Tropical Islands, along the beach in Puerto Rico.
Mind you the camera sometimes lies, in practice the beaches of Donegal can be better, though it is a bit warmer in Puerto Rico.
After a very brief visit to the Caicos island, where Eileen, Colin and I take a dive with a dive centre ($165 for a 2 tank boat trip each!) we head on to Puerto Rico.
In the last blog we were diving San Salvador in the Bahamas and we depart there for a 3 days at sea passage to the Turks and Caicos, we stop in Turtle Cove marina, deep inside the reefs of Providentiales, the North-most island, Usually called Provo, not a name I like.
We arrive at the reef and radio for a (free) pilot boat to guide us through the 2 mile tortuous passage, in practice if you obey the red and green and stay in the exact middle in the tricky bits you have at least one or two feet under your keel.
Then the entrance into the marina is a twisty S bend - keep to the outside of bends and all is fine. We tie up, go ashore and have a beer, find a dive centre (Provo Turtle dives) and book a double tank dive for the next morning.
The Dive boat has a dozen divers or so and we get the last three places, there is a couple staying at a resort which costs 8k per week and a group of 6 guys using Nitrox which is oxygen enriched air that cures hangovers.... no not really ... it allows longer dive times and they use it because they are probably diving three times a day. (But it does reduce hangovers too)
The dive is very good, outstanding but not as good as San Salvador in the Bahamas - the wall has that gorgeous blue colour of the Deeps. We see turtles, sharks and quite a few crayfish (which are universally called "crabs" here) no lifting allowed so we don't get to eat them.... Our first dive is a wall dive and our second an hour later is a 40-50 foot coral dive. A fair few fish, and good variety - I like the blue ones myself... but the gold ones and the black ones are nice too. Fascinating to watch them with their different personalities coming out - the possessive ones, the aggressive ones that come at you and then feint. The ultra timid ones and the inquisitive but cautious ones. All life is here I could watch them for ages...
I overhear one of the couples describe how their hire car was broken into. That along with the high population density, the factory warehousing, the power station and the car density reminds me that "civilisation" comes with costs.
I must confess, my camera has broken and I have little picture records of the Caicos - try goggle earth and walk along the streets using streetview - virtual tourism!
Here is half of the reef
And again, thank God for chart plotters
And then into the marina - yes the water is that colour, that's our pilot boat ahead of us.
And then onto Puerto Rico. Well, technically we head due East directly into light winds for 200 miles and then as the wind picks up we turn right - switch to port tack for 250 miles which has us heading for San Juan on the North coast of Puerto Rico and sometimes heading for the Western extremity of PR and sometimes we are pointing at the Dominican Republic, a place I am not that keen to visit (see earlier blogs) - and Eileen and Colin have flights to catch from San Juan. Puerto Rico is less than 100 by 40 miles and has a lot of people - 3.8 Million. All American citizens, although they can't vote in the American elections, well, they can vote in the primaries but not for the actual president. Which presumably is why Mr T ignores them.
In the end we (just) make PR - the "city" of Mayaguez on the West coast (I am much relieved). It is the number two city in PR and we can clear in there. We phoned CBP (Customs Border Protection) on the Sunday and after passing all manner of data over the phone we were told we couldn't clear in on Sunday and would have to stay on board and present ourselves to the Customs office on Monday morning. I then asked if I could continue on to Ponce and clear in there but no... So a day wasted and we headed in to customs in the morning. Having walked the wrong way for 30 minutes (Google Earths search facility was wrong) we eventually got cleared in and lifted anchor by 11 a.m. Mayaguez has many small flat roof houses fairly poor looking, but they do have new, nice big cars outside. A lot of litter, rubbish and dereliction. Maybe a consequence of living in a hurricane zone is that you invest in cars to make a quick getaway and don't put your money in your (semi)permanent possessions. The houses have an interesting layout - the basic house is very small but there is a L shaped wraparound porch (roof with no walls bar a few pillars. The spaces are filled with lots of wrought iron gratings for security and I guess the heat makes most people spend the bulk of their time in the "porches" I see sofas, televisions in one part and washing machines, dryers, freezers and cars in the other side of the "L" Cheaper than air conditioning!.
Puerto Rico is a rectangle. We get around the corner from the West coast to the South Coast and motor directly into the wind to an anchorage in Guanica at 9 pm, a mere 15 miles from Ponce but we resolved to have a good nights sleep and leave at 6 a.m. for an easy daylight entry into Ponce. A good tactic.
There are incessant Easterly trade winds blowing at this time of year and this is making travel East very uncomfortable. I have a book on "Thorn-less passages through the Caribbean" that suggests travelling on the South coast of the islands at night or for three hours in the morning from 6 am to 9 am before the winds arrive - the katabatic winds from the mountains push the trade winds out 2 to 5 miles and then you get calms.
We discover there is no public transport in PR - everyone has a car and we will have to hire a car to get to the airport (I think I hire cars on 4 occasions here in the following weeks). Ponce is the last big town on the South coast and hiring cars from the marina is easy here.
