Dos and Don’ts

Los Roques Dos and Don’ts. What todo on thousands of islands.

Dos
1. Be flexible in your fishing! Los Roques offers such a great diversity in all kinds of fish you can fly fish. Look left and right and fish for every fish that is maybe not on your initial wish list. It may become a super awesome fishing trip.
2. The blue hole of Francsiqui! Diving is super cool on Los Roques and especially in the blue hole of Francsiqui. This is like an aquarium with calm water and you can experience diving, also as a beginner, in a safe environment. And the fish there are very cool. In case there is a big school of baitfish you might also encounter a big predator.
3. Meet Conejo! Conjeo is a funny guy that cares for the island Francsiqui. He treats this small island like it would be his own. You make him angry if you throw away your waste but you can have some funny moment with him when you respect his “home
4. Have lunch on Crasqui! Crasqui is a small island somewhere in the middle of Los Roques. It is one of the less visited islands and not too far away from Gran Roque. On the island there are a 2-3 opportunities where you can have lunch. All of them are really good. I got my lunch cooked by two maybe 15 year old boys and the cooked a then times better than anybody else on Los Roques. The only opportunity where you can have a good meal. All others can’t cook.
5. Try DIY fishing on the Cayos! As always I recommend to go fishing also alone. Fishing with a guide can be really successful but going out alone an catching a fish can be so much rewarding as well.
6. Check out Cayo de Aqua! This is the most beautiful but it is also the most far away island on Los Roques. Its roughly a one hour ride straight through the archipelago with a high chance of having big waves on the way there. But once there every effort was worth the effort.
7. Eat crawfish (Langouste)! This is a must to eat during the crawfish season. You can’t get it out of the season unless being super lucky.
8. Climb on the Gran Roque! Gran Roque is called after the big rock on the south side of Gran Roque. It seems to be crazy to climb up this small mountain in that heat but the sunset is super awesome seen from there. The sunset maybe too if you can wake up early.
9. Have Cocktail on the beach! Nothing is better then to finish a successful fishing day with a cocktail on the beach. Acuarena is one of the places you can have it. See the tarpons rolling in the harbor and enjoy the Caribbean way of live. And maybe your fishing day is not over and you put the drink aside and try a cast for the tarpons. Your choice : )

Don’ts
1. Don’t walk into the butchery unless you have a strong stomach! I thing this is self explaining.
2. Don’t get angry with them! You are in the Caribbean!!! Everybody moves slowly and nothing starts in time so take it easy and relax.
3. Don’t fall into the currency exchange trap! You have to exchange currency from USD or EUR to Bolivares. Some people might try to cheat you. Carefully compare offers and choose wisely.
4. Don’t eat your lunch box! Give it to the hungry dogs. It’s anyway super gruesome. Better choice to have cooked lunch on the islands or the sand witches you can buy on the opposite of the posada Guaripete.
5. Be careful with the ice! The ice is made from the water coming from the desalinization plant. It is supposed to be clean but it isn’t. In my case I got big stomach problems drinking the water respectively having ice cubes in my drinks.

Thats it!!!

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tight lines
Philipp