By BART JONES
The Associated Press
Some of region's most exotic fish, best coral, beautiful birds found at Los Roques.
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LOS ROQUES, Venezuela -- The streets are sand. Boys play baseball with driftwood for bats. The only two vehicles are a garbage truck and a water truck.
Life is slow and simple on Los Roques archipelago, but as the world begins to discover what until now has been one of the best-kept secrets of the Caribbean, the pace may be picking up.
Thousands of tourists from Canada, Germany, Italy, the United States and other countries are arriving, captivated by the pristine chain of 42 islands surrounded by coral reefs and 300 other tiny islets and sand cays.
''It doesn't look real,'' marveled my sister Allison during my family's recent trip.
The sea is shades of turquoise, aqua and emerald. The white sand is as soft as powder.
With a snorkeling mask, the underwater world came alive in spectacular fashion.
Black angel fish with yellow stripes, rainbow-colored parrot fish and yellowtail snappers swarmed in the crystalline water. Propelled by flippers and arms at your side, you get the sensation that you've become part of the sea yourself.
At one point, though, our ecstasy was abruptly interrupted when we met up with a 5-foot barracuda. The razor-toothed beast brushed by our tour guide and sent us swimming for shore.
280 fish species
Los Roques (The Rocks), 95 miles off Venezuela's coast, boasts 280 species of exotic fish such as puffy porcupine fish, royal blue angelfish, moray eels, sting rays, manta rays and black-tip sharks.
It also has all 87 species of coral found in the Caribbean Sea, including gonia, brain and fire. The skies are filled with 92 species of birds: frigates, brown boobies, scarlet ibises.
Most of Los Roques remains unspoiled, thanks to its remoteness and the fact the desalination plant that provides fresh water on El Gran Roque, the only permanent settlement, was barely pumping until a recent overhaul.
A few years ago, only a few of the 240 dwellings served as family-run guest houses, called ''posadas.'' Today, there are 50. On nearby Madrizqui Island, Venezuela's richest families own a dozen vacation houses.
The tranquil archipelago is starting to attract some glitter, too. A Sports Illustrated swimsuit model recently posed with Los Roques as a backdrop. Maxwell Kennedy, the son of the late Robert F. Kennedy, also paid a visit.
National park status
While tourism officials are happy more visitors are flocking to the islands (58,000 last year), environmentalists warn an onslaught could be disastrous.
Coral reefs are the so-called rain forests of the sea because of the high number of species they harbor and help breed. Yet, merely touching a reef can kill that spot by destroying a vital filmy plant that covers the surface and gives off the coral's distinctive bright colors.
''In very little time you can destroy a colony that took a thousand years to develop,'' says parks service head Miguel Matany. Tourists have killed many of the world's most heavily visited coral reefs.
Venezuela wants to avoid that fate. In 1972 it declared Los Roques a national park, making the 50,000-acre zone one of the Caribbean's largest marine preserves. The decree prohibited new building and limited the number of islands tourists can visit.
Officials say the high cost of traveling to Los Roques should help keep down the number of visitors. The government also plans to create environmental education programs and more than triple the number of park guards to 35.
Environmentalists worry that Venezuela's government won't follow through.
Airstrip only
Most tourists get to Los Roques by taking a half-hour flight from Caracas or popular Margarita Island. There is no airport; just an airstrip and a check-in booth.
Fishermen will take you out to the other islands on their colorful wooden boats, which they beach on El Gran Roque near hungry pelicans dive-bombing for fish in the shallows. Or you can sail aboard one of the 55-foot catamarans run by tour companies.
Anglers may want to spend the day bonefishing, considered among the best in the world.
Over at Dos Mosquises Sur Island, marine biologists can tell you about their project to save the islands' endangered marine turtles, which lumber ashore to lay their eggs.
Visitors often cap off the day by taking a sunset hike up a hill on El Gran Roque to an old lighthouse the Dutch built of coral, conch shells and stones. Once there, they relish the breathtaking view of the islands and anchored sailboats.
