LOS ROQUES, Venezuela -- I have always had a soft spot for pelicans.
The birds make an art of nonchalance, in the blink of an eye veering from glide to attack mode to pierce the ocean's surface with the muffled ZZZUMP of a wingless missile. Then, with chins tucked in, it's back to the business of looking self-important and disengaged.
But as I sit frustrated on this knoll overlooking a corner of Caribbean paradise known as Los Roques, I conclude I need some insight. From pelicans.
Los Roques is an archipelago of 52 mostly uninhabited islands in a national park in the Caribbean's outer orbit of tourism , about 80 miles north of Caracas , Venezuela's capital. I had come here to learn how to kiteboard, an extreme sport that allows a kite-powered rider to skim across the ocean's surface on something akin to a snowboard.
An international kiteboarding school with an outlet here had assured me this was THE place to learn the sport. But two days into my week long mission, I have concluded that the particular island used by the school is far from ideal for novices. Pedestrian beach traffic and an offshore reef provide precious little room for error. In a fit of anger this afternoon that had scared even me, I verbally unloaded on a kiteboarding instructor who had had nothing to do with recommending the long trip here.
So here I sit, ashamed and feeling a bit like a pensive Rodin statue as I stare at pelicans doing something quite bizarre. Shedding individualism for pack mentality, they are harvesting the fish-rich waters by flying in a great clump that barrel- rolls into a synchronized attack. The birds hit the ocean like a spray of buckshot. The fish don't stand a chance.
The pelicans have adapted well. And I conclude that I need to adapt, too.
It should not be hard in a place so pristine and remote, where the daily rhythms of life reverberate from an earlier time. I did not realize such places still existed in this hemisphere. It's time to alter course. Thank you, pelicans.
The English translation of Los Roques is ``The Rocks," but it's a misnomer. The archipelago is mainly sand and reef. Pirates once hid among the islands, and survivors of a wrecked Dutch slave ship established a village in the mid-17th century. The only rocky island is the only inhabited island -- El Roque -- home to 1,100 people today. Because development is tightly controlled in the national park, El Roque's demeanor changes little. It has a bumpy airstrip, two trucks (for water delivery and garbage pick up), a school, and five small grocery stores; it has no cars, no scooters, no paved streets. Regulations prohibit razing original structures for new hotels.