The anchorage is a lovely wide area, and nice and shallow, we are comfortably anchored in about 5 metres.  Once all sorted we went about the (very) serious business of checking in.  We thought we were in the Spanish Virgin Islands, which according to the chart are part of Puerto Rico, and had no idea we would be met at the local airport by 2 very officious, although very friendly and helpful members of the US Department of Homeland Security!  The annoying thing was that we had been given a copy of the forms a week ago as they are available on the internet, and we could have completed them in advance rather than spend the best part of an hour checking in and answering a series of questions about each form.

There are a huge amount of rules which apply here regarding food, alcohol, rubbish etc, which change slightly from place to place so you can never be quite sure where you will fall foul of the system.  A big issue here for example seems to be the importation of mangoes.  For the purpose of mangoes this includes just having them on board as part of your stores - they are so bad they are practically on the FBI's top 10 most wanted!!  We had been very honest and when asked, had declared our stores, down to the last tomato, usually when you say you have boat stores and provisions  that is enough, not here!!  Having been advised that we had a few 'dodgy' items such as steaks, eggs, mushrooms and apples, we decided to have those for dinner just in case!  Another sticky moment occurred regarding cigars, having admitted to 1 on board we were then asked if it was Cuban.  As I write, John is smoking the evidence having removed and eaten the label!!

The town here is small, as expected but full of charm, with a lively local flavour - there are few tourists here, which is blissful after our recent experiences.  It feels like a lot of the small Spanish towns we visited on our way down the Atlantic coast of Spain in 2010.  Although known by some as a Spanish Virgin Island, Culebra along with it's smaller sister islands of Culebrita and Vieques, has been under US control since 1898.  For a while it was under US Navy Control, who used it for bombing practice until 1975.  In 1911, Roosevelt felt it could also serve a secondary purpose and he designated it a US National Refuge System providing a a sanctuary for indigenous plants and animals.

Which brings me onto iguanas.  On the first day we arrived we were looking for the dinghy dock and I saw one and we headed over - only to be warned off by the enormous iguana standing guard.  They are all over here and are usually about 4 feet long.  We went to a restaurant for lunch yesterday which had signs saying 'don't feed the iguanas'.  I headed to a table with what I thought was a statue of an iguana behind it, but had a rapid change of heart when it moved!!

They day after we arrived we were having lunch with some new friends who were on another British boat in the anchorage when a very familiar boat sailed in - Alan and Sue on Sulana who we had met in Las Palmas in October 2010 who were also preparing to cross the Atlantic with the ARC.

We had heard a rumour of a baseball match at the local stadium yesterday, but having been given 3 different start times, we were getting confused to say the least.  We eventually saw some action but unfortunately it was only a practice - that old problem the language barrier again!! It did seem odd when we arrived to see no team strips and that the bases were made of pizza cartons!!

Tomorrow, Monday, will be our last day here.  Our original plan was to go to Vieques another small island here where you can visit a bioluminescent bay by kayak, and then head back east via the US Virgin Islands as we already have a cruising permit now, but the crew of Sulana were off to Puerto Rico for a few days, and invited us to join them.  We will make a definite plan tomorrow but I think we will be tying the boats up in a marina and heading of by car to see the island and probably staying ashore for a few days.  It is great to meet up with friends on an ad-hoc basis like this - you never know who will turn up in the same anchorage as you.

 You wouldn't park on this guy's dock!!  

 John with the iguana in the restaurant - notice wary look on his face, we thought about putting food on his shoulder to see if it would jump on!

 Local baseball field - the pizza carton bases are unfortunately out of range

 John with Alan & Sue from S\Y 'Sulana'