Driving on Margarita Island - Venezuela
What’s Good:
Roads are in good condition, Gas is 4 cents a liter.
What’s Bad:
Local Driving Habits
While we elected to rely on taxis, buses, and our own two feet for getting around during our stay on Margarita Island, we did enough traveling around and talking to Gerardo, our taxi driver, to gather some information about driving on the Island. The roads on the eastern, more populated, side of the Island are in fairly decent condition. Many of the highways are certainly of North American quality and signage seems to be more than adequate. Although many secondary roads (especially those leading to beaches) suffer from potholes they are still quite driveable.
The less developed Western side of the island has a much less extensive road system but does have one fairly decent road which travels all along the coast.
Although the good condition of the roads certainly would not deter a traveler from renting a car during their vacation on Margarita, the local drivers might. One needs to only spend a few minutes in the back of a taxi cab in the middle of Porlamar to understand that traffic laws are not a high priority on the island. Gerardo informed us that there are not really any traffic laws, rather there are ‘suggestions’. It is suggested that one should stop at a red light. We have noticed that many locals do not follow the suggestions. Other suggestions include slowing down before you travel through a green light (in case others are not following the red light suggestion), driving the speed limit (although we have yet to see the limit posted anywhere and this suggestion is certainly widely ignored) and slowing down if you are driving while drunk.
We have only seen a handful of stop signs on the island and traffic lights seem to be reserved only for the busiest of highway intersection. While I would be wary as a traveler of driving in Porlamar, despite the lack of regulations locals seem to manage quite well and we only saw a few minor fender benders during our two month stay.
The lack of accidents seems to be a direct result of Margaritians fabulous ability to use their horns. Horns are used for a wide variety of reasons (by taxi drivers to indicate availability, to ‘compliment’ any attractive women, etc.) but their main message seems to be “I am going keep going so you (car, bicycle, scooter or pedestrian) better stay out of my way”. This tactic actually seems to be quite effective. Remember if you’re driving on Margarita and someone honks their horn they are not saying “hey, why don’t you go ahead” – they are saying “don’t move I’m coming through!”.
Although driving on Margarita is something that we chose to avoid, a traveler who is basing themselves out of one of the smaller villages/towns (Playa El Agua, La Asuncion, El Valle, even Juan Griego or Pampatar) would probably get along fine with a little patience and an open mind. Having your own car would also allow a great deal of flexibility in the exploring of the island, not to mention gas is less than five cents a liter.
With that said, unless you have some experience driving in a third world country, we would recommend either relying on the fairly extensive bus system or sticking with a taxi if you are staying in Porlamar.
Comments
Alicia Windsor - September 29, 2007 5:45 pm
I have seen much worse driving habits in other DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. The only real reckless driving habit that is the most obvious is the speeding , especially from taxi drivers and not to mention the overloading of people in the trail of trucks. Other than that driving in Margarita is fairly good.