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Caracas
Hash House Harriers |
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Hash #511 & #512: Los Roques Island, Venezuela Friday, September 26th - Sunday September 28th, 2004 This is the first of two pictures pages for the events which were held on Los Roques Island during this weekend. This page will include the Friday activities and some Saturday activities. The next page will complete Saturday and finish up with the Sunday activities. Click here for a copy of the trip flyer. Comments or questions to Jay "Hash Flash" ==> jayzuela@yahoo.com (click any picture to get an enlargement) |
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 It is 90 miles (150kms) from Caracas to Los Roques. |
 Los Roques is a National Park Archipelago (many islands). |
 Thanks to Oscar & Andre (prime) for organizing the trip. |
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Click here for a little article on Los Roques |
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| To begin the story ... there were over 40 folks on this trip. We all left from the airport outside of Caracas, but the flights were scattered over two days and with two different airlines. | |||
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 The Friday gang met at the airport with no hassles. |
 No boarding call, they just open the door and out you go! |
 Our flight was in this vintage DC-3, 1948 version! |
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 The weather was nice for the 40 minute flight; after our 7-course meal service (yeah, right!), we heard comments about ... |
 ... seeing the beginning of the Los Roques Archipelago. |
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 There were so many islands ... which one was ours? |
 Nope, not this one. "Borrowed picture", so no enlargement available. |
 We actually crossed over the entire Archipelago before we got to the island of Gran Roques. |
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 A safely grounded group. |
 Welcome to Los Roques! |
 A quiet place (only 2 vehicles). |
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 Gran Roqes has an airport, harbor & a town; the main beaches are on the other islands. |
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 The main feature of Gran Roques is "the rocks". |
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 The town is home to about 1000 people, but MANY tourists come in for the weekend. |
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 The town is centered around this square. |
 Private residences were scattered amongst the posadas. |
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Most posadas were re-furbished homes. They
were uniquely decorated and had space for about eight people .
Today we took only one place. When the rest of the group comes tomorrow, we will probably take six more places. |
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 The homes along the ocean were very quaint and picturesque. |
 Some posadas had nice garden restaurant areas. |
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We made our way to the posada and moved in. After accomplishing our
assigned errands, we were ready for the beach!
We met our hired boat at the harbor. Since there are no nice beaches on this island, you hire a boat and tell them which island you would like to visit. |
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 Our boat dropped us off at the closest island, which was less than 15 minutes away. They even produced umbrellas & chairs for us.. |
 We could see back to Gran Roques; a very nice view!. |
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 One group began to set up a tent ... with no instructions! |
 The other people practiced water polo & syncronized swimming. |
 " Come on back... I didn't mean to throw the ball so hard!" |
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 The beach didn't have too many other people on it. |
 Along the beach we found the best place to snorkel. We ended up going all the way around the island and saw many schools of fish. |
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 Right off the beach you had nice sandy bottom until a rather sharp dropoff. Across this bay was an island with a little fishing village. |
 Superhero hides wife! |
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 The signal is either "peace" or "please get me 2 ice cold beers". |
 What a life ... if we had more beer maybe we would still be there... |
 ... and these guys might even have the tent up by now! |
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 We took a group photo before packing up & heading back. |
 Goodbye sun! We look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. |
 After cleaning up we had a GREAT meal & crashed early. |
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next morning (Saturday) we awoke fresh and ready to begin the day's
activities.
Some committee members went to the airport to meet the rest of the folks; others worked with the beer and food. Even though plans for the posadas were pre-arranged yesterday, there were still some hassles to deal with ... only in Venezuela! Oh yeah, anyone heard complaining will be expected to host the next "outta-town" event... yikes! |
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| We then had an extremely wonderful breakfast of fresh juice, arepas, cheese, ham, pancakes and bagel-like croissants. | No comments necessary about this supply of goodies. | ||
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 People are all refreshed and ready to go to the beach. |
 Our "models" are displaying the latest T-shirt from Nicole! |
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 After breakfast a whole armada of boats arrived to pick us up. |
 We rode out to one of the outer islands, which was about a 30 minute ride. The drivers raced, which made the ride interesting. The hardest decision ... which beach do we take over? |
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 We chose the point of this lovely island & set up camp. |
 The last boat finally arrives. |
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 The men unloaded the cargo... as they did hundreds of years ago when the Spanish pirates operated off these coast. The difference here is that we had women issuing the commands! |
 Guarding the cargo from El Sol! |
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 The last of the frontier is claimed and we settle in... |
 .. should we use SPF 8 or 15? |
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 From the distance it looks like a settlement has arisen... |
 ... at a closer look, one has... it is a group of "friendly Hash aliens" representing ethnic groups from around the world... oh no!!! |
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 These pelicans & gulls attack a school of fish. |
 "Watch me attract the birds with these chips ... hey, where did they all go? ... I even took a shower this morning ... dang birds!" |
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 The birds retreat to this hill... |
 ... which actually turns out to be... |
 ... discarded sea-shells ! |
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 Eye test... how many birds are fully in this picture? |
 Back to the beach... some are swimming in the deep water... |
 ... or are they waiting for this guy to chase down the ball. |
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 Most groups have settled in and are in deep-relax mode. |
 Some others are trying to avoid the scorching sun. |
 Others are using the sun as an excuse for a "cold one". |
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 Looking down the beach we can see a number of yachts showing up... they know better than to come down to this area! |
 Andre's is ready to launch water polo balls at any invaders! |
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 There are a few homes... |
 ... that belong to local fisherman; a great place to live! |
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 Moon rocks? Talking about a "full moon" ... |
 ... the guys wish all gals would like this type of "freedom". |
 "But Mommy, all the girls at "home" swim this way!" |
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 Little do these girls realize the dangers that lurk in shallow water! |
 The relaxing is about to end... |
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... but why should this calm, relaxing scene be disturbed? Well, this is a Hash weekend, isn't it? It's time for the run ... and it's time to switch to a different page. Please click here to get the next picture page. |
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CHHH Web Page |
Ex-Pat Village - CHHH page |
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