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| Boquerón harbor |
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| Boquerón beach |
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| Town square |
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| A lovely walk on the beach |
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| Crews of Unicorn, Moosetracks and Penguin |
The next Stop was La Paraguera again a small town with a weekend only clientele although apparently more mature than Boquerón. We walked around town and found ice cream and enjoyed a tub on the boardwalk in downtown. The harbor is protected by mangrove islands with lots of houses nestled in the edges of the mangroves which made it really cute. But as the town was so quiet we moved on again the next day.
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| Cabo Rojo |
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| La Paraguera |
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| Lovely houses |
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| More houses on the water |
The next stop was Gilligans Island which is a national park and it is a very small island with a ferry from the local town to bring visitors. We met a boat we recognized and hailed s/v Taiga after we dropped anchor. Jack and Sherri were really glad we called and invited the other two boats that arrived that day to their boat for sundowners. It was a lovely evening and we really enjoyed meeting s/v Jumbie as well as they are ex-charter captains and now the area really well.
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| Gilligan's island park |
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| The park dock |
The next stop Ponce was purely for provisioning as we knew we could get fuel and water here and there is a large Sams Club and Walmart to buy all our groceries for topping us off to 6 months supplies. We walked into The first mall and bought a SIM card for the cell phone and then walked to Sam's Club and Walmart before getting a taxi back to the boat. It was a long walk and in hindsight we should have caught a cab but we couldn’t find one. The next day we discovered the SIM card didn’t work in our phone so Devin cycled to the Mall and returned the card and got a T-mobile SIM. Devin also cycled to Sam's Club again to buy a Laptop as ours had died and we noticed there was a good deal on them. Well we have to have some fun so the following day we teamed up with Rob & Barbara on s/v Riff Raff and got a taxi into Ponce to see the town. It is a lovely old town and well worth the visit. We had a fantastic day at the Art Museum which was really a great discovery. We also toured the Music museum and the Ponce museum which were free. Sadly the museum for the massacre of Ponce was closed but we spent the time looking around the square with the lovely Fire House, Cathedral and park full of fountains and painted lions. We had drinks on Riff Raff before returning to Moosetracks. A word of caution for captains entering Ponce, the anchorage is deep at 25-30’ and we saw 2 boats drag and one was attached to a mooring ball, so beware of your neighbors and give everyone a little more space.
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| Ponce boardwalk |
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| Ponce beach |
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| Fire house and tourist center |
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| A carnival figure or two? |
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| Painted Lions from the great exhibition of Ponce |
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| Art museum - best statue |
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| Our favorite painting |
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| Ponce cathedral |
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| Guitars at the music museum |
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| Ok take a guess? |
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| One of the more interesting guitars |
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| Art Academy |
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| Locals playing dominoes in the square |
Our next stop was a lovely national park and wildlife sanctuary Isla Caja de Muertos (coffin island), the name comes from an old pirate tail. Apparently a local pirate married a local woman who passed away and he had her interned on the island in a glass fronted coffin. He would visit her frequently and after he passed away the crew thought this was where he buried his treasure. So two crew members returned to the island and found the cave and dug up the treasure, one crew killed the other to keep the treasure and then committed suicide when he discovered the contents was a skeleton. We had a great anchorage as can be seen from the photos. We dingied to the pier and pulled our dinghy onto the beach for a walk to the lighthouse. The walk is on good paths and surrounded by huge cacti which are very impressive. We enjoyed the view from the top of the hill around the lighthouse and particularly knowing Moosetracks was still there! We visited the park offices on our way down and to a bit of time to read the posters of all the local wildlife which are in English and Spanish. The island is a Turtle sanctuary and they close one beach on the east side for nesting turtles only, we actually saw one Loggerhead (or similar) when we sailed across so this seems to be and active area.
