The Latin islands
Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Cuba
18:20.6N 65:38.2W
BVIs continued
First,
more photos of the BVIs, courtesy of Peter and Jean:
A visitor from Anagada
Another port – another bar. Anagada
Another port – another bar. Bitter End Yacht Club, Virgin
Gorda
Jean – One pinacolada is never enough
The anchorage, Anagada
Lucy with host of sergeant-major fish
Lobster dinner – Anagada
Do you notice a trend in these photos? Stocking up before
Cuba
And Lucy can hold her own with anyone’s appetite
Puerto Rico
We
set of from Tortola on a grey wet day towards Culebra, one of the Spanish
Virgin Islands and part of Puerto Rico. What a
difference from the US or British Virgin Islands – hardly a yacht to be seen
and on arrival in Culebra a very obvious latin atmosphere and a run-down little
port containing one bar! We cleared into Puerto Rico (and thus into USA),
obtaining our cruising permit form the one customs official on the island based
at the airport (landing strip would be a more accurate description). We have
been told by several people since that Culebra is a beautiful island.
Unfortunately for our entire stay it poured with rain and we could barely see
across the harbour.
After
two nights in Culebra we sailed on to Puerto Rico
proper stopping for lunch at a tiny desert island called Paleminitos. After
wending our way through a very narrow entrance in the surrounding reef we
dropped anchor in crystal clear water about 50 yds from the island. Peter and
Jean swam ashore and walked right round the island in 5 minutes! I took the
opportunity to clean the bottom of the boat which was beginning to grow a nice
little colony of barnacles.
Our own deserted island, Paliminitos
We
motored the remaining few miles to Fajardo on ‘mainland’ Puerto Rico and took the one place available to visiting
boats in a scrappy, dirty marina. Its only redeeming feature was the colony of
huge iguanas living in trees just across the water from our berth. They are
truly ugly creatures that have reached plague numbers in Puerto
Rico.
Puerto Rican iguana – and this is a small one!
Next
day we hired a car to visit the Yunkee
National Park and area of
unspoilt rainforest reaching the highest point on the island. We had a
wonderful day hiking along the various trails, marred only by the bus loads of
fat American tourists, who fortunately, didn’t walk too far from their
coach.
Yunkee rain forest
Yes, we climbed up there
The ‘firework’ tree
Jean
and Peter had to fly back next day from San
Juan so an interesting drive into the capital to drop
them off, and an even more interesting search for the UPS offices to pick up
our long awaited parts for our wind instruments, took all day.
Enough
of Fajardo, we had to get a move on towards Cuba to pick up our next guests. A
stop overnight at Playa Salinas, home of many manatee (but we didn’t see
any!) was followed by a day in Ponce
(pronounced Ponsey). We berthed at the rather smart Ponce Yacht Club and fully
intended to stay a couple of days, but the berth was so uncomfortable with the
surge entering the harbour that after one night we set off for the Dominican Republic.
With
the exception of the Yunkee rain forest we were singularly unimpressed with Puerto Rico. The latin/american mix produced a nation of
surly fat people. The country was unkempt and uninteresting and we were glad to
leave.