Hiking El Yunque's trails

While in the park we viewed many very beautiful African tulip trees but the flowers of true note were the miles of wild pink impatience that lined the road-ways and flourished on the forest floor.
We hiked moderate (by choice) and challenging (by surprise) trails that took us past the La Mina falls in which many hikers were bathing.
Sadly our time with Robin and Matt came to an end and we left them to make their way back home as we made our way back to Sea Star in Culebra to continue our adventure.
We cherished our time with Robin and Matt and will long remember the fun we had together while snorkelling, swimming, hiking, exploring and sailing.

El Yunque National Forest - America's only tropical rain forest

As we had to rent a car to return Robin and Matt to San Juan airport we thought we would make use of the opportunity to explore the El Yunque National Rainforest located in the Luquillo mountains, Puerto Rico.
Here we viewed beautiful waterfalls and a forest over-grown with huge ferns, thick vines, l,000 year old trees and gigantic bamboo.
A climb up the Yokahu tower offered us a breath-taking view of Puerto Rico's northeast coastline as we listened to the chattering of tropical birds as well as the park's famed tree frog (coqui).

Robin & Matt on board - sailing and exploring

Our time enjoying Robin & Matt's company flew by as we sailed and explored in the Culebra area.
We spent 2 days relaxing in Tortuga Bay on the wildlife refuge of Culebrita. Here we swam in the baths (jacuzzis), enjoyed the solitude of the secluded beach, chased the many turtles and hiked up to explore the abandoned lighthouse.
We were surprised when Matt spotted a deer on the beach here only to have 2 more sighted the next day at Carlos Rosario beach on Culebra's west coast.
We made a down-wind sail to Culebra's west coast to snorkel in the protected marine reserve; Culebra's best snorkelling location - "the wall", where we snorkelled 'til numb amongst fish and coral of every size, shape and colour.
On Robin & Matt's last night in Culebra we dined at Mamacita's restaurant in Dewey where we experienced some of the excitement of the start of Culebra's Heinenken regatta.

Robin & Matt on board for March Break

We were thrilled that our daughter Robin and her husband Matt could join us on board for their March break holiday.
They began their journey from London, Ontario (Canada) by driving through a bad snow storm to Detroit only to find their flight had been cancelled (no flight crew). Considering the March break crowds it was amazing they were able to be re-routed and arrived in to San Juan, Puerto Rico (by way of Memphis) only 3 hours later than planned.
Once together, we drove to Fajardo on Puerto Rico's east coast and took the 14 mile ferry trip to Culebra where Sea Star lay snugly anchored in Ensenada Honda.
An exceptional week of light winds allowed us to easily explore the natural beauty of Culebra and Culebrita, not the least of which, famous Flamenco beach, where Robin and Matt "pinked" up nicely.

Touring in the Dominican Republic

Together with our friends we took a "jeep type" island day tour.
It was most informative as we learned about the D.R.'s bounty of cocoa, coffee and tobacco (cigars). We visited the island's largest sugar cane plantation (l78 square miles) and sampled some of the locally produced rum. We toured a typical home, saw the zip-line towers, swam at Playa Macao and even went horse-back riding.
We used seat-belts along with hand straps to hold ourselves in our seats on the "jeep" as we travelled from sight to sight throughout the day. We were tossed about liberally on the rough dirt terrain - better suited to donkey travel. In spite of this, our tour guide, Reese, kept us laughing non-stop. His antics were hilarious as he made "Dominican coffee" (rum with a small splash, colouring shall we say, of coke. He accomplished this feat while standing up, unsupported as the truck bounced along the dirt track. He poured the water out of one of the water bottles (who would want to drink that anyway?) and filled the bottle with rum (to make room for the coke in the rum bottle). Step 2 was to fill the rum bottle with coke, put the top on it, shake vigorously and laugh exuberantly. Step 3 - remove some of the rum coloured with coke mixture so more rum can be added from the contents of the water bottle (drinking this was a good way to make more room in the rum bottle).
So, the net result is a rum bottle that contains 97% rum, 3% coke, while consuming in the process approximately 8 ounces of the mixture.
This "coffee" was slipped into the glasses of unsuspecting passengers by distracting them as he pointed out local sights such as zebras (?).
Reese was also extremely proficient at serving cerveza by using water bottles to pop the caps.
Holding his balance as he concocted and served drinks while underway was nothing short of amazing.
We laughed ourselves silly (perhaps it was the rum) - what fun!

