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July 20, 2005
Hello to all our family, friends and fellow MTOA members,

We are back at Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela after two interesting, though not very enjoyable, months dedicated to the river trip. I apologize for this lengthy treatise, but the trip has had many interesting twists and I didn't want to leave you hanging somewhere in the middle.
Some folks in the US may read these pages in horror, but those thoughts need to be tempered with the realization that some of the problems, even the robberies experience by others, were mostly preventable. Our experiences, while not so bad, were brought upon us through our own desire to poke around the edges of cruising in these parts. Cruisers that stay in the mainstream generally have few problems in Venezuela.

June to mid-July went something like this. . . .

We left Isla de Margarita June 4 for an overnighter to Trinidad. Aside from an adverse current and a little chop it was a good passage going east. At Chagaramus Bay, Trinidad, Roy and Dunia had Ventura II back in the water, but their friend Niko was not due to arrive for another week. So, we opted to make a side trip of about 75 nm to visit the island of Tobago and to work out the dry storage kinks in Ventura II. The trip was fine and we caught a few fish, but because of misdirection by the Trinidad Immigration officials (who told us we did not have to check out with customs) we were turned away by Tobago Customs and had to return to Trinidad. Really dumb, it's all the same country! During the return trip we spent several pleasant nights in two bays on the north coast of Trinidad. The cliffs and jungle vegetation were beautiful.

A week later, back at Chagaramus, Niko had arrived and when we checked out of Trinidad, the customs official threatened to fine us heavily for leaving Trinidad without a customs clearance. I countered by asking where the procedure was clearly written so that we could have known better. The "official" mumbled something about arrogant Americans and cleared us out. We also learned later that "special permission" was needed to anchor on the north coast. Thus, after leaving, we drew a diagonal line through Trinidad. It is a fine place for getting boat work done and there are other good features to the island nation, but we will bypass it when returning to coastal Venezuela.