El Yaque - Resume 2009

Another year in El Yaque is over, a year full of changes, filled with good and bad news and tough weather conditions. The year in the Caribbean started not really Caribbean like and surely even less El Yaque like. As already during new years eve the rain poured onto the roofs and streets of the Venezuelan Island in the southern Caribbean sea and so the first weeks of the year 2009 should remain. Partly hard rainshowers, wind ups and downs while the highs never last longer than a couple of days. The islands Flora grew rapidly, which created a very colourful Island and ambience, but also interrupted the windsystem just too often for that time of the year. Just when the rain finally stopped and the Islands surface changed from tropical to desert like, the windmachine started its engine, right after the easter week and since than hasn´t stopped at all. The easterweek, the Semana Santa, very well known as “The” Party week of the year, became much quieter, families and couples visited El Yaque instead of the usual party crowd and created a much more comfortable atmosphere at the Beach and in the village. 

The hard winds also during the summer time surely gave the remaining Kite – and Windsurfers what they were hoping for but the national tourists, mostly beginners in the two watersports had to struggle a bit harder for their first steps onto the Boards.

In the first quarter of the year a new private security service has been installed and within a short time made El Yaque to the maybe safest place on the entire Island. Some institutions, which had work in and for the small village, like the Club Margarita Windsurf Center, have left El Yaque and many new faces have come to built not only new Bars, Restaurants and Posadas, they also brought some very fresh wind into the Village. The natural wind kept on blowing and blowing in order to give El Yaque the best publicity it might get.

Like the City of Porlamar and the rest of the Island also El Yaque became more colourful, houses and hotels received some buckets of paint, the streets get cleaned permanently and the recently opened sewage plant works just fine to help making El Yaque a clean and healthy community.

El Yaque Windsurfer Alexis Carache once again became Venezuelan Slalom Champion, local Freestyle Wizzard Gollito Estredo came back home from the Professional Windsurf Tour with his third Worldchampion trophy in his pocket and feminine Pro Windsurfer Yoli de Brendt finished fourth on the Pro Windsurf Tour, while also three times PWA Freestyle Worldchampion Ricardo Campello proved that he will be one of the major candidates for the Wave Worldtitle.  The El Yaque Kitesurfers haven´t been less successful, bringing home almost all cups which were about to win in Venezuela. The formerly huge Windsurf Event “Margarita Wildwinds” lived its survival in 2009 with the disciplines Windsurf Slalom, Windsurf Freestyle and Windsurf Long Distance, Kitesurf Long Distance and Kitesurf Freestyle and also the Copa ONA took place for the second time with a huge amount of national and international Windsurfers participating, though all trophies stayed in El Yaque.

After various Bar, Shop and Restaurant opening ceremonies  in the last weeks of the year, El Yaque celebrated the end of 2009 in a clean, safe and very Caribbean like ambience, with a massive Beachparty under the Palmtrees