Los Roques

Los Roques is an atoll of some three hundred cays and sandbanks lying a hundred and fifty kilometres north of the mainland, protected as a national park since 1972. Only Gran Roque is inhabited, a single village of sand streets and painted houses with no cars, and boats take visitors out each morning to an empty cay for the day. The lagoon inside the reef is shallow and clear over white sand, and the flats are among the best bonefishing grounds in the world. Kitesurfers use the steady trade wind. Flights from Caracas take about forty minutes and are the only way in.