Vacationing in the Dominican Republic

On March 1, 2008 it was with great pleasure that we met our good friends, Don and Monica McKay at the Gran Bahai Principe Resort, Punta Cana to celebrate Don's retirement (after 30 years) from the Corporation of the City of London.
It was absolutely wonderful to enjoy time together with Don and Monica as we relaxed on the grounds of the 5 star hotel, drank, ate, swam in the numerous fresh water pools as well as the sea, drank, ate, took a very fun and interesting island tour that even included horse-back riding (one we won't soon forget), drank, ate, caught up on the news back home, drank, ate, shopped for the D.R.'s exclusive beautiful larimar jewelery, drank, ate, went deep sea fishing, drank and ate; we talked continually about our travels and Don and Monica politely listened as we drank and ate, we laughed (alot), enjoyed each other's company (immensely) and were very grateful to have had the time together.

Travelling to the Dominican Republic

We left Sea Star laying on 2 anchors in the lagoon (Ensenada Honda) Culebra with our dinghy outboard motor on board, the wind generator and anchor light on and the key in the ignition.
We rowed our dinghy to shore, chained it to the town dock and put a stern anchor out to keep it from going under the dock with the changing tides.
We caught the 6:30 a.m. ferry to Fajardo, Puerto Rico where we met our (pre-arranged) taxi driver who drove us to the San Juan airport (40 miles). Since we had lots of time he kindly threw in a tour of Isla Verde, which looked very much like Miami's stretch of hotels.
After a 50 minute flight from San Juan we arrived in Punta Cana (D.R.) and caught a cab to the hotel.
The total journey took us 11 hours.

What to do - What to do?

We had plans to meet our friends at a resort in Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) during the first week of March.
Try as we may we couldn't find much information regarding marina options in the Punta Cana area. As well we dreaded the idea of crossing the Mona passage only to turn around and cross it again to return (east) south. That thought alone took all the pleasure out of our vacation plans.
While in Grenada we thankfully agonized over our dilemma to Sharon and Gary on Elusive. Sharon suggested we leave the boat somewhere convenient that wouldn't cause us too much easting to return south and fly in to meet our friends in the D.R. Thank you Sharon, that's just what we did.
We left Sea Star in the lagoon (Ensenada Honda) in the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra off Puerto Rico's east coast and flew out of San Juan (Puerto Rico) to the Dominican Republic.

Carlos Rosario Beach (Impact Beach) - Snorkelling the Wall

As we continued on our circumnavigation we had a down-wind sail along Culebra's north shore, turned south at the island's northwest point and coned our way along the west coast to pick up a mooring ball at Carlos Rosario Beach. We were now within the Culebra National Wildlife Refuge boundary.
At this location a 15 foot wall of coral extends out from the sand beach offering extraordinary snorkelling.
The crystal clear water made for easy viewing of the many different huge corals and fans as well as a multitude of multi-coloured fish. Of note were an unusual number of blue fish as well as parrotfish. We even had the opportunity to swim along with several hawksbill turtles.
The wall of coral extends for a full mile along the shore-line - truly a most spectacular reef which Culebra boasts to be their best snorkelling area.
This was our last stop on our circumnavigation. We continued southward along Culebra's west coast, turned the corner eastward and made our way through the buoyed channel to arrive back in Ensenada Honda.
Our circumnavigation took 6 days during which we enjoyed exploring in Culebra's natural beauty.

The Lighthouse Structure (Culebrita)

We were in awe of the still intact marble tile floors, the boulders used to make walls, the terra-cotta brickwork, the plaster still attached to the walls and the rusted spiral stairs.
It still boasts a beautiful red colour and amazing brick work.