Culebrita

Today we said goodbye to the 'Thing'. The guy we rented it from need it back for another commitment. It was fun to drive that 1200cc VW engine again and luckily, it never rained while we were out in it. The night we got the Suzuki SUV, it rained gatos y perros.

Weather reports last night said 30% rain. I set my alarm for 6:30 and checked again and all the weather sites were saying sunny. That meant we were on for a water taxi ride to Culibrita, a small island just off the east coast of Culebra. We met our water taxi driver at 9:30. He operates off of a tiny dock just across the street from the restaurant we went to last night.
Culebrita was amazing. The boat dropped us off on the west side of the island. The main two beaches are north and south-east. We hiked a short way to the main beach to the north and walking out on to this beach was like walking onto a postcard. There was one boat anchored way on the east end of the beach so we took over the middle. It was like having a huge swimming pool. The surf was gentle and there was similar breeze blowing. I snorkeled while everyone else slept and swam.

Before we left, I wanted to explore the abandoned lighthouse at the peak of the island. Built in the 1870's by the Spanish, it is now in disrepair and falling apart due to years of neglect. Locals say that once people start talking about renovating it, the scope gets out of hand and the preservationists pull their support. It was a hot, humid climb before the cool breezes whistling through the door-less and roofless structure. Looking back down to the beach, I found the view spectacular.