We departed with Alex and Isabelle, a young French Canadian couple on Masterpeace, to cruise through Mochima park. Popular sentiment was to buddy boat while anchoring in the remote sections of Mochima park for deterrence against thieves that come in the night. Often we are asked about safety in Venezuela. No doubt, crime is a huge issue, with half of our close friends have an actual or attempted robbery. However, many of them visited areas specially discouraged in our cruising guide. Our experience was very positive with friendly people, and prices on goods and services we could find nowhere else.
Our first stay was deep in the multi-bayed cut in the hills that lead back to the actual town of Mochima. We later met up with Grace also in the stunning NE corner of Golfo de Sana Fe known as Bahia Petare. The reefs were full of fire coral and blanketed in every color of Christmas tree worms. We have never seen anything like it anywhere. The kids laughed and delighted as they waved their hands over them and watch them suck back in and disappear.
Sadly, our time with Chris and Chris on Grace was drawing to a close. They needed to get moving west and then onto Jamaica and Florida. We hope to visit England be the guests of the self-proclaimed Queen and Queen of England. Our next stop was across the bay from Puerto La Cruz in Chimana Grande. Our guidebook pictured a boat that looked like it was sitting in a land-locked pond. Now we have the same picture taken in Cienguita with Side-by-Side in the lagoon surrounded by reddish tinged hills on all sides. Parker, Sabrina, and I went free climbing one morning in hopes of being kings of the mountain. As we were nearing the top, the looseness of the stone and pitch of the hill were too much for my adventurous soul. Parker is credited with having scampered an additional 50’ further higher than Sabrina and I. Fortunately we avoided falling into any cactus or sustaining anything more than a few scrapes.
