and has different plans for different budgets, the castles of the colonial era these you can go on your own or by a guided tour where you usually include different tourist spots besides the castles, the church of the virgin of the valley patron saint of the marine town.
My perspective this time has some notes of joy and nostalgia because due to the situation in the country and the damage caused by the pandemic caused many tourist and commercial places to close their doors, the inhabitants of the island have been greatly affected by the situation, on the other hand, government agencies do not make the necessary investments to return the island to be what it once was and unfortunately there are two very contrasting realities one is hotel indoors and another very different is what the inhabitants of the island live in their day to day.
And as a final curious fact: the government of Russia and Venezuela have an agreement of direct flights from Moscow to the island so that 90% of tourists on the island are Russians.
all photos are my property