St John

On May 1, we left to join Dave and Rene at Cinnamon Bay in St. John for even better snorkeling and beaching.  It is a national park and has cabins and campsites for rent.  There is a small convenience store, restaurant, and small museum.  We saw deer, land crabs and tons of birds including a black hummingbird, which was faster than a speeding camera.

Alegria in Cinnamon

rental cabins

hobie to go

bird watching?

ole blue

just itching to get atcha

bambi

tacos

threading thru the islands

We got up to a beautiful flat sea morning and followed Dave & Rene over to West End, Tortola to check into the BVI’s. 

heading into West End to Customs 

some of the BVI's

just a little TLC and . . .

Christmas Cove

When everyone saw how tired I looked they recommended we go to Christmas Cove and the SE end of St. Thomas.  We snorkeled with sea turtles (got an underwater camera but had the settings wrong),

nothing wrong with her back, it is wave breaking

gossiping over the fence

 ate pizza baked on a floating pizza kitchen, did nothing and then did nothing.  Christmas Cove is a beautiful quiet little mooring field that has very good snorkeling and lots a sea turtles that are not very afraid of snorkelers. They have a floating pizza bar that will even deliver a great pizza in their dinghy.

pizza pi

why the pizza costs $30

  I cleaned the bottom of the boat one afternoon and fish about a foot long swam between my face and the boat, eating the barnacles & algae as I scraped it off.  It was like working in an aquarium.  Many charter boats were bringing tons of tourists for a day of snorkeling and pizza.  

To Culebra and St. Thomas

We left Patillas into the sunrise to give us a great view of the country side and a light house on the east shore. 

I could live here

Lighthouse on eastern shore

 We left right behind a large blue catamaran, (circumnavigators) and they stayed in site till we got to Culebra where they continued on the St. Martin and we tucked in to anchor next to S/V Oden. 

We dinghied to  town for soon to be famous tacos which were very good despite the ground meat looking like what I imagined ground iguana  looks like.  The next day we walked along side the airport then over a steep hill

the airport at Culebra, Encore is just to the right of the pic

& down to a gorgeous beach

I said it was gorgeous

which had a dozen or so vendors selling, you guessed it, God only knows what kinda of meat pies, which again were delicious.  I think I saw where the God only knows meat comes from.

Supper

We pulled anchor and moved on over to St. Thomas 

Sail Rock, just sticking up out of the ocean between Culebra & St Thomas.  Probably has sirens at night!

and joined Carl & Carrie Butler where we anchored in a small mooring field.  A  Cessna 208 on floats had at least two flights per day which really messed up any work I was trying to do cause I had to stop & watch.

208 caravan doing splash & dash

another of the 208

We took Safaris (1 ton trucks that were converted to open air buses that carry about a dozen) shopping and just looking at the island which mostly caters to cruise ship tourists. 

safaris

 We met Jamie and Keith on S/V Kookaburra.  Dave & Rene Herrington, S/V Alegria came over along with Rick & Pam S/V Forever.  We went out to dinner or happy hour on our boats every night for a week, more excitement than I'm used to.  One of the cruise ship terminals was just across the inlet from us and we had to time our crossings when the ships were moving, it took my mighty 4hp a half hour to get across.

Oasis of the Seas

We also got to watch a yacht carrier off load motor yachts & load up with racing monohull sailboats.  Keith and Jamie, both charter captains took us to a lighted water fall and colored fountain display that one of the super rich put on for an hour several nights a week, even though he is not usually in town.  We were in dinghies so I did not have a camera but take my word for it, breathtaking.  They and the Butlers made sure our stay there was awesome and we really, really appreciate them.  (Keith is also a Civil Engineer & Jamie an HVAC Journeywoman and they charter & guide just to make people happy, which they did.

self explanatory

East Coast to San Juan

We left Patillas relatively early heading east up the coast so we could see the El Yunque National Rain Forest Park on the way to take Mary and Taylor to the air port in San Juan.  It was a beautiful drive along the coast but when we got to the park it was full and they were allowing visitors  in only as someone left and would be closing at 11:00am due to the crowds.  We were allowed to drive up to the waterfalls only to be met with a heavy rain shower and could not see,

tree that must be related to crepe myrtle, colors were awesome

a flowering tree that was just everywhere you looked

bamboo growing over roadway

ferns growing with trucks like small trees

more rain forest roadways 

one of the small falls on the way to the large falls we couldn't see

what we think is wild ginger

 so we came back and continued to San Juan, where Carl & Carrie Butler joined us.  We went to Old San Juan, ate at Mojitos

lunch at Mojito's, notice I'm the only one with indigestion!

where once again I had God only knows what, but it was good.  Then we toured the old fort that guarded San Juan, which was an awesome fort.

ramparts overlooking the bay of San Juan

permanent 3 ft. long resident of fort

San Juan Bay from ramparts

There were 8 foot wide tunnels inside the walls connecting all the ramparts.  This was so the soldiers could move about while under attack.

one of many tunnels connecting stations

courtyard in center of fort

the west end of the fort which we did not walk the 1/2 mile to see

another shot of bay guarded by fort

 It was time to head to the airport and we got to see the prettiest site (to me) in PR, the bridge to the airport is lined with USA and PR flags, hope the picture shows the awesomeness.

makes me want to salute

After we dropped Mary and Taylor off at the airport we took Carl & Carrie to the grocery store to provision for their upcoming trip. A lot of stores in PR are multiple storied with parking on the ground floor and elevator to get you out with your purchases.  After dropping them off at the dinghy dock, Sally & I drove back to Patillas.

street in old San Juan

The following two weeks in Patillas were spent being lazy bums.  We wished for wi-fi, slept late,wished for wi-fi, did small boat chores, wished for wi-fi, rented a car to see the north coast we missed earlier, wished for wi-fi, went to eat & happy hour with Don & Janis Furness  and wished for wi-fi.

YOU TALKIN TO ME!

 The trip north was more rain forest and then a 2 hour drive through pot holed, 1 1/2 lane, hair pinned, unmarked mountain road to see the Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope seen in the movies, SETI, Contact & James Bond.  The 20 acre dish is located in a sinkhole several hundred feet deep.  IT WAS CLOSED until October, but no notice of the closure except by the gate guard.  We could not even take pictures except from the road more than a mile away.

the radio telescope tops;  the bottom of the dish is 600 ft below 

neat little waterfall at the curve of the narrow road with no pullout  was really nervous stopping for this

So, we went to the Rio Camuy Caves Park over the same type roads.  It was open and is a very neat cave, great formations inside  well lit and knowledgeable guides.

inside the cavern

 After coming back above ground, we found a credit union where despite two hours of broken spanish vs broken english vs internet, I got some much needed cash since NO ONE sent me any money to my Philippine account, despite how much I pleaded my dire situation.  Thanks bunches!!!

We were overstaying our welcome with the Furness’ so we motored on over to Culebra and anchored in a wonderful bay next to SV Oden, Sally’s Facebook friends and now mine.