A night on the beach

I was so excited that I could travel around and move away from the boring deserted cities in the south, although it was Easter week, that I forgot the consequences. At Puerto la Cruz on the north coast I was met by an urban beach so packed that it was difficult to see the sand. It wasn’t even a nice beach. Holiday-celebrators! So it’s here everyone is. I knew that there were a series of nicer beaches out of town in the national park to the east, so instead of looking for a crowded hotel in town, I took a local bus to a place called Playa Colorada, a much smaller village some 25 km from Puerto la Cruz. There was maybe a small hope that it should be less full. It would be nice to go to the beach, I thought.

In Playa Colorada, I saw one of the most marvellous sights I have ever seen. Easter-campers! The beach was full of tents and music played everywhere. People shouted, danced, drank beer and peed in the water. The tents covered the whole beach. There was only a thin strip of sand closest to the shoreline where no-one wanted to camp due to the risk of having the tent flooded by a large wave. I just came with a back-pack but it was still difficult to move around on the beach as you had to find a path through the tents to actually access it.

It was already dark and too late to change my mind. I had to stay here. I left the beach for a while, had a walk around on the few streets in the village above, got some dinner at a street vendor and returned to the beach to eventually put the hammock up in front of a closed beach-restaurant just next to the tents. I waited for the morning and had no intention of staying here longer.

Playa Colorada