18:27.50N 18:05.20W

 

The marina at Farjardo was megger expensive so we moved off down the coast a few miles to Puerto Del Rey. This apparently is the largest marina in the Caribbean. Its big but populated mainly by stink boats, sorry motor boats. Its mainly locals so there is not much going on for visitors. No decent shop, no bar miles from anywhere.

 

The plan, at least for me anyway was to head off into the interior. Norm opted to remain on the boat and relax, read, whatever. Thrifty car hire provided a small car and I headed off to the town of Ponce on the south coast.

 

Town of Ponce Old Fire Station

 

Ponce

 

Ponce

 

Ponce was atmospheric having an impressive Plaza (Town square) and lots of impressive building matching historic significance within the country. I spent the night there and headed off north to the following day to the coffee plantations. Unfortunately to get a tour I needed to have prebooked so after a look around their small visitors shop I headed off east along the spine of the country stopping off for a few hours briefly in the Torro Negro Forest to bag a peak and go for a swim in the river.

 

Torro Negro

 

Torro Negro

 

Torro Negro

 

My intended destination was the El Yungue National Forest. I was heading for the Casa Cubuy ‘Eco Lodge’. Not sure what was Eco about it other than it was painted green at it was located in a wonder rain forest wonderland. The noise of the frogs and rushing water from the nearby stream was deafening. I got there quite late too late for dinner at the so I was dispatched back down the road to Noelia’s Bar. This place was amazingly friendly, granny was half cut and dancing around the pool table taking the occasional pot shot the rest of the clientele seemed to be related in some way to Noelia who insisted on having her picture taken with Captain Mick.

 

The next couple of days were spent trekking through forests and fording river and generally getting wet, great fun though and very impressive palm tree based rain forest vegetation. I was hoping to climb the peak El Yunque however believe it or not the road leading over to the north of the range was blocked by a landslide, that happened in 1970!

 

El Yunque

 

El Yunque

 

El Yunque

 

El Yunque

 

El Yunque

 

El Yunque

 

Back on RT Norm and I headed off for an overnight anchorage on Cayo Icacos on the north east tip of Puerto Rico. The following day we ran down the northern Atlantic coast and into San Juan the capital city of Puerto Rico. So we are now in the San Juan Bay Marina. Probably the worst and most over priced marina we have stopped at on our whole voyage.  Again its populated by stink boats and the odd sail boat. Most occupants are locals so thankfully the single toilet and the shower when we can find it won’t be over used.

 

The plan now is to to vital up in readiness for a departure for Bermuda in the next few days.

 

The response for extra crew for the homeward journey was deafening in its absence so it looks like Norm and myself for the crossing to Blighty. Sorry about the timing Dave. Passages are available from Bermuda and from the Azores. Contact my mickandpat email address if interested. Details were included in a previous blog item.

 

Old San Juan