 |
|
|
Somehow Mike Inglis from Wisconsin and I connected. My first impression of Mike was that he was slightly vertically challenged but after 10 minutes of talking to him, I discovered he was exceptionally tall in ideas, stories and a great sense of humor. We hit it off right away. Now here are two guys that haven’t slept, sitting in an airport at 8am, so we bought a few Cokes and busted out the flask and the endless talk was well on it’s way. I don’t think it has, or will, ever stop? We were “allowed” on an Aeropostal flight to Caracas that leaves daily at 11:30 am. Good ol’ Aeropostal was kind enough to serve us lunch and a couple free beers to wash it down. Needless to say, Mike and I were circling the airport well after the plane had landed. After collecting our bags, exchanging a few bucks for Bolivar’s we headed to the mainland terminal a few blocks away. Since we had a 2-hour layover and our alcohol level was getting dangerously low, we decided to try some of the local $1.00 Brahma or Polar beers. Looking for one of the airports watering holes, this “big” guy comes up to shake my hand? “ You gotta be Karl?” It was “Kitch” (Larry Kitchen) from Chicago. A “big” boy with a “big” moustache and wears it well. It was my “out of place biker vest” that pointed me out. We did our introductions and sat down for a few Polars and let Kitch catch up on the beer and the stories. The stories and beer were flying so fast; it is amazing that one of us didn’t chip a tooth. This was cool. So far, a couple of great guys. We managed to slam our share of Polar and headed to the plane. Again, Aeropostal fed us with complimentary cocktails and a good snack for our 45-minute flight to the rock. We were a couple hundred feet higher in altitude than the plane was. We hopped a cab at the airport for the 20-minute ride to Porlamar where we checked into the Margarita Village to hook up with Kitch’s son. LJ (Larry junior) had flown something like 34 hours from Afghanistan to meet his dad and check out Margarita. Now LJ is a piece of work! Good-looking guy, good shape, good job, intelligent and a ton of fun. Three out of 3 ain’t bad for my new best friends. This was going to be dangerous! We checked in and cleaned up and decided to check out Porlamar so we met in the lobby and headed out to Sr. Frogs. Somehow I managed to BS our way through the 10,000 B cover charge ($4). The Frog was
hopping and between LJ buying rounds of drinks and the guy standing on
the table pouring Jose Cuervo down anybody’s throat who would open their
mouth, I guess we had a good time? The whole room looked like a nest of
baby chicks waiting to get fed.
We’re not sure what time we left the bar but we meet at noon the following day for breakfast by the pool. We narrowed it down to around 4am and had fun filling in the blanks. Our hotel was very nice and we had a two bedroom, 2-bath room in a strong 4 star hotel for $55 a night but I liked where I stayed at before and decided to move to the Kamarata Hotel. Smaller by far, more like a 3 star with 42 rooms, very nice pool, pool bar, 2 bed, 2 bath room and breakfast included for $26 a night for 2. Everybody followed and ironically everybody liked it better. We were off to a good start. LJ had hired a local guy named Lewis to haul us around. We are still trying to figure out what color the sky is in Lewis’s world? He spoke fluent English and was very informative. A little too informative as we couldn’t get him to shut up. Lewis must be part Italian as he talks with his hands. He has a unique ability to be talking with both hands while looking in the back seat and never did get into an accident but did keep our adrenaline flowing. If you want to know anything, just ask him a question like “ What do you think of…..” and sit back for the next hour. Actually, he was very informative, maybe too informative, but we did learn a lot from him whether we wanted to or not. I’m not sure about the taxi’s there as like Lewis’s car, there was no AC and no window cranks or door handles on the inside of the back seat. I think it has to do with the pay first and then I will let you out thing? Actually, Lewis is 100% honest and completely trustworthy. He did us right everyday. Let us know if we were paying too much, a better deal somewhere else. The guy took us under his XL wing. Lewis drove us to El Yaque for a look-see. The best windsurfing beach on the island. Literally, there are a 100 windsurfers there on a good day. Fun to watch while sitting at a beach bar drinking the $.40 beers or $1 cocktails. We had a lot of fun. Bring some binoculars……for the windsurfers of course! We had Lewis drive us for 4-5 days before our ears gave out and then we rented a car. We did drive the whole island, backtracked and crisscrossed the island and covered it quite well. All the beaches, small villages and places where we got lost on numerous occasions. Another brand new best friend, Tom Nichols dropped in out of the sky….literally. Tom flies 757’s so we had a few days with him. John Hanson hooked up with us for a few nights on the town and John is a full time/part time resident. He has a condo in Canada and splits his time at his condo on MI. We met another handful of locals and fellow travelers which was very nice. I’m sure we will hook up again but our focus was to look at property and assess the island. Restaurants were fantastic and you can get a great meal for 10-15,000 B’s ($4-6) As I said before, you can have a great Italian dinner for 2 with a bottle of wine included for $20 or less. Lots of Italian like I have never had before but only a few Mexican restaurants. I love good Mexican! Taxi’s will take you anywhere in Porlamar for 5000 B’s ($2) Airport is 15,000 ($6) (El Yaque is near the airport) Taxi’s will take you anywhere on the island and you can rent them, or a rental car, by the day. Nightlife is good, Discos, Opah, Hilton Hotel casino and local restaurants. Of course beaches are great and there is nightlife really starting at midnight. Beaches are hot during the day but there is always a cooling breeze. Especially at night. Tons of windsurfers and kite surfing. There are ultra-lights on the