From that vantage point it's easy to see why Christopher Columbus, stopping off at Los Roques five centuries ago, declared them ''Heaven on Earth.''
Atlantis expansion attracting crowds
Bahamas resort part Vegas, Orlando
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas -- It's real name is Atlantis. But visitors who step beneath the cavernous entry crowned by giant dueling swordfish statues and into the 70-foot-high rotunda overlooking an atrium of waterfalls might well call it the ''Look at that!'' resort.
''Look at that!'' says a small boy, pointing at a tank of billowy jellyfish that is part of the Dig, an ''excavation'' of the Lost City of Atlantis.
''Look at that!'' laughs a teen-age girl when she spies the oversized ''throne of Poseidon'' -- then hops aboard with two friends for a photo.
''Oh my God, look at that!'' cries a bystander in the small crowd awaiting the next ''victim'' to come hurtling down the 63-degree incline of the Leap of Faith water slide, part of the elaborately landscaped 50-acre grounds.
The rotunda, the Dig, massive artworks and the slides diving down from atop a Mayan-style pyramid are highlights at Atlantis' $480 million expansion, which opened in mid-December. Think Vegas meets Orlando in the Bahamas, and you've got an idea of the lavishness and wow-factor created by the new 23-foot story Royal Towers and their surrounding grounds that have marked Atlantis as a mecca for the likes of Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson.
''It's like Disney World with a beach,'' said Sam Herzberg, a Miami real estate investor.
2,300 hotel rooms
In 1994, when flamboyant-resort magnate Sol Kerzner of Sun Resorts International redeveloped a tired Paradise Island Resort as Atlantis, visitors were awestruck by the expansive gardens, pools, waterfalls, river tube ride and vast aquarium exhibits. The expansion doubles the number of hotel rooms for a total of 2,300, adds about 20 acres of pools, landscaping and attraction to the original 30 and provides a marina already popular with motor yachters.
Hotel centerpiece
The centerpiece is the Royal Towers, 1,200 airy rooms in two 23-story-high wings. Guests enter through a marbled rotunda that plays heavily to the mythical theme, with decorative tapestries and murals depicting Poseidon, 45-foot-high columns carved with dolphins and squid, and a golden dome imprinted with clam shells. The entry leads into the atrium called the Hall of Waters, where a cafe is surrounded by pools, water walls and the transparent walls of the watery excavation site-cum-2.7-gallon aquarium called the Dig. (Access to the Dig and resort grounds is limited to hotel guests; anyone can visit the hotel's public rooms, restaurants and casino.)
On their way to a cave that serves as Dig expedition headquarters, visitors pass floor-to-ceiling windows revealing an ''ocean'' of ruins filled with bright trigger and jewel fish, massive grouper, slithering rays and peripatetic sharks. Inside the wide, winding tunnel are more windows on the ever-changing underwater universe.
The Dig has an Indiana Jones quality about it, reinforced by ''discovery guides'' in khaki shorts and hiking boots. The friendly staffers chat with guests and answer questions: What's the life expectancy of a moray eel? (8-13 years) Will a piranha really eat a person? (Not if it's well fed otherwise.) It doesn't take long before guests are talking with each other about the sea life, the water slides, their luck in the casino.
Water slides, casino
The water slides are the hands-down favorites with kids -- and many adults.
Most dramatic is the stomach-lurching Leap of Faith slide, a 60-foot, 63-degree plummet down a Mayan-style pyramid and through a shark-filled tank (via a clear tube.) David Herzberg, 11, of Miami, describes it like this: ''It's like you jumped into Niagara Falls. For a little bit you're in the air, but you're still on the slide. Then it sends you through the tube under water.''
The casino, too, is a little out of the ordinary. Sure, there are the expected 1,000 slot machines and some 80 tables for games such as blackjack, craps and baccarat. But the 100,000-square-foot entertainment center also features skylights and windows -- unheard of in gambling halls, where the idea is to keep people focused on indoor sports. Four massive glass sculptures by Dale Chiluly are installed in the casino area. Radiating from the central gambling area are clubs and restaurants.
