Scuba Diving

As noted in previous posts, I have been doing quite a bit of scuba diving lately. For the most part I have been going to a town called Chichiriviche de la Costa which is about 80 km from Caracas, but it takes about two hours to drive there because the roads are so bad. A 4X4 is best but I have made the trip three times in a regular passenger vehicle, twice in the intrepid BMW. Here is a map. The first part of the drive is pretty easy, just shoot on down to the airport, autopista all the way. Then the road starts to get progressively worse. First it narrows to a two lane road, then it snakes up and down hills through little towns, which are really like open air markets, past a oil fired electric plant (yuck), past a cool abandoned building that looks like a castle, along the beach, up into the mountains, down through the selva (jungle), and past a posh resort at which point the pavement stops and the last 30 km or so is on dirt “road”. This last section is pretty harrowing since there are a lot of camionetas (light trucks) hauling seafood up from the town and tourists racing to the beach, many of whom are on motorcycles. The road feels like it is hung from the side of the mountain and it is about 1.5 car widths which means some maneuvering is required when there is oncoming traffic. It looks like it is about 500 ft straight down to the sea, although it is probably only about 450 ft. After a steep and winding descent into town, and a short drive down a narrow lane you are there. There is parking in some yards in the town where, for 10 BsF a guy drinking a beer will watch your car. He will also let some of the air out of one of a tire and “helpfully” offer to direct you to a shop with compressed air for a nominal fee, but I will save that story for another day. Crowds of Afro-Venezuelan children gather around offering to carry your gear for a BsF (about .30 cents) for the walk of about 300 yards to the dive shop on the beach. Once geared up, it is just a short walk across the beach and into the water.

The town from the water

Another view of the town

Completing an underwater navigation excercise

Once in the water the diving is pretty good. The visibility and range of sea life is not as great as some places I have been, but it is easy, super cheap (costs about $20 for two dives) and there are a lot of interesting things including Seahorses, Eels, schools of Squid, Octopus, and huge schools of “Silversides”, large schools of small silver fish, probably Anchovies, that are amazing to watch as they dart this way and that way, morphing in shape like a gigantic living organism. I have been diving so much I have obtained my PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification.

Oh, and it is really beautiful there:

We also went to an area called Morrocoy further west. (map here) Morrocoy is a collection of cayos (keys) off the coast. The Cayos were beautiful with white crushed coral beaches, tall swaying palms and crystal clear turquoise water in clam lagoons. We stayed in a town called – you are going to love this – Chichiriviche. Yep, there are two of them. We took a boat out to the cayos and to go diving. Unfortunately the diving is not so great. Apparently, in the late 1990’s there was a chemical spill from a plant not too far away that killed most of the coral. Now it is like a coral ghost town, but it does show some signs that it is making a slow recovery. Since it is about 4-5 hours away, and not as good a dive site as the closer Chichiriviche, we probably will not go back. But, like I said, the beaches were very nice. The pictures I took were not as good as the ones at the link above. Check it out.

Up next: Our trip to Bogota, Columbia.