Adicora, Venezuela

Roberto Sr, and Roberto Jr. Who I befriended at the beach and stayed at their beach house which they generously opened up to me as their guest.

Although the beach had soft sand, you had to becareful of bottle caps and other dangers that you might step on.

Adicora's beautiful waterfront and lighthouse.

Kitesurfers get ready for the starters pistol before embarking on a long distance kitesurf to another town.

I was treated to a typical Venezuelan lunch and came face to face with the fact that I really am a seafood lover afterall.

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I rolled out of the historical center of Coro with plans on arriving in the town of Adicora to soak up some sun and try either kitesurfing or windsurfing. The road out to Adicora was a wind swept highway that had blowing sand and salt spray which coated my visor in a white mist. I had to stop a couple of times to clean the visor so that I'd be able to keep a keen eye open for the multiple herds of goats, cows and wild donkeys roaming the shoulders of the road.

I finally arrived in Adicora just before noon and decided to ride onto the compacted beach along with several cars that were already parked there. Apparently there was a long distance kitesurfing competition going on and competitors from all over drove to Adicora to partake in the event.

I was just idleing along in first gear when a white truck pulled up along side of me and a guy named Roberto Andara rolled down his window and introduced himself. Roberto has done several long distance rides on his BMW GS 1200 and is the owner of several motorcycles. As well he is a former enduro racer with many titles and championships. He was hanging out on the beach taking in the kite race when he happened to sight me. Roberto explained that he knew the ropes of travelling and that he was offering to host me for a few days so that I could get a real Venezuelan beach life experience. I scanned Roberto for 2 seconds and decided that he was a legit dude and I followed him to his lovely beach house where I got to meet his father Roberto Senior.

For 3 nights and 2 days I was fortunate enough to be in the company of these two interesting individuals. Roberto Sr. is a retired General from the Armed Forces and served as a military Atache Diplomat. He had several interesting facts and information that he shared about Venezuela that I was completely oblivious about. Roberto Jr. is an active business man that is involved in selling and distributing good to the government. Both of these fine fellows spoke english very well and this made conversation quite easy, although, I really should have been practicing my spanish.

I decided to head out into the little town of Adicora to have a bite to eat on my own one afternoon while the fella's were kite surfing. I tried to strike up a conversation with on eof the locals while buying a beer. Apparently my Spanish is so badly mixed up with Portugese and French that the poor fellow who was mychosen listening victim asked if I was Portugese. I explained to him that I was Canadian and that I was talking Spanish. He simply shrugged his shoulders and stated that he didn't understand.

Roberto Jr. suggested that I try and take an 8 hr kitesurf lesson and become certified with IKO (International Kitesurf Organization). I decided that this was probably a good idea and found a fellow named Christian who was willing to teach me. Christian was a very good instructor, however, he had alot of problems with punctuality. I calculated that I stood on the beach waiting for this guy for more than 5 hours over the two days because when he said that he'd meet me at 10am he showed up at 12pm, when he said that we'd do a couple of hours that evening he didn't even show up. The next day he was supposed to show up at 930 and I stood on the beach until 1pm. There was alot going on around the beach to occupy me but I was kind of excited to kitesurf and this gave me the feeling of anxiousness rather than relaxation. Anyhow, I managed to get 6 hours of instruction out of him but no certification as of yet.

Roberto suggested that I accompany him to Caracas and get to see the infamous city that everyone that I spoke to told me was a nightmare of muggers and theifs. I decided that I really needed chain and sprockets, brakes bled, rear mono shock repaired, oil changed and air filter cleaned as well as battery fluid topped up. I agreed that going to Caracas was a good idea so I back tracked 525km to Caracas following Roberto in his truck to get the much needed work done on the bike. I performed all the work myself with the help of Roberto in the parking lot of his condo complex. As for the mono shock, Roberto has dozens of connections and had a friend repair the shock for less than $50 USD. Infact Roberto is such a good negotiator that when we got pulled over by the police at an intersection, while in Roberto's truck, he managed to talk the police into letting him off of a fine well over a 100 dollars for cell phone use and agreed to hook the cop up with a clothes iron and a microwave. Roberto said that this was just part of living in Venezuela and the next time that he needs a police inspection done on his motorcycle in preparation for a big trip he'll call this policeman and avoid standing in a huge line up at the government office for hours.

I'm currently staying at Roberto's beautiful condo with his wife Erica and 11 year old daughter Marianna who attends school here in Caracas and is quite creative with art. Each day Roberto wife cooks some sort of typical Venezuelan dish and I have encouraged her to come to Canada and open a restaurant. Roberto has gone well out of his way to ensure that I attain everything that I require for the rest of my trip. He has also toured me around the city and introduced me to many people. I think I may have managed to talk him into doing a motorcycle / kitesurfing trip around New Brunswick as we have found out that Shippigan is one of the best kite surfing destinations in Canada.

With all the bike maintenance complete Roberto is going to ride the 525km back to Adicora with me on his BMW GS 1200 so that we can go kitesurfing one more time. We'll stay at his beach house for 2 nights and then I'm off towards Columbia. I'll most likely spend the night in Maracaibo and make my way to the boder town of Paraguachon and cross into Columbia heading towards Santa Marta. I'm still trying to decide whether or not I can swing riding back up through Central America to home and complete the trip. I will look into a boat to Panama and what my time frame will allow.