island, good fishing, party boats, and island tours to Isla Coche, swimming and surfing. Don’t forget $.40 beers and $1 cocktails! But you need to get out of your head that this is a third world country. Yes, many parts look like Mexico, same with the architecture, but the shopping centers, pharmacies, big grocery stores, department stores, etc are as nice (or nicer) than some of the U.S. best. The only thing Margarita Island is lacking from the U.S. is congestion, smog and prices. However, many things like electronics and appliances are about the same, maybe a little higher. Where the real value is lies in property, gas, cost of living, taxes, insurance, etc. Gas is still around $.12 a gallon, cigarettes (Marlboro) are $1 a pack, beer is $3.20 a case of 30, car insurance is less than $100 a year, property taxes the same or less and groceries are very inexpensive. Anything and everything else you want is there. Cellular, Direct TV, shopping centers, restaurants, casinos, nightclubs, everything! A new best friend (England) on the island, whose house is paid for and two cars, said that he and his wife live absolutely great on $160 a week and that includes dinner out twice a week. He had a wonderful 2-bed/2-bath house in a new gated community with a pool/Jacuzzi, outdoor pool bathroom, outdoor BBQ-kitchen, storage shed and absolutely needed nothing for around $100k Another new best friend, John and I ran across the biggest lobster we have ever seen. Far bigger than my dog and had to be 25 lbs. It was over 4’ long from antennae to tail. I have a picture, just not developed yet. The restaurant wanted 200,000 B’s cooked. ($80) but it would of easily fed 4-6 people. It looked like something out of a Sci-Fi movie. Land of the Lobster People. A good 90% of the roads are in great condition. Far better than Mexico’s old roads or Costa Rica. Some divided highways, very few accidents even tho you don’t need to stop for red lights and drinking & driving is acceptable unless you are extremely drunk. From what I saw, their accident rate and DUI’s are about 1% of ours. Everybody drives aggressively passive and very polite unless you are holding up traffic. Then you get the horn. Should you bump another car and he pays for your car and you pay for his. What a concept? Not one ambulance chaser on the island. Wow, did I love that! Your dog is acceptable almost everywhere. In bars/restaurants, hotels (but not nightclubs) on planes, but not in shopping malls but generally accepted most places. Especially the beach. They know that you dog is probably cleaner and better behaved than you are. Since this trip was to research property, we were very impressed with price’s compared to the rest of the world. We tried to spend at least 4 hours a day after we sobered up, looking at property. I found one penthouse for sale for $110,000 asking and this was brand new but not completed. Structure was there but needed everything, tile, appliances, furniture, cabinets, etc. The good thing was, you would get it exactly the way you wanted it. You would be hard pressed to put another $40,000 into it. So for $150,000 you have a brand new custom 3000 sf, 4 bed/4 bath penthouse with the 3000 sf sundeck on the roof that is perfect for a wet bar, hot tub, lawn, BBQ, putting green. Personally, I would add a little 1200 sf retreat up there just to get away from all the friends that will come and visit. A great view of the ocean and Playa el Agua, three blocks away. In Vegas, you have a double wide for $150k with Jerry Springer neighbors. Found another penthouse that is a bank repo that is two story with 2500 sf per floor. Each floor has 3-bed/3 baths with a full kitchen, living room, etc connected with a large spiral staircase in a 2-story atrium. A private elevator exits to each unit, top floor has a private gym and sauna with master bed and bath. The unit had been lived in and again, no appliances. Asking price from the bank is 500,000,000 B’s ($200,000). So you try a buck and a half and put another $25 into it and you have the million-dollar two-story condo for under $200k. Association dues are about $50-60 a month. Both properties were security gated with beautiful infinity swimming pools, clubhouse, covered parking and fantastic landscaped grounds. Both with great views of the ocean. For $55,000 I saw many condos, some on the beach, some with a nice view of the water. All were security gated with all amenities, 2 bed/2 bath, living room, kitchen, AC, yada, yada. A bunch of these are perfect for 2-4 people buying together and you have a condo year round. Get together and toss in $15,000 and another $1500 apiece and you have a car in the parking lot when you get there. So for $16,500 apiece, you have a condo and a car to use for 90 days a year. Beats the hell out of $10,000 for a one-week timeshare in Scottsdale or Hawaii.. Use it for a month and rent out for the other two months. What’s wrong with that picture…..besides nothing? One unit I looked at was VERY cool. Vaulted log beam ceiling, One bedroom had bunks with another single bed, the other bedroom had a queen bed and the L-shaped living room couch would sleep another 2. Over the bathrooms there was a cozy little loft with a double bed, so this unit would easily sleep 9. Wonderful little place. Properties can range from $20k to $500k depending on you lifestyle. I would recommend that you change your lifestyle if island living is for you. There is a wonderful development under way for the high-end retiree community coming soon and many very nice other communities. ($300-500,000) Bottom line is, Mike is already there, Fred is there, John is there, I arrive next week, Leo is following as well as Gordon, David, Jimmy and her hubby and a bunch more moving shortly. I feel that we have a great little group only to get better. We really do have a great bunch of guys coming. If you like a little more info on Margarita, check my website www.margaritaventures.net. And for more answers to questions, log on to our Yahoo chatroom. Or you can e-mail me personally at karl_ike@hotmail.com. If
you would like to submit an article to Escape From America Magazine Click
Here
|
