Cheers for everyone that helped out with my last travel post. I have another question to put out there.
We will be travelling through the Caribbean April/May 09 and will be flying out of Caracas (Venezuela) but have not confirmed our Caribbean locations from there. All I know is that after the island hoping we will be heading to Cuba.
So I'm stuck as to where to start and finish and where to go in between.
We've got about 5 weeks and will be looking at mostly kiting/surfing/diving.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Barbados, St. Marten (the french side), Dominican Republic, Porto Rico, and the Turks & Caicos would be on my list
When your walking around there tends not to be a lot of "cross walks", hitting people crossing the road with a car is a game there. I hear you laughing but when some one speeds up at you when your crossing the road you'l understand
Edit - forgot Antigua
Hey mate,
my experience is limited to the following suggestions (noting that at the time I was there, kiting hadn't been invented and I was on a dirtbag backapcker budget so couldn't afford to dive much either):
1. If you end up in Colombia, go to Parque Nacional Tayrona - blue water, jungle, monkleys, camping, mangoes, coconuts and a black man who seels cookies. You know the kind. Not so much a diving and kiting place, but a great place to veg. On a 5 week trip though I wouldn't go out of your way unless you're in the area.
2. If you can scam it on a yacht (which I did cos I hitched on a yacht through the Panama Canal) - go to the San Blas islands on the north eastern coast of panama. There wouldn't be much diving or kiting infrastructure, but these islands are truly paradise and the Kuna indians (who are largely autonomous) have retained a lot of their traditions. The women wear ankle-to-knee and wrist-to-elbow jewellery, have massive nose rings, and wear intricately woven dresses called molas. One of my favourite places in the whole world. Its out of the way, which is great.
3. The ass end of the world poetically enough is Colon, which is the port you need to go through to get to the San Blas islands. FYI.
4. The Costa Rican side of the Caribbean is supposed to be nice, but I was there in wet season - so no personal experience. Alot of surfers go to Manzanillo (I think)
5. Honduras has a dirtbag dive island called Utila, which is low key, backpackery and pretty cheap. I did some great diving there. Its snobby sister is Roatan, which is more upmarket because it doesn;t have sand flies. These islands are fascinating because pirates used to hang out there hundreds of years ago. The English spoken by these locals is apparently very close to that spoken by the pirates. It is also completely unintelligible.
6. Belize - supposedly has some amazing cays but I didn't go.
7. Mexico - Cancun is a freaking circus full of Americans on spring break. It is cringeworthy in the extreme, a shame because Cancun would be an amazingly beautiful place without all the high rise. Still, flight sto Cuba go direct from there, so its good for something.
8. Cuba - Definitely go, it will mess with your head. My ex g/f did her dive course at Maria La Gorda (yep - Maria the Fat) and had a great time. Then again, your first dives are always great so I'm not sure how they compare with elsewhere (I didn;t dive in Cuba). Varadero is a glitzy up market resort east of Havana, I wouldn;t recommend it - go to the more mellow places (unless of course fat obnoxious Germans in budgie smugglers are your cup of tea :-) )
9. The Cayman Islands - never been, but Stingray City is famous. A shallow dive where you get swamped by stingrays.
Hope all that helps!
Bucko
have worked in the carribean and it is pretty expensive place to live cheaply and travelling between islands. Ive heard alot of the spots are crowded in venezuela.
We kited antigua island at green island and jabba woky which is dres home spot. no crowds here!
Another option is the yucatan in mexico. mexico is cheap and and is a stones throw from cuba. Here is a blatent plug for the crew i was kiting with who will give you some good info. http://freestyleplaya.com/ I found them when I was looking for somewhere to sleep on the beach and they turned out to be top guys, (even though they ride EH kites hahaha)
anyway thats it, im still travellin south to panama and will let you know what we find
i believe tulum in mexico(yucitan peninsula closeish to cancun) is the bomb.
PM 'Simon' - he kited there.
Whilst that way kite Holbox island(3 hours and a 20min ferry from Cancun).
An amazing, unique island that is very kiteable!
accomm in tulum is dirt cheap, holbox little bit more pricey.
Cuba is sooo amazing, but also soooo much bigger than you think.
Once out of the major cities(havana, trinidad varadero), spanish is common, and english is not so. hablar espanol?
Varadero is a dive, overpriced and overrated: however it is very accessible from Havana, the wind is more consistent and the water sooooooo blue and clear!!!!
Cabarete is the bomb.
30mins drom puerto plata airport, a wide range of accomm, cheap eats and drinks and lots of kiting options (and surfing as well.)
We were there for 4 weeks and loved it!!!!!
didnt really rate the rest of the DR however if you can score it, Las Terrenas has the potential to be AWESOME - 4 hours drive from cabarete.
If you could afford it, I would hit Aruba and Isla Margarita.
Supposedly the most consistent wind in the caribbean!!!!
Oh, and probably way out of your price range, but Bermuda is decent for kiting(it is actually good, but very unpredictable)- but the diving is world class.
Hope that helps.
Tim
yeah we went to holbox and found it a bit out of the way. There is an outfit called icarus kiteboarding in playa del carmen. He is an italian guy who owns a block of land 30 minutes north of cancun at a place called isla blanca. Its not an island anymore and is a huge lagoon waist deep for as far as you can see. perfect for progressing your moves.
I spent a week there camping.
Go to Barbados, I have been several times. Stay around silver sands area, and go and see my mate Steve Campbell at redeye kitesurfing, he will look after you, he also runs a beach bar there with great cheap food. Accomodation can be found for reasonably cheap in the area too. You will not regret it, its unreal.
