Still February 2009
SPANISH CARIBBEAN
Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands
It was a fairly short hop to the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra. We anchored in Ensenada Hondo, right by the tiny town of Dewey and tried to figure out how to check in. Technically, this is part of Puerto Rico, another US territory, and as US citizens traveling from one US territory to another we were told by a VI cruiser that checking in was not necessary. Yeah, we’d heard that in Mexico too, and it turned out to be incorrect, so we decided to be safe and not sorry. A fellow yachtie directed us to the town dock and told us to get the number off the sign posted on the pier. A few phone calls later (Ade’s cell phone worked here) we were given a number and told that we were officially checked into Puerto Rico, which is required if you are going to stay there. Once that was settled, we sought out the few places that were listed in the cruising guide, and took a nice long walk. We people-watched at the harbor side Dinghy Dock and adjusted our ears to rapid Spanish again. We even found little Mamacita’s colorful Bar & Grill on the canal that cuts from Ensenada bay to the ocean. There is a ferry dock on the ocean here that brings Puerto Rican’s over for holidays. Despite the ferry, Culebra is much like the old Virgin Islands, a nice quiet island with perfect weather, a little local color, and a great place to just hang out and read a good book.
Puerto Rico
The crossing to Fajardo on PR’s east coast was lumpy but uneventful. Puerto Del Rey marina is huge, over 1000 slips, and it’s near nothing, so for transient’s, not the best choice. We were told it was quite safe, but laughed when after all the security gates, locks, etc., we saw that our dock was the one where the ferry dropped passengers off, so hundreds of people walked by, unescorted on a Sunday…really glad this is NOT where we decided to leave WS while we went home for three weeks.
Wanting to see something at this end of the island, we arranged for a taxi to take us to a popular beach area where we were told there was a boardwalk. No boardwalk, just a family beach with lots of beer drinking locals out for a fun Sunday…not in the mood for that, we asked what else we might see. “El Conquistador Casino and Resort” we were told…and as taxi fare was already at $40, we decided we’d better get out. The resort is actually lovely, beautiful buildings and grounds cascading down a hill to a small marina. We spent a few hours just strolling around, enjoying a late lunch and people watching. We’d missed the Latin people; they are so…so…alive, so passionate about everything. We had the doorman get us a cab, and guess what…another $40 to go the 8 miles back to our marina. Glad we saw what we did, these cruisers probably won’t be going back to Fajardo.
We ran the length of the northern side of the island with fairly stiff winds at our back. When we saw the impressive walls of El Morro it was time to navigate the tricky, in this weather, harbor entrance that would take us into San Juan. We surfed our way in and found Club Nautico, a private club and marina deep into the harbor past all the cruise ship docks. The yacht club is very safe, with good docks and a beautiful clubhouse and office complex, but for people without a car - a challenge to deal with. A major highway runs in front of it, on a blind corner, and beyond it, two lane highway on and off ramps, one in each direction, and a raised, but not too high, highway bridge…what we in California call a spaghetti bowl. At least eight lanes converge here. After the first day, I learned that if I walked a block or so, I came to a spot where I had pretty good visibility and could run across two lanes to a V like median; pause, cross two more lanes with a small median; pause, and then cross two more double lane sets, and there, finally was a nice big sidewalk bordering the ocean and leading to hotels. Like a bunny I would dash across two lanes. Stop. Dash. Stop. Run like hell… all pretty exciting, made all the more so by the fact that I actually scream as I do this…not blood curdling wail, but an audible AHHHHHHHHH. By the time I get to El Malecon to take my walk, I am really warmed up.
We finally rented a car, as Ade didn’t like my method for getting around, and went out for a night on town in Old San Juan- and just fell in love with it. It reminds me of Cartagena. The fact that the cruise ships dock right down town adds to the crowds and T-shirt shops, but also to the color and excitement of the waterfront. Artists set up shop in the square and displayed some really lovely things, like the sea glass earrings and necklaces I bought. Following the advice of a fellow we met in Culebra, we found that on the streets several blocks north of the piers had great restaurants that the locals frequent. Baru was one he’d suggested and he was right. It’s a Tapas restaurant (poor Ade was so disappointed, he thought I was saying Topless) and we shared several delicious dishes, and walked the cobblestone narrow poking our heads into interesting looking galleries and restaurants. Another night we made our way to the resort area, and the old El San Juan hotel, where Ade and his buddy Jim stayed after their college graduation. It’s still elegant and has great restaurants, we chose the Palm. Not Latin, but very nice.
We found someone at the yacht club to watch and wash the boat each week; emptied the fridge, and buttoned Wandering Star up for our first trip home in seven months…the longest time ever. We missed our families and friends.
