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.

Snorkeling

Today we hiked to Carlos Rosario. I thought it was as strenuous as the Brava hike but Lisa didn't think so. We sure had a lot more company. I guess when some of the day trippers see the crowds at Flamenco Beach, they head to Carlos Rosario. To get here you have to park at the Flamenco Beach parking lot.

The snorkeling here was pretty good. My only real experience to compare that to was Maui and that was many years ago. It seamed there were more types of fish in Hawaii and more vibrant colors. To get to the good reef, you have to swim out about 100 yards then head north. The kids and I swam quite a ways. Next time we invest in a bit better equipment for Savannah.
I think the thing we liked the most about this beach was the complete absence of surf. You could swim just a few yards from the beach just like you were in a swimming pool.

Zoni Beach

I wanted to hike today and snorkel where there was a live reef. I got out-voted. Maybe tomorrow. Instead, we spent most of the day today at Zoni Beach. It's the closest beach to the house and a leatherback turtle sanctuary. We didn't see any turtles but saw several roped off areas where turtle-eggs had been laid. The surf here is light because the beach is blocked from the ocean by two smaller islands: Cayo Norte and Culebrita. This picture is one that Emily took and has Culebrita in the distance. We've scheduled a water taxi to take us there on Monday.

After a late lunch we went into town and did some shopping. This included our daily trip to the grocery store. Here are the kids as we walked back to the car. To the left is a Methodist church where they were holding some sort of VBS on Thursday and across the street is the Pandeli Bakery.

Brava Beach

Faced with the decision of where to go today, the kids opted for waves. There are two beaches that really provide good surf: Brava and Resaca. They both, from what I read, have equally as good wave action but Brava is the easier hike. To get to Resaca, you have to drive up to the helipad, which is highest point on the island, and hike down to the beach. I wasn't too worried about the hike down but the climb back with a cooler and tired troops might be a problem. Considering all this, we chose Brava, the easier of the two.

One problem was getting to the trail head. Almost all of the Internet postings about hiking to Brava talked about the trail head, the trail, and the waves. But nowhere could I find how to get to the trail. If the post said anything, it said you drive through a neighborhood. But which neighborhood? After driving a bit, we found a road crew that spoke English. We didn't understand everything but 'museum' was enough to get us there. We took the road just to the right of the museum and ended up at the trial head.

We parked on the road almost getting run over by a horse we startled. Part of the hike down, goes up, but most of it is down. There were some interesting sights on the trail. I couldn't tell what these cocoon like things in the trees were but closer inspection revealed there were ants marching in and out. Some of these floating ant beds were directly over the trail. Luckily, we survived.

The kids got way ahead of us on the hike. They yelled back something about turning right but we missed the finer details of that instruction... as well as the white arrow clearly pointing the way. I took this picture on the way back up.

Brava beach was a lot of fun. The waves were really great. A bit rough for Lisa but Savannah couldn't get enough. We even snorkeled out past the breakers without a problem. Not much to see but it will give the kids something to compare to when we snokel at Carlos Rosario.

Day 2 in Culebra

The kids slept pretty late this morning. I guess it's from the long travel day. Or wait... It could be that they're all teenagers. That might have something to do with it. Never mind that they are minutes from some of the best beaches in the world! Lisa and I used this time to run into town and pick up some provisions. Coffee was high on the list.

We first stopped off at a little bakery, Pandeli. I had a chicken empanyada and sweet roll. Lisa had a cinnamon donut. That took just long enough for the grocery store to open up. We picked up some things for the kids and I headed down to Culebra Divers to pick up some fins for snorkeling. Buying was cheaper then renting (I've never really understood this business practice but I didn't argue.) so I bought. We returned to the house to many questions: Where have you been, why were you gone so long, why didn't you get me up? When we provided food, most of the questions stopped. While they ate, I took this photo of a sailboat, moored near the house. The house we are staying in has a magnificent view of the Puerto del Manglar. This panoramic image was stitched together from five individual pics using a 35mm digital camera.
So, what do you do on your first day in Culebra? You go to Flamenco Beach, what else. Frequently rated as one of the top 10 beaches in the world, this beach is beautiful. I got this picture of the kids body surfing.

Day 2 was a Thursday. We also chose the first day to be Flamenco because we figured it wouldn't be until Tuesday that the crowds would be thinned back down. I cropped this picture down to get the kids a bit larger in the frame but even the original doesn't have anybody else in the image. Don't get me wrong. There were still to may people there but it wasn't too bad.

Flamenco beach is also famous for some abandoned army relics. The military used this place frequently for training up until the 1970's. This is me next to an old tank that rests at the West end of the beach.

Again, we had to run by the grocery store before heading to the house. This time, with everyone present, everyone could get what they wanted, more or less. This is Culebra, you know.

Dinner was a last minute decision by yours truly. El Batey, a hamburger joint on the way back to the house. Great burgers. The service was tropical island typical: slow. Not much moves in a hurry on Culebra. That's why we came here so I didn't complain.

Culebra

So we are finally on our way to a week in the Caribbean. We loved our vacation last summer in West Texas on the Frio River. The main reason was how we had our portion of the river all to ourselves. For a 'last big vacation before Cam goes off to college', we thought we'd try something less close to home and somewhere very few people we know have gone.

The place I found is Culebra. Culebra is a tiny island off the east end of Puerto Rico. It boasts some of the best beaches in the world, very few visitors, and lots of locals that speak English.

We flew into San Juan and had a driver take us to Fajardo where there are ferries to Culebra and Vieques. The ferry ride from the 'big island' to Culebra was pretty choppy to say the least. This is Lisa while she was still smiling.
We got to Culebra around 8:15pm.

The streets around the town roll up at sundown so it was quite an experience figuring it all out. We had reserved a vehicle and it took a while for the owner to show up. We all piled in and then waited for the lady to show up and take us to the house.

It all worked out and we settled in after a long day that started at 6:00am and ended around 9:00pm. Many thanks to Katie who rode with us to the airport and drove the van home. She also went back and checked on a straightener that was thought to have been left on as well as putting thermostadts on vacation mode. Thanks Katie!