See you Canaima! See you Venezuela! Canaima: 6th. Part.

After the great experience of walking behind a waterfall, we went back to the camp by the lake, again in canoe; somebody had brought it to the shore close to Salto el Hacha. First we went to the shore in front of the one we were, Ericka wanted to leave us to swim a bit there… but! As we were starting to go out of the canoe, some Germans complained about this idea, they said for them it has no reason to swim again here, as far as we have done it at the river. :( I have no idea why they shouldn´t want to swim there as well, you see, ok, we have already swim at the river and it was great enough, yes, but this time it was at the lake watching the waterfalls! A completely other story! The point was the ones not willing to swim where the majority so, we all had to lose it! :(

Going back to the camp we went again as close as possible to the waterfalls:



Once at the ranch, the food was already waiting us. We had a very Venezuelan menu: grilled chicken that was so delicious!, potato salad, another salad (sorry! I forget which one!), soft drinks and water. We can eat all what we wanted. All this very well seasoned with tropical music! :D When we finish we had time for rest a bit, just that, again, nobody told us how long it would be or if we could go to the shore of the lake or something. We stayed there, got dressed again, went to the souvenir shop but we haven´t buy anything, you see, from my point of view all seemed to be “made in China” and it´s not about having something against it, but when I travel and buy souvenirs, what I want is to buy things made at the country I am. On the other hand, the prices were completely Europeans. Some Venezuelan friends had already told me that Canaima is a place where just tourist can go, due the prices, very high ones for them. You see, the point is that for tourist the price is not so high, and this is a place that deserves to be visited, so…

We had been also talking with a Spanish there that told us he was the owner of the shops there. After a while Ericka told us that we should wait a bit more but we could do it at the shore of the lake if we wanted. We did it and it was a precious moment, we had been reenergizing us watching this wonderful landscape:



It was time for going back to Margarita, flying over Salto Angel… but! It was so cloudy! :( snif! Snif! Snif! And you see, for me the price was worth enough in case we watch Salto Angel as well! Stop! This deserves an explanation! Of course this travel was great! It was impressive enough to walk behind a waterfall and to swim watching tepuis, of course, and I do recommend this travel, but you see, the cost was around 350 US$ and was just a one day travel. And yes, I know, you can´t blame anybody for having a cloudy day, but, I do think the pilot should tried to fly over Salto Angel at the morning as well, maybe we would watch a bit more then. But well! Anyway it was a marvelous experience and this is part of what we saw going back to Margarita:



That night, already in Margarita Island, we din the 4 together and after that Esther, Rosa and me (Curro was so tired), said good bye to the island in “our own way”. We had been playing Scrabble with Esther while Rosa learned a bit how to play pool, we went to dance a bit to the disco, we went to watch the moon from the shore of the beach and finally we were talking a bit, at the side of the swimming pool, with some of the Scrabble friends that were still there.

Btw: somebody asked me why I haven´t comment a lot about the Dunes Hotel in Margarita Island. You see: the hotel was ok. Not excelent. Not fabulous. Just ok. The place in general, ok, a lot of swimming pools, a lot of activities to be done, a nice beach… about the food of the different restaurants, well, it was ok, I wouldn´t remark anything, actually, when the thematic dinners (where they make the food accordingly of different countries), we said it should be the “free version of the Hotel Dunes” of the food of that country, because the dishes weren´t even a bit alike the ones they suppose to be. So, we eat very well, yes, just nothing to remark and when it´s like that, I don´t think it´s worth to talk about that in my blog. Would I recommend that hotel? It depends. First of all I had no time to meet other hotels there, so I can´t tell if you can find better options or if this was the best one. Would I recommend Margarita Island as a tourist destiny? Uf! So difficult to say! Actually not. If this is for the beach: I had seen betters. Resorts: I had seen betters. But Canaima is a great place really worth view, better for going for several days.

That was our last night in Venezuela, the next morning we went back to Madrid.

See you Venezuela! I wish I would go back there again! :D

Going from Margarita Island to the Orinoco´s Delta. Canaima: First Part.

