In Venezuela, the Médanos de Coro fan across the northern coast of Falcón state like a scarf in a perpetual breeze. Rippling, undulating, incessantly moving waves of sand rise and fall with the crest and trough of every dune. Grains of sand sparkle in the tropical sun as the expanse of tan and beige and gold stretches toward the horizon, broken only occasionally by fingers of bright green shrubs in interstitial spaces where plants took root before the rainwater could dry. The Médanos lap dangerously at the edge of the crumbling town of Santa Ana de Coro, threatening to swallow the place grain by grain just as the sands of time swallowed the Colombian village of Macondo. Or did that only happen in a book?
The Médanos de Coro begin just north of the town of Santa Ana de Coro, Venezuela, located three hours east of Maracaibo by bus. American Airlines flies nonstop to Maracaibo (MAR) from Miami.
It’s like looking at an Arabian desert. Very beautiful.