Margarita Island
Undoubtedly one of my favorite destinations here in #Venezuela, is the beautiful Margarita Island ... that love to travel, meet and fraternize with friends and family, is one of my favorite hobbies. Today, I want to share with you a little about this island and about the first trip I made towards it. To know a little about this island:
This Island, is located in the Caribbean Sea. It's one of the most important tourist attractions in Venezuela. It has beautiful beaches with excellent conditions for surfing, scuba diving and others water sports, as well as colonial towns full of history.1
Since I was a little girl I wanted to go to Margarita, it was then in the year 2008 when together with whom the following year would become my husband, we had the opportunity to travel. We traveled by land on September 6 of that year, a road in which we took 8 hours to Puerto La Cruz ... when we arrived at 6:00 p.m. ... the ferry that would leave at the night, he had a delay and we had to wait...
Well, to our surprise ... no ferry left that night, in the photo you can see the view of that night. We woke up in the queue to get on, then at 6:00 a.m. on 7th September they warned us that soon a ferry would arrive, but not the one we expected (The express) ... the old ferry would come , not the new and fast ... then we had no choice but to go there ... it was an odyssey, my bitterness was not normal hahaha, to go up, it was through some stairs like 50 centimeters (Exaggerate, but really they were small), where it was extremely difficult to come up with the suitcases that we loaded.
On the other hand, there were more people than the number of seats, we sat on the floor until hours later someone got up and we were able to sit down ... it was a journey if I remember correctly, of 4 hours. It's a very slow ferry and therefore, it feels very moving ... I was very dizzy.
Finally ... We arrived to the hotel at 2:30 pm, about to close the buffet, but we were able to have lunch and then to relax in the pool ... we deserved it, we had many hours without sleep. Next, you can see a photo on the Ferry and one at the hotel.
On September 8 , we started with the walks ... we went to "La Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Valle" .. there were many merchants by the date in which we visited, we went through the area, we entered the church and some of our traveling companions attended the Eucharist that was being officiated. Margarita is a tourist place with multiple places to visit, from churches to castles and beaches. One of the emblematic churches is the Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Valle:
That name is in honor of the patron saint of that town and the Venezuelan Navy: "La Virgen del Valle". After having been founded the church San Nicolás de Bari, it was declared a Minor Basilica of the Nueva Esparta State, on September 8, 1955, from that date its patron saint festivities are celebrated; beginning with the descent of the Virgin, on September 8 of each year, which is placed where the public can see it up close.2
Then in the afternoon, we went to the castle of "Santa Rosa" (fortification built to protect La Asunción). When we entered, we could observe in a room different portraits, weapons and objects of the time; likewise, on the left side we entered a small, extremely dark room in which Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi was held. The tour guide told us that they called him "the dungeon of oblivion, because there they left the people ... in that darkness ... without food and drink ... until they died".
As you can see, the island is a great attraction for #turists, not only because of its beaches, also by the historical content of its churches, towns and places. Although it has other churches and castles, these were the ones I could visit in this first trip to the island. In the week I'll post the second and last part of this trip, to continue sharing with you more places to visit in #Margarita.
Now, tell me ... have you visited the Margarita Island ?, or have you gone to any other Caribbean Island?...
Greetings!
Versión en Español
References:
- https://www.felizviaje.com/islademargarita.html
- https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bas%C3%ADlica_menor_de_Nuestra_Se%C3%B1ora_del_Valle
Images:
Taken from my camera and cell phone.