HOME for three weeks
We were back aboard in no time, and the others had all caught up. I finally finished Les and Rose’s Superhero capes that I’d wanted to make for them after they towed us off the coast of Columbia in October. With no sewing machine on board, I just couldn’t execute my vision. They got a big chuckle out of the Dobbe Wan and Princess Lena capes…now I dare them to wear them!
We all wanted to see Old San Juan again, so back downtown again - navigating our way through the particularly heavy and drunken cruise ship passengers and back up to Baru for dinner. Dottie and Ken went off on an island adventure on their motorcycle for a few days, while we stayed at the club with Rose as Les had to fly home for a quick business trip. We did the mad dashes across yet another set of major highways to the local Pueblo market to re-provision for the next leg of our journey. Rose is much faster off the mark than I, she’s like a gazelle, and I think my screaming scared her. I wonder if they will miss all of this nonsense when they go back to the real world of starting a new business. We will miss them. Dottie and Ken are going home too, but we have a few more weeks together.
The Dominion Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with the always impoverished and chaotic Haiti is not on most cruisers itineraries. Strategically it’s in a brilliant location for a stop traveling north or south, but has few good anchorages, and it’s expensive to check into for just an overnight stop. We determined, however that we wanted to see it, and decided along with Dot & Ken, on Puerto Plata, and the recommended Ocean World Adventure Park and Marina. It’s a lot like Sea World with a much lower budget, but equally enthusiastic “trainers” who work with the animals and participate in the silly, but kinda cute, skits. You know the “CLAP NOW” kind of enthusiasm, all in rapid Spanish and LOUD. We had a back stage pass as our slip was right behind the set and seal pool, and when we’d hear the theme from the Pink Panther, we’d brace ourselves for Showtime. I know I sound cynical, when in actuality; I laughed every time as the kids squealed and sang out, “Who Let the Dogs Out-woof-woof”, and clapped at the antics. I’m a sucker for people having a good time. It is also a Casino with a floor show; scantily clad beautiful girls with elaborate headdresses, gloved arms out and barely covered in feathers and sequins, prancing to canned music…of course we went, how can you resist a taste of the Copacabana?. It’s a good marina, but it is ¾ empty, and should probably lower its rates to attract more yachties as they would then feed the other parts of the operation, including the good and fairly priced restaurants.
We took a van/bus to the town of Puerto Plata for an afternoon. Everyone was very friendly, but in particular one fellow who, at the end of our day, clung to us like saran wrap, showing us lots of things on our way to where he said we could catch the return bus to the resort. He insisted, in that “me thinks thou protests too much” way, that he wasn’t doing it for money, he didn’t need money…only, after an hour of this…maybe - only if we wanted to, buy some milk for his daughter. He took us to a squalid bar where the bus supposedly stops, or at least passes by, which by coincidence, sold the milk - which turned out to be formula at $25USD, along with cold beer. But, hey, the free bus did go by, and he did run out in front of it to stop it, so I guess it was a win-win situation; sometimes being played is such fun.
We hired a car and driver to take us on an island tour - as much as we could see in one day, this is a big island and we would only scratch the surface. You hire the guide, and he in turn goes out to a taxi van and hires the taxi. The guide told us to call him “Macarena”, he considers himself quite the historian, and claimed many celebrity clients, none of whom registered with us. We understood very little of what he said, it was an unusual kind of Spanglish he spoke. Dottie and I fell into a fit of giggles when we thought he was taking us to a whorehouse when what he said was courthouse. There are a lot of both on the island apparently. He loved to point out hookers, and some looked like young teenage girls, others like peasant women selling fruit by the side of the road. The taxi driver rolled his eyes at us from time to time. We visited a cigar factory run by a lecherous Robin Williams look alike German ex-pat with tiny reading glasses worn way down a long nose with piercing, laughing blue eyes, show us how they roll cigars on our thighs. We also found ourselves in Amber and Larimer workshops…you know the drill.
A big attraction was Playa Cabarete. It’s a wind surfing and kite boarding beach that attracts hundreds of enthusiasts, and is such fun to watch. There was every color of sail, and every level of boarder. The learning curve seems quite steep and I know I am much to chicken to try it, but what a thrill it must be to catch the wind and just skip across the rolling surf. Wow, most impressive. We stayed for a few hours. I checked out the hotels there, and they are quite nice and seemed to be doing a good business. I can see why it’s catching on with Canadians.
At the end of the day, Macarena was very pleasant and helpful though, and took us to the fresh market and helped us bargain for lovely fruit and vegetables, and stopped at the supermarket for other items we needed. We thoroughly enjoyed our very full day, and our time in “The DR”.
Time to go, next it’s the Turks and Caicos, and my 99th country! WooWoo indeed.