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| Now that's huge cacti |
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| The cave where the coffin was kept? |
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| Path to the lighthouse |
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| Lighthouse - one of 14 in PR built by the Spanish |
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| The view - try to find Moosetracks |
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| The posters (museum) of wildlife |
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| Beach at coffin island |
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| Moosetracks resting nicely |
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| The vow of a fisherman - to place the first statue |
The following day we got up really early to make use of the katabatic winds off of Puerto Rico to get a clam sail in favorable winds to Salinas. It worked for the first 2 hours and then the trades picked up, but we had made enough easting and southing to tack back into Salinas at over 7 knots!
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| Salinas harbor |
Salinas is a large harbor enclosed in mangroves and therefore very protected and a great place to leave the boat while we explore a bit more of Puerto Rico. Our first objective however was to track down a great friend Herman Bips and hear his tales of the last year. So we went ashore and walked around to get our bearings, but couldn’t find him. On returning to the marina he was in the car park having been out to buy a bicycle. We enjoyed a beer on Moosetracks and caught up on a years worth of both our travels. The following day we did a shopping run because the local SSCA cruising station host JeanSo at the Sal Pa Dentro bar had offered a ride and there was a few things we couldn’t get at Walmart. It turns out it’s an easy walk to a great grocery store so we got what we needed and some ice cream as well then walked back. When we arrived back we met Maureen and Bill from s/v Kalunamoo and they had rented a car and we mentioned we wanted to do that and quickly decided to tour together the next day to San Juan. That night we went to Taiga as they were in the harbor too and met Joe and Ann on s/v Little Wing and Cassandra & John on s/v Topanga for a great evening.
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| Great friends |
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| Much needed cuddles - Diego |
The following day we took the road trip to San Juan, this is a very historic city and a world heritage site so as we can’t do it justice just google it to see all about the history. We took the tour of the two forts; El Morro & San Cristobal which are absolutely huge and very well maintained by the park service. We also did the walking tour around the walls and had lunch at a local Mexican restaurant which was very nice.
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| Start of the walk around the city wall |
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| First of many fountains |
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| The huge walls |
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| El Morro fort |
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| Inside EL Morro on one of 6 levels |
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| Devin, Maureen & Bill - El Morrow |
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| Battery and harbor entrance - no place to get caught out! |
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| Looking back at town |
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| The lighthouse - El Morro |
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| View to San Cristobal |
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| Ahh... |
We all agreed to tour more the next day and Bill had extended the car hire so we went to the distillery tour in San Juan at Bacardi. It’s amazing they produce 85% of Bacardi here and around 100,000 gallons a day! It was a good tour but not as good as the Scottish distilleries as it it more of an exhibit than actually walking working distillery. Still it was a nice tour in English and the tasting afterwards as you can imagine is very good.
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| The Bacardi bat in reception |
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| The bar in the distillery |
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| Bacardi |
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| The right way to enjoy it |
After the distillery it was on to Arecibo the radio telescope which is the largest in the world as well as being starred in a Bond movie Golden Eye and a subject of a Jimmy Buffet song Fruit Cakes. It is a huge site and full of facts and with a great deal of awards including Nobel prices for a guy called Taylor and one called Hewish! It a great stop and well worth the trip up winding roads to find it, so look here to read about it Arecibo.
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| Arecibo antenna - the worlds largest |
We then took the road back to Salinas, boy what a eye opener, we’re not sure our photos can do justice to the country side here but it is full of hills and mountains and deep valleys with stunning sights around every corner. It was definitely worth taking the back roads just to see the switch backs and vistas of such a wonderful island.
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| Cattle farm |
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| The stunning haystack hills everywhere here |
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| Road side foliage |
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| Stunning rock formations |
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| Bamboo goes in huge size along all the roads |
Well that brings us up to date ands today we relaxed and had a rest for the morning, if you call changing the furling line (chaff again) and Liz doing the washing by hand a rest. Well that for us is almost a full day in itself! So here we are relaxing in Sal Pa Dentro with a cold beer and enjoying good company and free internet.
We hope your having a great time and we send our love to fellow travelers Terry & Alma touring the far east by Air who had to return to the US for recuperation.
