Coche Island

Isla de Coche

This arid Island is located south from Margarita. It reaches a top height of 60 meters above sea level and it is 11 km long and 6km wide. It composes the Villalba Municipality, being San Pedro de Coche its capital, in the Vicente Fuentes Parish. The other towns that conform Coche are El Bichar, Guinima, El Amparo, El Guamache and La Uva.

Beach near San Pedro, where tourist arrive

The fishing activity is the main economic activity in the island, although the island also has salt mines that produce a great amount of salt, considered of great quality. At the beginnings of the XVI century it was habited by some colonizers that exploded the rich Perl Beddings of the salt mines. Coche suffered the same tsunami that destroyed Cubagua in 1541, but it wasn’t as devastated as the recently mentioned.

Desertic Landscape

The 25 of April of 1815, the San Pedro de Alcantara Ship, which transported the Spanish Marshall Don Pablo Morillo with 15 thousand men to stop the insurrection in Venezuela, suddenly sank in these waters and his ship is still there in the bottom of the sea. Coche, besides having a lot of histories, is one of the tourist destinations with less human influence.

Hotel pool

Water bikes in Coche

Coche counts with hotels that have respected the natural balance of the island, building their facilities in front of a mild sea and enjoying a constant breeze, ideal for those who enjoy sliding over the waves with their boards or sails. Europeans are the most impressed by Playa La Punta, especially those who practice water sports such as Kite and Windsurf.

This Island is habited by kind and quiet people that live from fishing and tourism. Coche offers very peculiar sights. It has beaches, coasts and cliffs, but it also has an interior that conserves its essences.

Pelicans looking for fish in the fishing nets

Salinas en la isla de Coche

Coche offers its visitors different sights that contrast with one another when you arrive to the island from Margarita. You can admire the beauty of a beach with shining sand and mild and crystalline water, where, in our case a kind local who welcomed us very nice, suggested us to explore the island.

El Coco Beach

You can experience an adventure of only two hours with a car, where you can get to know some amazing landscapes full of deserted plains, going through the salt mines that before arriving to El Coco Beach, transform themselves into smooth hills full of colors, called by natives “the small great canyon”. The Colors of these beaches fill you with emotions. In one moment you see yourself in the middle of the terracotta, violet and silver hills, and by simply raising your sight you see the sea and the sky at the end, filled with colors from light blue to dark blue. El Coco beach invites you to have a splash in its warm waters.

We recommend you to visit “Playa el Amor” (Love Beach), a very pleasant and romantic place to be with your sentimental partner. This beach has a spectacular view from the cliff, where you can evoke the most romantic images from movies. The beach has a transparent blue color and is very pleasant.

Love Beach

Another way to explore the island is making a bicycle tour. It’s very important to make this trip well equipped with a hat and lots of sunscreen, because in Coche it almost never rains and the sun shines very strong all year long. Prepare yourself a good water provision and light food. The hotels include this service if wanted.

bicycle tour

Gruta
Gruta

There are many ways to get to Coche, it depends of your mood and disposition. If you want to share with a enjoyable and happy group that looks forward doing guide activities, you can take a “catamaran” with a “full day” plan already organized. You can also take the Ferry, which allows you to take you’re car and make a tour around the island. Nevertheless, the easiest way to get there is by taking a small boat from El Yaque Beach, where a boat-driver will take and return you as well as connect you with food alternatives, transport and lodging that the people in the island offer you.

The “Viola Festival”, a very good option

Dancing on the Viola Festival, on the way back

We can’t show you all the photos we World like to on this page, therefore we invite you to see Additional Photos. We also invite you to read de excellent narration of Coche from Cristina Rosenberg,, "“The island of Nacar and Salt”, with nice pictures.