Isla Margarita

In Venezuela.

On Isla de Margarita.

It was off the coast of, well, whatever, up that way.

And yeah, on the beach.

So I'm hoping for that.

And with that, I would be able to visit Isla Margarita.

And Isla Margarita is significant because if you follow the TCC list, I was the youngest person in 2003 to complete the TCC list, and still I think I'm the youngest person ever to do so.

But in the meantime, they added other things, and one of those is Isla Margarita.

So if I visit there, then I will have completed the TCC list for the second time.

So those are some personal goals that are out there I hope to be chasing in the next 12 months.

We include the Bahamas in that.

But we go all the way down the eastern chain of islands down to the top of South America, like Los Roques and Margarita Island and Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao.

Then we go over to the western part of the Caribbean and we include the whole coast from the San Blas Islands of Panama up to the Yucatan of Mexico.

That's Costa Rica and Roatan and all those beautiful places.

So they have this conflict.

So the parents basically will buy a pita terre in Margarita Island, for example.

And the kids will continue to grow in America because it's so Americanized.

But the money is coming.

The journey had been a long, hard one, and Berrio's men had been decimated by fighting, disease, and malnutrition.

Thus, in need of more men and provisions, Berrio headed back to Margarita Island in 1591.

Margarita Island is found off the coast of Venezuela, north of the city of Cumana.

It is about 150 miles, or 245 kilometers, west of the island of Trinidad.

Berrio believed that Trinidad was the best place to go searching for El Dorado.

Okay, Berrio now had a big problem.

No one wanted to help him, because the other regional governors all wanted to control the search for El Dorado.

This included the governor of Margarita Island, Sarmiento de Viendrando, and the governor of Cumana, Francisco de Vides.

They refresh themselves at one island or another but especially at those on the south of Cuba here they careen their vessels while some hunt and others cruise in canoes for prizes The inhabitants of New Spain and Campeche lay their best merchandise in ships of great bulk.

The vessels from Campeche sail in the winter to Caracas Trinity Isles and that of Margarita and return back again in the summer.

The Pirates knowing these seasons being very diligent in their inquiries always Cruise between the Places above mentioned But in case they light on no considerable booty, they commonly undertake some more hazardous enterprises—one remarkable instance of which I shall here give you A certain pirate called Pierre Francois [or Peter Francis] waiting a long time at sea with his boat and twenty-six men for the ship siller to return from Maracabo to Campechy And not being able to find any prey At last he resolved to direct his course To Rancheras Near the river De La Plata In twelve degrees and a half north latitude Here lies a rich bank of pearl To the fishery whereof they yearly send From Cartagena Twelve vessels With a man-of-war For their defence Every vessel Has at least Two negroes in it Who are very dexterous In diving to the depth Of six fathoms Where they find Good store of pearls On this fleet They call the Pearl Fleet Pierre François Resolved to venture Rather than go home empty They then rid at anchor At the mouth of River De la Hacha The Man-Of War scarce Half a league distant From the small Ships And the wind Very calm Having spied them in this posture He presently pulled down His sails And rode along the coast Feigning to be a Spanish Vessel Coming from Maracaibo But no sooner Was he come to the Pearl Bank When suddenly He assaulted The Vice Admiral Of eight guns And sixty men Commanding Them to surrender The Spaniards Made a good Defence For some Time But at Last They were forced To submit Having Thus Taken the vice admiral He resolved to attempt the man-of war With which addition he hoped to master the rest of the fleet.

To this end he presently sunk his own boat putting forth the Spanish colours and weighed anchor with a little wind which then began to stir having with threats and promises compelled most of the Spaniards to assist him.

He's from

this place called Isla de Margarita, but he was born in Punta de Piedra, which is a small town, and that's where he grew up and learned how to play baseball, and that's where he developed as a kid.

So you're actually from an island.

You're You're kind of water and fishing kind of life growing up.

Then we got COVID, chopped during COVID, and right after COVID, late 2021, early 2022, started ticking back again on the major markets.

Margarita was lagging, took like a year afterwards in order to get some traction, but the market has been slowly, steady growing between 2018, the bottom of the market, until 2024.

We got the post-electoral crisis of Maduro, that was Maduro's last dance, say, with literally what that was what happened and then on this particular period that was choppy regarding politics and the social situation in Venezuela the market still grew even for my own surprise after that crisis until 2026 that we got the maduro operation and the market just slingshot to 3x just from one day to another some cases of 50% but that's the bare minimum 50% plus of the previous prices on any given particular property anyways and right now has been still going up going up going up going up going up and depends depends on the market every market every decent market has been going up and right now with significant deals that are being signed in Venezuela that trickles down to those particular markets and therefore the real estate is getting more expensive and also you have to take into account each market is different but right now we have a tide that is rising all of the boats I say this because Yet again, many people think that the market is, you know, it's like people are, you know, this is Africa or something like that.

Remember, Venezuela is not poor, it's artificially impoverished.

That's one thing.

Each market, complete different dynamic.

And of course, pros and cons, each given property on those each given markets important thing to notice also markets that i thought they were emerging they were some opportunities over there the market already price in those opportunities so right now is not as safe but it's more expensive to invest in such markets let alone the top most coveted markets like the east side of Caracas, Lecheria, Valencia, and Margarita that is getting traction as well.

So all of these markets are getting traction.