It was 6:20 in a Sunday morning. Esther, Rosa, Curro and I were already at the Hotel Dunes ´ reception waiting for our taxi. The night before we haven´t went to sleep soon, as far as that was the night of the end of the Scrabble in Spanish World Championship, but our illusion about what was coming up made us to be there that early with a big smile in our faces! :D

When we arrived at the airport they went to take a coffee to at least pretend to be awake! ;P I haven’t, because if I eat or drink something before 9:00 I usually have stomach problems, and wasn´t a good idea to take that risk before travelling by plane! We did the check in so quickly and went inside the waiting room talking about the experiences of the last days. In a point, I don´t remember exactly why, I started to sign and dance a bit of “valió la pena”, the song Esther and I sang at the karaoke… and she placed at my side to sign and dance as well! All this at the airport, full of Europeans and USA tourists! Hehehehe ;D

Our plane was a small one of the company LTA. At the waiting room we meet some Germans that would do the several days tour (lucky them!). Their guide explained all of us our respecting tours.



We should go first to an airport close to the Orinoco´s delta (sorry, I forgot the name!) :/ there the other group would start their adventure and we should continue to Canaima, flying over Salto Angel in our route to Canaima. So, it was important to choose a good window for taking the best photos and videos… something that I´m afraid wasn´t easy even being just few people, due the windows were with a lot of scratches or/and dirty.

The view was magnificent! Quite a lot of green, so brilliant, full of life! Sometimes you don´t released about how big is a country since you watch it from the air. It really wondered me, because other countries of the area, like Argentina or Brazil, exploit a lot their natural resources in a touristic way, but Venezuela, at least as far of what I had heard or watch before going there, doesn’t do it as how they should.

Here a pice of the beauty you can watch from the skye going from Margarita Island to that airport close to the Orinoco´s delta:



We arrived at the first airport, the other group went out and I took advantage to try to find a better place with a window without scratches neither dirty, but actually I haven´t found it, the best window I found was with a sight of a wing and part of one motor and I had to ask for a napkin to clean it up. After few minutes the steward told us that we should go out of the plane as well. We left our belongs at the plane, but nobody told us that more people will come in as well, so, I left the bag at the seat, but actually the right thing was to left them at the lockers of the plain, that´s what Curro did, for example. We went in different seats, in order to have a window of our own each one.

So, we went out of the plain, but nobody told us we should go inside the airport, so we stayed right there, at the side of the plain… till someone told us by signs to go inside. We stayed in a waiting room with a cafeteria, at that time I was able to eat something with no stomach problems, so I went straight to ask for a coffee and something to eat. Another lady came after me and she tried to ask about her food before me. Actually this is something “so Latin-American” so, I had life training on it, so I know perfectly what to do to avoid it (that means I asked about the food the first) ;P

Immediately I went to choose a table, they were doing the line to ask about food as well. I got sit giving them my back, as far as we had no idea of how long we´ll stay there; I started to eat as fast as I can. I wasn’t watching them, so, I couldn´t avoid laughing a lot when I heard Esther claiming so angry: “Ok! Does someone else would like to cut in the line like if I would be invisible! Damn!” :D Yeap, she was out of training for Latin-Americans´ customs! ;P

We were waiting for another group that was coming late from nobodyknows ;P they were a lot, mostly Germans. (Just that nobody explained that to us). Thanks of God we had our seats reserved! Well, more or less, in Curro´s case, as far as he left his belongs inside the locker, the seat looked like an empty one and somebody took it. So he had to sit in another one with the window with a lot of scratches. All this for finally not over flying Salto Angel! They said we´ll do coming back to Margarita, but with no explanations about why. Actually, if there´s something I really should complain about in that tour, is about the constant lack of information.

(To be continued.)

Available Tours at Margarita Island.

The Venezuelan team did a great effort with the organization of the Scrabble in Spanish World Championship 2009, including even the touristic activities to do there.

They selected a travel agency in Margarita Island for us with special prices and very interesting activities to do.

In my case, this time I couldn´t know if I would go or not till so close to the travel date, so, I usually prefer to contract or at least to reserve the tours in advanced to avoid problems with spaces and similar, but this time it wasn´t possible. I´d ask to the person that was in charge of the Spanish selection if it would be a problem with the travel agency if I decide the tours I would like to take at the last moment, and he said it shouldn´t be.

