"Araya" Cristaline Beach, Memories of a Journey

The beaches of Araya are a paradise, fine white sand and crystal clear waters. I met the town of Araya a few years ago, my first trip was an adventure and a half traumatic experience, I did not know what I was going to face, I was visiting my girlfriend for the first time at her parents' house, I'll leave it for another time.

To get to Araya you can take two routes, by land or sea, we will start with the sea route, starting from the city of Cumaná in the state of Sucre, Venezuela, we go to the Ferrys dock, there you can choose to go to Margarita Island in speedboats whose trip lasts between 1:30 to 2: 00 hours, in barges or Ferrys for about 4 to 5 hours of travel, there are also departures to Araya in a boat with a capacity of 60 people approximately, a barge that transports vehicles and people, whose average travel time is 1 hour, and a faster transport known as "Tapaito", are wooden boats with capacity for 32 people plus 3 crew members, are fully covered, have 4 outboard engines and the journey takes between 15 and 20 minutes to the town of Manicuare.

Foto de: "Conociendo la Península de Araya"

From Manicuare it is necessary to take a pickup truck to the town of Araya, which takes approximately 15 minutes.

Foto de: Araya Hoy

The population of Araya's main source of income is artisanal fishing, formerly the salt company (currently there is very low salt production) ARAYA: "The Salt Queen", followed by tourism during the high season, which has also declined significantly due to the covid19 , although the beaches are always visited.

Most of the time we made the trips in our vehicle, we had to go very early to queue and buy tickets, the barge known as "La Palita" leaves at 10:30 am, the arrival is approximately at 11:30 am, crossing the Gulf of Cariaco we can see the dolphins approaching the boat. Arriving to the mainland we can contemplate Punta Arenas, a very beautiful and quiet area to spend a nice time, to get there you have to take a transport from Araya or Manicuare, although the access is not easy, the road is dirt road to the beach.

Let's start by visiting the beach of El Castillo, named after the castle called "Real Fortaleza Santiago de Arroyo de Araya", it was built during the years 1623 -1625, to guard the salt flats from pirate attacks. It is one of the best beaches I have visited, the sand is white and fine, the waters are crystal clear and very cold due to the high concentration of salt they have, we always made our trips at Easter and spent several days in tents on the shore of the beach, although we have a house to get there, but it is an unforgettable experience to camp on the beach and wake up at midnight bathed, because the tide rose and reached us, but our tent was located 50 meters from the shore, that really does not matter to the sea. Usually we stayed with my wife and my two children. When dawn came, it did not provoke to leave the tent, the roar of the sea, the singing of seabirds, the cold morning .... but you have to drink coffee, so to stand up.

This beach has a small problem, in times of strong breeze it is very difficult to be, there are always the risky ones who stay, but the winds are so strong that the sand feels like it leaves marks on your skin, as we say vulgarly the sand pricks, you have to be in the water to avoid it.

Near the Castillo beach, there are tourist inns with very good food, just cross the street and you will be on the beach. There are also food stands by the beach.

The next one is the beach behind the castle, so called because you have to cross the castle to get to it, like the previous one is a beach of white sand, crystal clear waters, but of higher temperature, there we used to go early in the morning to look for chipi-chipi, after digging the sand for a while and take a few good dips, we returned home to enjoy a chipi-chipi consommé, sometimes we got some crustaceans commonly called "abuelitas", which were also very tasty.

Foto de: "Consomé Chipi-chipi" y "Abuelita" o "Emerita"

Another beach is called "playa los muertos" (beach of the dead), an unattractive name, but its name is because it is a beach with very soft waves and shallow waters, very gentle winds, there I always saw people practicing wind surfing, to get there you must have a vehicle or walk a few kilometers, there is no transportation to this beach.

Foto de: Araya Hoy "Playa Los Muertos"

We are now going to the town of El Rincón, as for transportation to get to that town you also have to get on the pickup from Araya, there lives an aunt of my wife, we always went to visit, my sister in law a few years ago built a ranchería (fishing house) on the shores of the beach "El Manglillo", so we changed our nights in a tent for a ranchería. It was only a room with a bathroom, a living room and a small kitchen, no walls only several sticks joined side by side.

