Aves-Roques

Antoine's view

Off the shores of Venezuela, a vast and magnificent country that suffers deep economic trouble... in particular since huge landslides occurred in the region of Caracas, the archipelagos of Los Roques and Las Aves are true havens of peace; Venezuelans visit in large numbers the main island, Gran Roque, on week-ends.

I was privileged to know these islands 25 years ago, at a time when the sailboats that did stop over were very few; nowadays, quite a few go there in summer to avoid the Caribbean's hurricane season. Gran Roque, the only high island, boasts pleasant little boarding houses, but the rest of the archipelago can only be reached by boat. The real angle of paradise, here, is the Aves archipelago, two reefs located a few dozen miles west of Los Roques; they are deserted, except for a small military post, and thousands of birds, boobies, heron, pelican nest in the trees of one of the tallest mangrove in the world. These birds gave its name to these islands, which should not be confused with another island bearing the same name, west of the Lesser Antilles arc.
The archipelago's depths are so rich that they have convinced an ex-member of Cousteau's team, filmmaker Dominique Serafini, who leaves nearby, on Bonaire Island, to often come and dive in the waters of the Aves, admiring their reefs, their rich fauna, and the numerous wrecks of galleons that have been lost on these low islands hard to see at night.

The wind blows hard in this region, and the sailboats that return to Martinique at the end of the hurricane season usually have to face strong trade winds; the happier ones, who continue westward towards the Panama Canal, are only partly spared, for the trade winds raise, further west sometimes dangerous seas, often uncomfortable. It might be this - moderate - amount of risk and effort that makes a stopover in an archipelago such as Roques or Aves so magical!

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