Yet another night in my refrigerator and I was fresh and ready for the day. I had to go to another terminal than yesterday as I would be going west today to see the Nacional Park Laguna de la Restinga and another beach, actually the most western point of the island of Margarita, Punta Arenas. After a short walk and a drink at one of the busy breakfast stands on the street the bus was already waiting for me ready to go.

Half an hour drive with only two stops and the driver indicated to me the bus stop for me to get off and I walked another 500 meters to the entrance of the park. The park had a small infrastructure at the entrance and a good number of boats waiting for passengers to buy the tour through the mangroves and maybe even up to the beach. Everything had its price and I did not feel that romantic being just by myself to take the mangrove tour to see the water channels and the beach. I took with me the best impressions of the park that were actually for free and walked back and towards the next village.

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After passing the bridge, one of the hundreds or even thousands of the military post came up and I waited in the shade for the next bus to come and take me. After yesterday’s bus drives I understood that you can call the bus from wherever you are and also get off wherever you want. The military post was no different and the next bus came after 5 minutes waiting in the shade. I had to get off in Boca de Rio to get another bus to Punto Arenas.

At the entrance of the village a sign board indicated a Marine Museum and while I was waiting I chose to visit and have a look. My expectations were not very high as I was kind of in the middle of nowhere, I did not read about the Museum on the Internet and Venezuela itself had not impressed me so far with tourist orientated, well presented and interesting sightseeing locations. After La Asuncion yesterday, today I was taught different again and the Museum was indeed well presented and had an excellent historical marine part as well as an extremely diverse presentation of water life.

I spent about one hour and was kind of ready when an electric black out indicated to me as well that it was time to get the next bus. I walked to the center and the bus was coming 10 seconds later. It was this time one of the brand new, air conditioned buses with comfortable seats. The price was the same and I got off the bus with a beach souvenir sales guy. I wanted to walk the final three kilometers from the bus station to the beach but the guy said to me to rather wait as cars coming by usually would take people waiting at the junction. So we waited, waited until a third man arrived and waited until a small car turned up and took us to the beach.

There was no hotel or posada in Punto Arenas and only day visitors from Porlamar divided a south and a north beach each with small infrastructure. Each side was an excellent example of what a Caribbean beach would, should or could be like. I went from the south beach to north beach. The battery of my camera indicated 70 % this morning and went down rapidly to 0% this afternoon. Again I considered this to be a small sign from above and walked back to the south beach and back to the arrival / departure point to wait for a car to take me back to the main road. Half an hour and a truck came by and drove me actually a bit further to the better bus stop and another half an hour later my bus from this morning came to take me back to the terminal and back to my refrigerator.

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For a small understanding of the island of Margarita, I have included a Google Earth map. The red pins mark the locations I have stopped and taken pictures.

Please click on map to enlarge!!!

Please click on “View Album” to see pictures in a Google+ Album