Natalie's Venezuela Diary: Part Two

Sky Sports F1's Natalie Pinkham reports on her six-day trip to Pastor Maldonado's homeland as the Williams driver returned to his native Venezuela for the first time as a F1 winner...

Missed Part One? Then come just this way first... Day Four
The community in Los Roques is a tight one, everyone knows everyone. Colourful little homes pepper the main island where we were based. Dogs stroll through the sandy lanes, kids play on the corners and locals play cards in make-shift bars. It was like a scene from a Bacardi advert. We took a small boat out from the island where we were staying on to a smaller one a couple of miles away. Pastor 'the pied piper' had gathered a line of friends en route. Everything we did felt inclusive; everyone was welcome. So much so that apparently complete strangers joined us for sandwiches and salad on the beach. Pastor told me about his childhood as we stood ankle deep in the turquoise sea, with colourful fish darting around us. Looking up the beach, we spotted tiny turtles scuttling through the white sand. Later we found a rock pool which was the perfect setting for the main interview. Before we sat down for the chat, Pastor snorkeled and dived down between the rocks; it was pure escapism from a manic, roller-coaster first part of the season for the Williams driver. Later that night we ate under the stars. We enjoyed barbecued fish (not caught by us I regret to add) and enough Plantain to feed a small army. I ate my own body-weight in the 'big bananas' (as Gaby puts it) - those and cheese are my abiding culinary memories of Venezuela. Day Five
We tried our hand at fishing. A fairly simple task you may think with the swaths of sea life all around us. Not so. Pastor did manage pull something from the Caribbean waters - just not what you would expect. The locals only accept cash on the islands. Credit cards don't work and there are no cash points, so unless you are laden with dollars you may run into difficulties. We came up short in a local restaurant and offered to do the washing up in part payment of the bill. The 'P' word clearly didn't work everywhere. We then danced with the locals barefoot on the sand for a few hours before hopping back on to our propeller plane to Caracas. Day Six
For our final morning we wanted to see Caracas in all its glory, and so took a 4x4 up into El Avila - the national park which sits over 2,700 metres above the capital city. Bursting with plant and wildlife it is a stunning natural antidote to the crazy metropolis below. The climate is highly changeable, one minute we had a perfect view of the thousands of colourful barrios (Venenzuela's version of shanty towns) below and the next we were engulfed in a swirling, chilly white fog. We drank smoothies made from local forest fruits and talked about Pastor's memories of military school, and how the unwavering support from his finacee, family, friends along with that of the Venezuelan government and people has helped him cope with crazy life of Formula 1. Of the many times I have spoken to Pastor, this was him at his most relaxed and open. It was fascinating to hear him speak from the heart, without the constraints of restricted media access at the circuit. Day Seven
And so began our long journey home. I was grateful for the travel time in a way, as it gave me the chance to reflect on the week. The first thing I needed to do when I got home was to download the pictures from Los Roques, no amount of description could do them justice, these beaches needed to be seen to be believed. Oh and go to the gym - only 100 sit ups a day would begin to make a difference to my newly acquired cheese belly... Natalie's Venezuela trip in pictures NP Footage of Pastor - and Natalie's! - trip to Venezuela will be broadcast throughout Sky Sports F1's coverage of this weekend's Belgian GP