Because it is a small town most of the villagers know each other, when they found out we were visiting, the rancheria was always full with many people who came to say hello and my wife's cousins who lived in Puerto La Cruz, also enjoyed their days off there, some stayed at the rancheria, it was a real party for several days, there we hung the hammocks and to spend cold. In the morning we were awakened by the noise of the fishermen's engines, to stand up and wait for them to arrive to unload the fish to help and buy from the recent catch, many times we were given the fish as a gift for having helped to unload. Now an excellent breakfast with arepas, fried fish, salad and plantain, what more could we ask for, a week of total relaxation.

Now we go by land, starting from the city of Cumaná we go east, we will make a journey of about 3 to 4 hours, crossing several towns that I will summarize with the names of the municipalities, the landscape that is observed is marine, because we are bordering the Gulf of Cariaco, The first municipality we found is Bolivar, we continue with Mejia, here the stop is mandatory, there is a boardwalk where we can photograph the immensity of the Gulf, here we also find hot springs that go directly to the sea and eat the delicious dogfish empanadas. We continue to the municipality of Ribero, entering this municipality we find the town of Cerezal, where different types of handicrafts and Creole sweets such as canned pineapple and sweet potato, also noted for its cultivation of sweet cane for the production of refined sugar, we entered the town of Cariaco, capital of the municipality.

Photo by: Temporadista "San Antonio del Golfo" and Destinos de Sucre "Cerezal"

We continue moving north, we enter a mountainous and steep vegetation via Cruz Salmerón Acosta municipality, after 2 hours of road we have reached the north coast of the Araya Peninsula, we are passing through the town of Playa Brava, so called because of the high waves that lashes against the shore, we continue to the entrance to Chacopata. From there we can observe the Coche, Cubagua and Margarita Islands "The pearl of the Caribbean".

We return to the west along the north coast, an impressive view, we see how the landscape is degrading from a high mountain area with large green trees, to a desert area with thorny bushes and few leaves. The municipality Cruz Salmerón Acosta is divided into 3 large parishes, Araya which is its capital, Manicuare and Chacopata. The second town that we found is Chacopata, from there you can travel by sea to any of the 3 islands, its main activity is artisanal fishing, on our route we found Guayacán and Caimancito, two populations that live mainly from the extraction of pepitonas (green mussel perna), there are many projects of grinding the pepitona shell to obtain calcium, hopefully they are put into practice, in Guayacán there is a module of the University of Oriente that researches on migratory birds. Then we arrived at the towns of Taguapire, Guerito and Guamache.

Video: Recycling of sea shells to obtain calcium carbonate (CaCO3) Organic.

When I made my first trip by land the roads were asphalted in bad condition, you could go at an average speed, but from the town of El Guamache to Araya, the road was dirt, there we spent a century, I could not wait to get there. First of all, we were traveling in a Volskwagen, you know how the shock absorbers of those cars were, secondly, we passed the "costillas de muerto"("dead rib"), first time in my life, I do not come back here anymore. "Costilla de muerto" call the formation of mounds created by the action of the wind that makes a representation to a rib, each mound was separated from the other by about 30 cm, imagine how we came jumping inside the car, I did not know what was better if traveling at 10 kph or high speed, I do not know how long we lasted the trip, the truth is that I did not take that road until they asphalted it. Hallelujah, we arrived in Araya.

Photo by: Dreamstime "Dead rib"

We missed the south of the Peninsula, but there are the towns of Manicuare, "Blue, from that summit so far away toward it my thoughts fly...." cradle of the poet Cruz Maria Salmeron Acosta, poem "Blue", we continue with the towns of Merito, Salazar today produces a large amount of onion that is sold in local markets, we continue with the towns of Tacarigua, La Angoleta, Los Cachicatos and El Cedro.

“Blue”, based on the sonnet by Venezuelan poet Cruz María Salmerón Acost. This short film made by Antonio D. Espejo has won the Communicator Awards 2021 for best entertainment film.

I end my trip with this photograph taken on the beach of El Manglillo. I invite you to get to know this town, the first time I visited it I was impressed by its salt hill, as its inhabitants used to say "the big salt pillotes", its crystalline beaches, its fine sand and most importantly its people. .. I can affirm that because I even fell in love and married an arayera ....

Very well, we end our journey, I hope this reading has been to your liking.

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