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Los Roques is an archipelago of pristine coral islands 85 miles off Venezuela's mainland and about 100 miles east of Bonaire, its near neighbour in the Lesser Antilles.
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| Caribbean's only coral atoll |
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Over 50 coral islands, and numerous low reefs and sand flats, are thrown like a necklace around a central lagoon. Each has powder-soft, white sand beaches, set in shallow emerald and turquoise waters. The only activities are swimming, snorkelling, scuba diving, windsurfing, and sailing-or just lazing in the sun.
The days are sunny and hot all year round and the nights are cool. There is an almost total absence of both rain and insects. |
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| Gran Roque |
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Gran Roque is the only inhabited island in the archipelago. A 30min flight from Caracas, it has a small fishing village with just three sandy streets of cottages, a few tiny shops, an excellent dive centre and a number of attractive posadas (guest houses). Most buildings are whitewashed with brightly painted doors and window frames, and fishermen's colourful wooden boats are beached on the sand. There are no telephones, cars, bars or hotels. No wonder Christopher Columbus called Los Roques "Heaven on Earth"! |
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| Los Roques lifestyle |
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| The posadas provide simple, clean rooms, with private bathrooms and ceiling fans. Most people take a boat ride each day to different parts of the archipelago for sunbathing, swimming, beach combing, snorkelling or diving. Natural shade is hard to find, so bring plenty of high factor sunscreen to protect you from the bright sun, which glitters off the water and reflects off the talcum white sands |
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| Los Roques Marine National Park |
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The archipelago is the Caribbean's largest and longest-established marine national park. Tight controls protect the marine environment and the reefs are as free from exploitation as any in the Caribbean. There is some great snorkelling off many of the beaches. The scuba-diving is superb with lots to see and very natural underwater conditions: the experts say it's like Bonaire was 20 years ago.
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| Wildlife and film stars |
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Wildlife spotters can see pelican, frigate birds, brown boobies, scarlet ibis and herons. Sea turtles come to the most remote beaches to lay their eggs.
Los Roques is starting to feature in the style magazines: Gerard Depardieu, Leonardo DiCaprio and Bruce Willis have all sailed in Los Roques recently. |
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