Just 52 miles south east of Smokey and Bunty’s  is an undiscovered and unspoilt backwater in time where you can enjoy the life lived for centuries by the indigenous Warao tribe, sleeping in Moriche palm hammocks under a thatched roof with no walls and  commuting in dugout canoes.

To get there from Trinidad sail across the Paria gulf heading for the mouth of Boca Pedernales entrance at N10° 02’, W62°12’. Arrive on the flooding tide if possible. Avoid  the gas platform and wellheads to the south east of the entrance. Head down the centre of the channel to the village of Pedernales, the second settlement on the port hand side and you can anchor off the town pier.

Pedernales is a pedestrian paradise with a six by three grid of streets but no cars. There’s no internet café or MacDonald’s but there’s a church and two pool bars. Shrimp fishing and smuggling were the main occupations before the oilmen arrived.

From Pedernales you can follow Walter Raleigh’s wake down the old Caño Manamo ship channel into the interior of this vast nature reserve. As you travel further into the delta the scenery changes from large breezy estuaries bordered by mangroves, to placid rivers slipping between Moriche palms towering above tropical jungle