Los Roques safe or not

[robert sailor]

We stopped there for a week or so enroute to the ABC's. Pretty spot. Used to be very popular for folks from the mainland but no one has the coin these days. Lots of pink flamingos. Gorgeous white sand beaches with no one on them. Clean but come provisioned. Also spent time at Barlovento, really liked it, completely deserted with really good snorkeling...had to do some eye ball work to get around as lots of reefs, we really liked it. We had another boat with us and one morning he was calling us with desperation on the VHF. Had a ponga with 5 guys sitting at his doorstep and they were below. Stuck my head up and I could tell by the body language they were not intending harm so I whistled them over. I think the heaviest guy was maybe 130 lbs at most, all very skinny with lots of bones showing.They were fishermen looking for batteries for an ancient portable GPS. I took it below and cleaned all the corrosion up, put in new batteries and damned if it didn't work. Put 2 sets of new copper tops in a zip lock and gave it to them and they all lit up like a Christmas tree. It then dawned on me that this island has no fresh water and I asked them if they needed any. They all shook their heads so gave them all a bottle of cold water and a 5 gallon tank of fresh water plus a decent supply of beans and rice. They acted like the won the lotto. They were all wearing rags, I mean none of their clothes would have even met rag standards. Really, really poor people, lovely, polite and grateful. Wish we could have helped them more. That country really has its problems. I'm not so sure most of us know just how fortunate we are being part of the lucky gene club.

[Aloha-Ralf]

Similar to Robert Sailor we also just spend a week in Los Roques on our way to the ABC islands, but unfortunately we run out of time to visit Las Aves - Barlovento. We also met extremely nice locals. We never felt unsafe and it never was. Our experience when it comes to "Los Roques safe or not" is that it seems and most probably is safer than e.g. St. Lucia or St. Vincent (just to pick two).
During clearance only one of the required 4 offices we had to visit asked for a "regalo". In the end we paid USD 60 as a "regalo" and gave them some of our sanitary products we bought in Grenada for Los Roques. The other offices were very flexible e.g. wrt checking us in and out at the same time in Gran Roque without any extra charge (even though formally they could have charged us for this service) . Overall it was an extremely positive experience. During one occasion we asked local fishermen if the kind of restaurant they seemed to run was open. They said "unfortunately we are closed today because our wives are in Gran Roque today". Two hours later the fishermen came to us with 3 fish they caught and they wanted to give them to us for free so that we had something for dinner. These people do not have a lot but the little they have they even want to share...

[Cor Koster]

We visited Los Roques end Feb 2022 and stayed there for about a week en route to Bonaire. After dropping anchor we were visited by health officials to check our PCR tests. After sorting them EUR 150 for 4 people the other formalities were completed in a very short time. Signing in the boat was another Eur 150, cruising permit another 150.
The officials were very helpful and the whole process took less than 2 hours.
The atmosphere felt really good, there were a lot of larger Venezuelan motor boats around and not once we felt unsafe.
The whole area is very beautiful with an abundance of wildlife around. Great for sailing, diving, snorkeling, fishing and kite surfing.
There are proper restaurants and smallish bars on the main island. Alcohol, especially Venezuelan rum, can be bought at very reasonable prices.
Internet is available but not very fast.
Food is available however choices are limited.
From Bonaire we intend to visit Los Roques frequently as the experience was a very positive one.

[Cor Koster]

Visited end Feb 2022, all was very positive. Didn't once feel unsafe. People, incl officials, are very friendly.