The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: December twenty-first, enjoying a margarita on Margarita Island.

It was Christopher Columbus, not Jimmy Buffet, who discovered this 400-square-mile island just off Venezuela's northeast coast. Yet judging by the bleary-eyed, sunburned grins of its beached vacationers.

Originally two volcanic peaks which were united over time by a sand bridge, Margarita is the largest of some 70 islands along this northern shoulder of South America. Huge by Caribbean standards, it's home to 300,000 lucky Venezuelans, who live in a place that could pass for paradise.

Its beaches are long and sandy, its waters warm, its climate almost always sunny. Food and accommodations are plentiful, good and cheap. A two-week vacation, including air fare, hotel, meals, drinks and live entertainment, costs less than a week at many Caribbean resorts. Long popular with vacationers from Canada, Europe and South America, Margarita is less well known in the U.S., though big jets can land at the airport in Polamar, its main city.

The modern, bustling metropolis on the east coast is where most of Margarita hotels and high rise condos are found. La Asuncion, the capital, is much smaller, a charming colonial village whose main promenade is paved in marble. A stone, conquistador's fortress commands a grand vista of the island's peaks and valleys. El Agua, a long beach on the north coast, boasts excellent surf and a string of tiny restaurants and seaside cabanas. In short, Margarita Island is an ideal place for anyone looking to waste away again. FMI For information about Margarita Island, www.margaritaisland.com or www.island-of- margarita.com

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