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Pearls by Christopher Columbus when he arrived there in August of 1498. The island is 1020 square kilometers with over 50 beaches and is 78km long and 20km wide. Awesome weather. if you like heat with an average 320 days/year of sun, low humidity, and temperatures 24- 37ºC. Also, it is below the hurricane belt and rarely sees major storms. We stayed around Playa El Agua,
a beautiful 3-mile stretch of beach. This area had restaurants and bars all along the beach side of the main road and they were told, about six years ago, that sooner or later they would all be torn down. Three days after I arrived they started to tear them down, and, by the time I left, they were all demolished. It doesn’t seem logical that, as an incentive for large hotels to build on the other side of the boulevard, they tear everything down and the area would become more attractive to developers. You would think the more sensible
approach would be that, once you have the new hotels that can employ all the people that were put out of work, is when you tear down the old. There definitely is a large- scale plan for Playa El Ague, but it is anybody’s guess how long it will take especially since tourism is way down from all countries. Up until four years ago, you could get a direct flight from Canada to Margarita. My understanding is, because of the fluctuating bolivar, people would book flights at the old price and not have to pay until they traveled, and the bolivar would then be higher so airlines were losing money. Another influence is the uncertainty of what will happen in the country because of rampant inflation and poverty, which can result in a higher crime rate. This is totally understandable since there are fewer jobs and more people out of work and a man still needs to feed his family, even if he must resort to crime to do it. This being a socialist government, there is no incentive to work any harder because
Looking for your copy of Bounder magazine is getting harder
and harder to find, especially in the outlying areas of Ottawa. Here’s a partial list of your best bets to find it
PERTH Cobra Pools
CARLETON PLACE Carleton Refrigeration All Purpose Towing Bean Chev DockMaster
ARNPRIOR Reid Bros Stinson Fuels Als Corner Store A & O Auto Parts CARP Aim Outboards R And R Auto Repairs
PEMBROKE Stinson Fuels
EGANVILLE Eganville Country Store
58 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
MANOTICK Moncions Independent Grocers Napa Auto Parts
KEMPTVILLE Class Axe Guitars Stinson Fuels
JASPER Smiths Equiptment
SMITHS FALLS Bennetts Bait
STITTSVILLE Cabottos Restaurant Ultramar
WINCHESTER Rideau Auctions
KANATA Don Cherry’s Mr. Transmission Rockin Johnnys Diner Jiffy Photo And Print Loch March Golf And Country Club
OTTAWA WEST Apple Auto Glass Uniglass Duntech Bobcat Ottawa C.A.P.S
HINTONBURG The Record Centre
ASHTON Ashton Pub Canadian Golf & Country Club
LITTLE ITALY Prescott Hotel Pub Italia
OTTAWA EAST Malmberg Truck Mr. Transmission Caseys Valecraft Homes Wheelsport C.A.P.S
ROCKLAND Bandit Motorsports
METCALFE Allan Johnston McVey Insurance
MERRICKVILLE Village Bean Sidecar Café
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it won’t get you more. And, typical of most of the Caribbean, things go at a much slower pace because of the heat. There is a strong anti-American
sentiment that started years ago, when Hugo Chavez was President and he basically thumbed his nose at US and sold or traded oil to Cuba, Russia, and other countries that were not in the US’s good books. Two days before leaving, the headline in the local paper read that “US was getting ready to invade Venezuela”. It is amazing how much propaganda exists there. No doubt about it, it is a country
in turmoil. It seems like a powder keg, with everybody disliking the current President Maduro and with inflation so bad, you would expect there would be a lot of protests. During my visit last year there were quite a few protests, but I didn’t hear of any this year. I asked why and was told 43 protesters were shot last year after I left, which seems to have put continued on page 61
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