This island is done with your body

The island’s most consistent wave, and where everyone here learned to surf.

Guaranteed wind, flat waist-deep water and three hundred days of sun.

The spot that put Margarita on the world wind-sports map.

Dropping down a rock wall with the Caribbean breaking thirty metres below.

Ropes, green water and stone walls in the island’s wet interior.

Half an hour at full throttle over turquoise water, fort in the background.

A sea flat as glass and pelicans fishing beside you.

Red mangrove tunnels, still water and seahorses if you know where to look.

Dust, cactus and not a soul in the island’s wild half.

Riding dirt tracks with an empty beach always on your right.

Thirty-metre visibility, vertical walls and huge schools of fish.

Horses in the water as the sun goes down.

Cloud forest at nine hundred metres, on an island you thought was desert.

Cold fresh water running over stone, twenty minutes from the beach.

A short steep climb to the rock where an independence battle was decided.

Matasiete’s quieter brother, with a better view north.

Twin hills over the isthmus, looking onto both halves of the island.

Walking the cliff edge with turquoise water always below.

A mangrove national park, with a shell beach on the far side.

Eight uninhabited rock islets, with the clearest water in the region.

Blinding white sand, postcard turquoise water and a pace from another century.

The ruins of the first Spanish city in South America, on a deserted island.