So, we should travel on November 1st. and I was able to take tours decisions just on October 30th., day when I contacted Caribbean Trip, to talk about the tours I would like to take and to let them know the days I have for doing them, that were Monday 2nd. Tuesday 3rd. and Sunday 8th.

The tours weren´t just in Margarita, here the list of what we can choose:

Cubagua with Er´Corsario: Enjoy the beautiful beaches with wite sand and an spectacular adventure at this boat with all included. Activities included: snorkeling around a sunken ferry, mudterapy at the beach.

Cubagua inside the Catamarán Aquarius II: same as the one before, just I have no idea why it was a bit expensiver.

Los Roques Day Tour: flying to the Grand Roque by plane and from there a sail catamaran to surround the archipelago. Snorkeling in a coral reef.

Canaima Day Tour: I´ll explain this one in my next post.

Coche Island Tour at the North Star: sailing and snorkeling.

Coche Island Tour in a Catamaran: sailing.

Full Day at Posada Oasis at Coche Island.

Jeep Tour: at Margarita Island.

Diving Day at Los Frailes.

Discovery Scuba Diver

Open Water Diver

Snorkeling at los Frailes

You also can go to the following attractions:

Margarita Towns Museum
Watter Park
Musipan Kingdom
Waterland Swimming with Dolphins: this one was explained at my post Swimming with Dolphins.
Waterland Swimming with Seals.

So, taking into account that tour variety, the pity was not to have more days for enjoying them… and also I should say it wasn´t sooo cheap. Well! Asking to Venezuelan friends, they told me what definitely were for not to miss were Canaima Tour and Los Roques. For me was obvious to do the Dolphins swimming and in case also the seals one.

So, I sent my list of tours to the travel agency that Friday, we agreeded they´ll give me an answer of what would be possible and prices (because the prices had change)… but it was already Saturday afternoon here and I had no mail, so I called again… but all for Canaima and El Roque was already booked for that week, so the only option was to do one of them on Sunday 8th. I chose Canaima, but really sorry about missing El Roque. I also sent a list of my selections, in order, for what I would like to do on Tuesday, on Monday we´ll do the Swimming with dolphins and seals thing.

I tried to search something in internet, still trying to have the chance of going to El Roque, but what I found was without prices and it wasn´t time for start to call agency by agency. Suddenly I remind that my friend Raúl told me about a travel agency at the hotel, so, I called him to ask him to please check at the travel agency the chances to go to El Roque on Tuesday and in case the price wasn´t higher than a point, then to please do the reserve for us. So! I did all what I can!

We arrived so late at the hotel that Sunday, Raúl wasn´t on time to check the tour at the travel agency, so we should wait till Monday, but also we had the exchanging money problem, as far as I preferred this time to pay in cash, in bolivars.

On Monday I talked with the travel agency people and we confirmed the dolphins and seals thing for that afternoon, the snorkeling at Los Frailes for Tuesday. The problem was that we should pay doing a deposit to their bank, they didn´t accepted me to pay then in cash at the travel agency, no idea why, I really haven´t understand that point. Any way! We had to do juggling to have the time to exchange the money, do the deposit and to be at Diverland at 14.30 hrs. The saddest part was that once at the park, they told us we should have done a reserve the previous day, that the travel agency should know that and as far as we didn´t, we can´t do carrying out part and that the seals weren´t able that day. Afterwards we consult that with other travel agencies and they said it was the first notice they had about having to do a reserve the previous day there… Well!

As I mentioned in a previous post, the swimming with dolphins experience was great! This is something I´ll try to do again as soon as I have the chance to. A real pity the seals weren´t available as well. After that we went to watch the sunset at Juan Griego, something that a lot of people recommended us to do.

Once at the hotel, we even had time to refresh us and to change the cloth before the inauguration of the Scrabble World Championship. After that we planned to din and to go to sleep as far as the Los Frailes Tour will be on the next day. The point was that the girl of the travel agency told me a lot of incongruities, first she told me that she will go to the hotel to fix everything, then she said it wasn´t possible to pay in cash at the agency and I should do a deposit at the bank. She said the time we should be at the reception desk for going to Los Frailes was at 11.00. I had been asking at the reception desk if I had a message from her about the tour, but not. So, at 22.00 that night, I called her at her cellular, as far as till that time we still have nothing for the tour that should be done the next morning… and they she told me that tour to Los Frailes was cancelled due we weren´t enough people for doing it!! I WAS SSOOOO ANGRY!! But anyway in an educated way I told her she had spoiled me a big part of my vacations due she didn´t tried to contact me and to offer me any alternative. It was curious, but instead of offering apologies, she answered so angry, even more than me!!

