Los Roques - Our Check-in Experience

Created by sue. Last modified on 2010-01-16 17:35:38
Countries: Venezuela

We thought you'd be interested in our experience today attempting to check into Los Roques.

We arrived at Grand Roque yesterday morning (Monday Jan 11) from Guadeloupe. We were very tired so we raised our quarantine flag, knowing that we check in the next morning. This morning while inflating our dinghy we were approached by the Guarda Costa and asked for our papers. We advised them that we were going into town to check in as soon as the dinghy was assembled. They seemed happy and went away.

We went into town about 11am and went directly to the office of the Guarda Costa where we met the same two officers. The looked at our papers and asked us some questions, determining that we had no plans to go on to Venezuela. Our intended route is Guadeloupe, Los Roques, Bonaire. We were told that we could only stay for two days. We asked about the 14 days, and they said no, only two days. I asked for perhaps a week, and they replied that it would be a "personal" approval and they would need to talk with the other officials first. They told us not to go to the parks office. They told us they would come by the boat later.

They did come by the boat about 3pm, and told us that for $500USD they could grant us a "special permit" to stay for seven days rather than the usual two days. We showed them the Doyle guide and asked about the $2/ft , $13/person and 14 day stay. We were told that that was the case only if we had already checked in to Venezuela.

They told us otherwise we could only stay for two days, and that we would have to leave by Friday. I verified by repeating that we had to leave by Friday, and he confirmed Friday.

We only got the name of one officer, "Marcos".

Clearly the rules are somewhat fluid in Los Roques.

Best regards,

Russ Irwin
Fay Mark
s/v New Morning
www.newmorning.info