The place isn't perfect. During a recent visit, service was often relaxed to downright languid. The friendly staff at guest relations struggled with questions even slightly out of the ordinary.
The food quality in the resort's upscale restaurants was uneven, the prices high. Dinner for two in one of the resort's better restaurants easily tops $100. Prices in the shops are truly absurd; an Atlantis beach towel cost $49.
The grounds, too, show the resort's newness. Landscaping has yet to grow in, and a spa and sports center will open later this year.
Nassau, Paradise Island improvements
Nassau and Paradise Island are on an upswing.
Recent years have brought new hotels (including Island Outpost's Compass Point) and a new tourist office. A second bridge from Nassau to Paradise Island, opened in December, has alleviated traffic delays. This month, Paradise Island gets its own straw market.
Many of the existing hotels on Nassau and Paradise Island initiated improvements. Here are some highlights, according to the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism:
The British Colonial Beach Resort in downtown Nassau is spending $100 million to renovate and expand its venerable hotel, adding condos, apartments and shops. The first phase, a $35 million renovation of the existing space, is to open in May as the British Colonial Hilton Nassau. Offices, retail and condos will be added in a second phase. Rates: $72-$209 per night. Information: (800) 742-4276; www.hotelbook.com.
Club Med on Paradise Island reopened in November after a $30 million renovation. Expansive grounds include historic estate buildings, fitness center, night club and sports. Rates: $137-$157 per night. Information: (800) 258-2633; www.clubmed.com.
Graycliff, a small historic hotel and highly touted restaurant in downtown Nassau, is undergoing a $5 million expansion due to be completed this winter. Rates: $170-$360 per night. Information: (242) 322-2796; www.graycliff.com.
Nassau Beach Hotel on Cable Beach is planning a $12 million upgrade. Rates: $135-$650. Information: (888) 627-7282.
Nassau Marriott Resort & Crystal Palace Casino on Cable Beach, formerly Carnival's Crystal Palace, has spent $45 million to refurbish the hotel. Rates: $169-$500 per night. Information: (242) 327-6200; www.marriott.com.
Meeting the mother of all barracudas
Big Mama was waiting for us.
The tour guide on our trip to Los Roques had informed us that our snorkeling expedition was likely to meet up with a not-so-welcome welcoming party: a razor-toothed, 5-foot barracuda.
Big Mama, as the locals dubbed her, has been hanging around the coral reef-enclosed basin known as ''La Piscina'' (The Pool) for as long as anyone can remember.
I nervously deluged our 27-year-old guide Maria ''Sheen'' de la Concepcion with questions like, ''Isn't this dangerous?'' and, ''Isn't this just a little bit crazy?''
She assured me that in the eight months she'd been working with Aereotuy Tourism Company, not a single tourist had been attacked or killed by Big Mama.
I put on my flippers and waded in.
Halfway across La Piscina, there she was: A long, silver barracuda stationed motionless in front of the coral reefs.
I caught a glance and picked up the pace with my flippers. It seemed like Big Mama was going to leave us alone.
Ten minutes later on the other side of La Piscina, Ms. de la Concepcion was explaining to one of my traveling companions how to swim beneath an arched piece of coral on the sea floor.
Suddenly another snorkeler told the guide to look behind her. Big Mama was two feet away.
Ms. de la Concepcion jokingly told the group that Big Mama was ''kicking us out of here'' so we might as well head back. I didn't need much convincing.
Later, the guide confessed this was the closest Big Mama -- also known as ''La Abuela'' (The Grandmother) -- had ever come to her.
''I get scared every time I see her,'' she said.
Back on dry land in Caracas, I called a couple of marine biologists to find out just how close to death we had been.
They insisted our guide was right: Barracudas are curious fish that often approach people but usually don't attack. They might take a swipe at you, though, if they feel trapped, if you try to feed them or if you flash something shiny they think is a fish they want for lunch.
-- Bart Jones