Based on what happened with Los Frailes tour, I asked to asure me the one to Canaima was assured, she said she would confirm me on the next day.

That Tuesday I was at the travel agency of the hotel as earlier as possible, but first of all, the person in charge there told me the tours to Los Frailes started at 6.00 in the morning, not at 11.00 as the one of Caribbean Trip said, so, of course, at that time (9.00), was no possible at all to join any group. Both agencies offered me tours inside the island, but finally we decided to stay to enjoy the hotel… but we weren´t lucky, that day we had red flag at the beach! :(

I talked again with the girl of Caribbean Trip to check out if all was ok with Canaima´s Tour… and she said that tour was cancelled as well! Of course I said I was completely disappointed with their service, she replayed I was the only one of the group with those problems, that all the rest were so happy with their service. Ok, it could be, I won´t say it couldn´t be just me the one with bad luck with them. But obviously I DON’T RECOMMEND CARIBBEAN TRIP IN MARGARITA ISLAND.

Anyway we had a great time at the Scrabble in Spanish World Championship, at the hotel we had a lot to do and finally we did Canaima´s Tour… but! That´s what my next post is about! :))

Scrabble in Spanish World Championship: Curro´s Pics.

Ver todas

Consigue el tuyo

The final: Claudia Amaral vrs. Luis Picciochi.

The final will be Claudia Amaral vrs. Luis Picciochi, 3 rounds, the winner should win 2 of 3.


Here a view of the public room:




The new World Champion of Scrabble in Spanish is Luis Picciochi... CONGRATULATIONS!

And congratulations Claudia! Great Tourney!

Final Classification:






Group pics:

Karaoke Night!

Oh! What a night!!


From left to right: Claudia Amaral, Carmen Vallecillo, Ivette and Graciela González.

Some videos:

Luis Acevedo started:



Florence, couple of Serge surprised us with Jeanette



Another surprise: Carlos García from Venezuela



A great duet with Yuly de Marcano´s husband:



Norma Garza from México:





Valió la Pena by Esther and Ivette ;PP



Carlos Puente





Pachanga



A view of the public:





Amparito



Dancing



Mikel



Antonio



Vandergraf

Scrabble in Spanish World Championship. Final Day.

Yesterday night most of us were at the karaoke ;D

Partida 16



Round 17



Round 18



The Spanish Team classification:

Position Name Won Games

3 Ayala 13,5
5 Topo 12
9 Manchado 11,5
11 Patxi 11
14 Montse 11
21 Carlos 10
23 Antonio 10
25 Alvaro 10
47 Ivette 9
58 Santi 8
71 Esther 7

Congratulations to all of us! ;P

Final Classification:

Duplicates World Championship 2009. Final Day.

Final classification:



CONGRATULATIONS PATXI!!!!

Scrabble in Spanish World Championship. Third Day.

Round 11



Round 12



Round 13



15 Round


Classfication list till Rond 15:

Duplicates World Championship 2009. Second Day.

Here the second day classification list:

Who is who?

Curro and I propuse you a game:

Can you tell us to who belongs each pair of hands?

A small help! They are just Spanish World Championship 2009 players!

Good luck!

Scrabble in Spanish World Championship. First Day.

The Venezuelan team has done something so original: they play part of Rocky team to announce the round will start, so, nobody has to be jelling out. :D

My first round with Héctor Klíe:



Second Round





Third Round





4th. Round



5th. Round

What the Scrabble World Championship Players do when they aren´t playing Scrabble?

At the beach

We couldn´t swim due the red flag was on…



At the swimming pool

Some players are at the Extra and Nations Cup… others…



Eating watching the beach

Esther, Rosa, Alvaro, Curro and I eating at the restaurant that was in front of the beach.