Ponce has a marina which can arrange hire car pickup. Unfortunately it is very far from the town ( a couple of miles) and is beside a lively boardwalk of Cafe/restaurant/bars that are very popular with the locals. Three of these bars belt out music up to midnight some nights and this makes sleep very difficult. Live bands and Karaoke are not good bedfellows. The boardwalk was damaged in Hurricane Irma 18 months ago and remains closed - all the cafes had to rotate 180 and put their tables and stalls onto the street, the carpark side of their buildings. PR is generally considered almost bankrupt and certainly we saw a lot of things that needed money spent. A pity as there was good infrastructure 20 years ago. Big road systems, out of town shopping plazas (Macdonalds, Subway, BurgerKing, Wendy etc., - Sears, Walmart, Kmart, JC Penneys, Home Depot) Many of the towns and residential areas themselves had some old historic buildings and many, many low cost single storey, flat roof small houses. In Ponce, some had big new cars, many did not, I did cycle through a few very poor areas to get to the Walmart, which had flash cars in the carparks.
The marina, docks are swelly and rope creaking, The yachtclub does have two pools, tennis courts, playgrounds as well as a bar and restaurant. (And showers and laundry) Unfortunately visitors can't use the pools or tennis courts. $60 a night or $205 a week for a 41 footer. Anchoring here is free but the yacht club no longer allow access to dinghy docks or any facilities for those that anchor - they used to charge $10 a day, no idea why they stopped. Strange decision.
If not karaoke, then line? dancing, with very loud music
There is a public dinghy dock which is not very secure, at one stage I lend the back of Shadowmere to a dutch couple Koen and Yvonne who leave their dinghy with me for two days when they explore PR. I borrow one of their bikes while they are away - my own bike had rusted to death. ten years for a £130 folder from Compass wasn't bad - I had donated it to Brunswick marina and wrote on it "free to use"
After a week of repairing the boat and getting a few jobs done I eagerly await Shirley flying in. I hire a car and drive for an hour and a half to San Juan. Over the mountains from the South coast to the North. Shirley's flight arrives at 5 in the morning but I go early and sleep for an hour or two at the luggage reclaim area, we have a successful rendezvous!
The marina dock has a little cluster of mangroves within which nest 30 or 40 egrets. I decide to henceforth describe them as eejits as befits my Northern Irish heritage. The bushes also host several pelicans and a few green parrots. (not pirates, although with our accent you can't be sure just listening to us). Shirley and I take Shadowmere out to a nearby island the next morning (6am to 9am is fairly calm) The island is the "Isla de Casa de Muertos" - the island of coffins (boxes of death) - not very promising but it is an American National Park - the National parks service of America is a brilliant institution. I hope no eejit attempts to dismantle it - as I write this there is an eejit who has blocked the park ranger's salaries.
Sunrise over the island of death - light triumphs over darkness (again)
The undergrowth is overgrown on the island - venturing a foot off the rough path to the lighthouse is impossible
The lighthouse (on the right)
In case of Tsunami, run up the hill. (these signs are everywhere - PR has earthquakes - the sea northwest of PR is 25,000 feet deep - it meets the Mona Passage between DR and PR where we travelled - a pussycat when we were there but as it is 500 feet deep it can be interesting in Northers)
Snakes!
The view from the top - rough on the North East, calm on the South West, the moorings are on the South West.
We stay two nights, always nice to have breakfast in the sunshine
Shirley likes flowers! I doubt if these are out in the open back home.
Nature prevails, plants will grow on rock
Watch where you sit.
Landing on the island. Captain McCrum claims it using Captain Morgan's hat
After snorkelling we lubricate
And watch the sunset while drinking sundowners
I have seen a green flash three times in my life, twice of the west of Ireland and once in the Norwegian sea. I hope to see it here. Not this time though. (google the green flash for details...)
The night sky is superb here
I discover a selfie stick I bought in Poundstore in Connswater a long time ago (for a pound)
Like a lot of my dolphin photographs. here is a turtle shot. Shirley is pointing where we saw a lovely (but timid) turtle
And back to the boat for Christmas - I had put up Xmas lights of course
And shirley had added these
We had hired a car for a week to explore PR. We got this one for the price of a small car as it was all the sixth hire car we phoned had left - Xmas week is a bit busy. I suspect a lot of PR people come home from the states and hire cars (there are more Puerto Ricons in the states than live in Puerto Rico)
We drive West and visit a lovely old town (a bit quiet on a sunday - apart from inside the church) and then down to a beach resort which is a bit exclusive, we walk through it and use one of their props
Luckily it is beside another national park/beach - we swim - a bit mangrovey (poor vis) but warm!
Shirley bought these chairs in Baltimore - I am shipping them to Ireland (somehow)
They do work well
We discover a really quirky cafe/bar/restaurant further down the coast with a ferry to Gilligan's island
Good cocktails
Well painted jetty
smiley face
Flower pots on a jetty, what's not to like.
We also visit the old centre of Ponce (or center as American english would have us believe)
One of the squares has Christmas decorations made by local school children.
My hand is on the tree... honest
There are some lovely old restored buildings.
Including an original fire station
There is ice cream, (All Americans seem to like Ice Cream)
Christmas morning arrives and we celebrate as normal with Champagne and Orange Juice
There are presents!
And flies are sacrificed (thanks for the swot, Eileen, it really really works!)
Man cooking scrambled eggs in new shirt
And served with salmon - only missing wheaten bread to be like home.
We drive the "Route Panaramique" Steep (everywhere) and high
And good vegetation (there is an honest to God rain forest (National Park) at the East end of the island that we hope to visit in March.
But the roads are absolutely incredible - in a bad way. I suppose Hurricane downpours down steep mountain sides are tricky
And of course houses everywhere.
