Guiria to Playa Pui Pui – Paria Peninsula, Venezuela

After our rather hasty departure from our little adventure in paradise, we head to Guiria town. In Guiria we check in a nice little guest house about two blocks away from the plaza, which is very clean and well run. The town looks dodgy and we were a bit anxious about having to stay there, but it turns out better than we expect. Eating out at the street food market is not bad at all and though we get a lot of looks, we don’t feel threatened by anyone.

A friendly Guria’an and Trinidad’ian, English-speaking, offering us directions on the outskirts of Guiria somewhere…

In fact I remember that when Max and I came into town from our beach paradise to look for food, though bot much was available, people were generally helpful: a young lady in a chicken restaurant sold us a frozen Chicken. We bought some things at a Chinese supermarket but their only head of cabbage was not for sale – but later the owner gave us half of it at no charge, as a friendship gift. He must have been pleased to have some outsiders come and visit for a change, and I suppose the few words of Chinese I managed with the staff for “hello” and “thank you” came as a curiosity to them. The Chinese – they seem such a closed and impenetrable folk the world around, but behind it all it seems to me they’re a good bunch. (I think I mentioned already that Chinese shops/supermarkets in Venezuela can often be a good option to inquire about currency exchange…)

There is a very cool bakery in the centre where it seems EVERYONE goes to get their bread, and I strongly recommend the experience. The place gets packed out with people, yelling their orders and waving their cash in the air as the attendants frantically grab and bag the good French loaf that flows endlessly from the bakery-kitchen behind. They have fantastic coffee too! (And the latter seems to be a definite recurring theme in Venezuela which we’re delighted about!)

We’re heading west again and we don’t know of many good options for us to settle for the night, so we make for Playa Medina, right near the Playa Pui Pui. Max and Erica have decided to stay in Guiria a bit longer. Playa Medina, though beautiful, turns out not to allow camping and the bungalows they rent there are crazy-expensive. We’re talking over 1000VEF!

We head over to Playa Pui Pui instead and pitch camp there. But this time it’s a completely different place than before . The place is nearly deserted. All the holiday campers have left and gone home. The beach is cleaner, the camp site too, it’s actually very pleasant and we soak it up.

We spend a couple of days living like beach bums, cooking over a bonfire, drinking coconut water, fishing and enjoying the sea.

There’s a slight interruption to all the tranquility when a big 4×4 full of drunken folk rock up at about midnight and decide that of all the clear and empty space on this huge camp ground, the most optimal place for them to set up camp is right in between us and the family across from us. They fire up their monstrous stereo system and the noise doesn’t abate until the wee hours. Lying in the tent I was trying to think out a covert mission plan to sneak into their camp and piss into their generator. – Idiots.

Looking back at the photos of the place, I must say Venezuela has some of the most Idyllic beach settings in the world… with a little less paranoia about personal safety it would surely be one the the top destinations in the world.