Giving Impressions

Montse Sánchez gives and recives impressions...



A picture for the history

Ivette with the 3 Scrabble LADIES



From left to right: Claudia Amaral, Aglaia, Ivette and Montse Sánchez

Now Santi and Esther with the 3 Scrabble Ladies



The Rede guys



With "Miss Margarita 2009" ;)



Bisque at the Italian Restaurant



This is life after Scrabble!!







Dreaming with a life tv transmission of the Scrabble Championship as if it would be soccer







In case Scrabble fails…... ;PP (Jooookeeee!!!)





Relaxed night



Topo playing ping pong



Manchado teaching how to play... pool!!!





Don’t forget to watch as well the Karaoke night!

Scrabble World Championship: Extra Tourney and Nations Cup

Today 2 Tourneys of the World Championship had been played: the Extra Tourney and the Nations Cup.

The Extra Tourney is an open tourney that gives 5 entrances to play the World Championship. Congratulations to the winners!

The Nations Cup is a team’s mode (by countries). This time we have 8 teams playing. In each round play 3 players by team. Each team has 5 players (2 supplies). For Spain are playing: Antonio Alvarez as captain, Patxi Navarro, Montse Sánchez, Eufrasio Millán and Carlos Puente.





The winner was Argentina… Congratulations Argentina!!

Inauguration of the Scrabble in Spanish World Championship 2009

On November 2 took place the inauguration of the Scrabble in Spanish World Championship 2009. Definitely the Venezuelan team is giving all with their heart and soul for the organization of this event. Starting with the location: Isla Margarita, continuing with the Hotel: Hotel Dunes, the attention gave to each participant since several months before the event, giving us a lot of clear information about how to come, touristic activities… and the inauguration… really great one!!!

The presentation has been done by Karere and Alejandro Terenzani, a very pleasant one. They also done a Power Point presentation quite professional but funny at the same time, with the schedule, sponsors and players.

About the delegations presentation, what was normal till now, was to say the name of the country and the players stood up with the public cheering... but this year the Venezuelan team did a presentation with each player containing our name, picture, in how many World Championships we had been and annotations with relevant participation in relevant tourneys. In this space they also placed some jokes, for example, at the presentation of Diego González from Argentina and Emma Morris from México, the also placed that they had been elected as Mister and Miss Margarita 2009!!! :D btw: no body complained! Hehehe, I think most of us were agree with the election! ;P They also placed at the presentation of Virginia from México “she placed a Scrabble once” hehehehe this lady has a great sense of humor, if you go to her side in a World Championship, be sure you´ll hear at least one of her jokes! And you´ll like to hear more for sure! :D They also added China as participant… with Jacky Chang and… “Komo Ding” (Comodín = joker). At the French team they also included Zidane… hehehe! We all would like him to be there!!! Hahahaha.

Here the video when the Spanish team was presented:

Aquí una cuando presentaron a la delegación española.

At the end we had a cake and coffee with the legend with Scrabble letters, just that I wasn´t on time to read it!
Congratulations to the Venezuelan team! You are doing it so great! It will be so difficult for the future hosts to beat this incredible work!

Sunset at Juan Griego

This afternoon we went to watch the sunset at Juan Griego, that is a city in Margarita Island with so nice beachs and the favorite place of locals for watching it.

We went to a small old fort, where we had a privilege view of the city and of the sunset.

Ohhhmmmmm!!! ;)

Swimming with Dolphins!

Today Curro, Raúl and I went to a special tourist attraction at Diverlandia which is an Amusement Park at Margarita Island that also has a zoo. This special thing was… to swim with Dolphins!!! :D

It was so nice and special! :D We were touching, singing and kissing them! :D



Definitely something to never forget!

Scrabble Andean Tourney 2009

Today had finished the Scrabble Andean Tourney 2009. It supposed to be a tourney just for people that belong to the Andean Countries, but as exception 4 Spanish players played it (Patxi Navarro, Alvaro Noguer, Santi Rosales and Esther Rodríguez)… and! Big surprise!!! My good friend Patxi owned the first place!!! Congratulations!!!

3 people owned the right of playing the World Championship at this tourney: Raúl Carrillo from Venezuela, Daniel Ospina from Colombia and Paty Gianella from Perú.

video de Redeletras

Here some pics:

Margarita Island! Here we are!

This year the Scrabble in Spanish World Championship (SWCh) will be in Margarita Island, Venezuela. As usual, around the SWCh are taking place other tourneys, that far the activities here had started today, November 1st. 2009.

In my case, I´ll participate just in 2 tourneys, the SWCh and the Duplicated mode as well. Both of them will take place from Nov. 4th. to 7th. but I decided to come earlier to enjoy the Island itself a bit.

Coming here was an exhausted journey and you should take into account that I already have the custom to have long journeys for going to Guatemala from Madrid, but today it was exhausted.

We took an offer with Santa Barbara airline (Curro is traveling with me for the first time to a SWCh). We had the good luck to find Carlos Puente at the airport in Madrid, by coincidence he was in the same flight as us, but as far as we haven´t preview that, we had separated sits, so no chance to play.

The flight was in general ok, not a great plane, not a great food, but well, I´d traveled in American Airlines just few days ago and it wasn´t exactly much better, so… Maybe the only one point to remark is about people travelling with big bags as hand luggage, it was terrible for the crew to make them fit but actually the worst part was when we were almost landing, this people pretended to have their bags with them “to go out faster of the plane”… :( First they tried to place them at the aisle, then at the place you should put your foot (and they didn´t fit there). I started to be nervous because it was obvious it was dangerous for all of us in case of whatever that could happen while landing. Thanks of God the crew checked it (as usual) and they made them to put all again in the places they were, but they did it trying not to (as a kid when you make them to do something they don´t want) and the crew said we won´t do the landing till they place everything at their place. Finally they kept all!

I liked a lot the view while landing. Very different from other airports I know. The airport was ok, not so nice but not ugly… ok. :) The bags came slowly, but actually it was the normal speed of everything at the airport (I even though several times about that add where they say “you are stressing me!” like in the Malibu add) ;P but the really worst part was to cross the customs… a biggggg line wolking so slow where they were checking with scanners.



We had to go to the national departures part of the airport, a new part so it´s nice, walking for going there we met Juan Carlos Ayala, Serge and Florence, but we all had different flights to Margarita. Being there we had to go out of the airport, to go to our different airlines to do the check in, to pay taxes and to go inside again. Our flight to Margarita was programmed to be 5 hours after our landing from Madrid in Maiquetia and I thought it would be so long waiting… but with all what I mentioned and the slow speed of everything, it was actually the perfect time (thank you Raúl!) :) Btw and just for mention it, was impressive to hear someone of the airport staff to offer us to exchange us money (that supposed to be illegal…).

I was really willing to finally be in Venezuela to try the arepas… so we did at the airport… but the ones I tried in Madrid were much better! :/ and even less expensive! :(

Some of us even had time to play a bit at the airport, just I´m afraid all the pics and videos should wait to appear here, as far as I forgot the cable and I need to see if I found one here! :/ (or another way to read the card!).

To take our flight to Margarita was a bit chaotic. At the desk they told us about a gate, that gate number was at the card. When we went to that gate, the name of the destination at the screen was different. We went to check out at the tvs, but our flight didn´t even appear. There wasn´t an information desk, so we should search at the gates people of the airline… but finally the flight was announced in a different gate before we found out staff of the airline. Ok, we went to the new gate and wait… and wait… and wait… it was already half of hour after the departure time and no one of the airline there neither any information at all. Suddenly they said at the speakers the flight´s gate will be again the first one they gave us… ok, we all going back to that gate… where we wait, and wait and wait with no information at all till finally, an hour later, they called us.

In Porlamar airport everything was ok. Not too much waiting for the bags, no lines, people of the shuttle were there waiting us, everybody so kind (but that was since we touched Venezuelan floor). The problem was when we were at the hotel… they didn´t have my reserve!!! :((( But Yuly, the person from the Venezuelan Scrabble Association in charge of our reception fixed it in less than 3 minutes! :)))

So, here finally we are! At the Hotel Dunes in Margarita Island! Waiting for a week full of emotions! I´ll try to actualize my blog at least once per day and during the Championship, but that part maybe I´ll do just in Spanish.