Culebra – Tacos, cruisers and beaches

March 14, 2014Tourism, UncategorizedCulebra, Flamenco Beach, Melones Beach, Puerto Rico, Spanish Virgin Islands, Zacos Tacos, Zoni BeachDiana

Culebra is a small island that is part of Puerto Rico just east of the mainland. It, and a few other islands, are sometimes called the Spanish Virgin Islands. We had never heard of Culebra until this last summer when our friend Brett who was travelling with us introduced us to some of his friends who had a house there. They made it sound pretty awesome so when we saw it in our path we made sure to stop. We were only going to stay 2 days but the combination of tacos, cruisers and beaches made us reconsider and we were there a week!

The tacos were at Zaco’s Tacos and on our first foray to shore we went there and were hooked. Yum! The place is cute and has a fun vibe and the food is awesome!

We knew before we came in that our friends on Starburst were there and so we dropped the hook right behind them. Unfortunately Matt was up in the states, but we had a blast hanging out with Jo! Starburst had been there for 2 weeks before we got there so that qualified them as locals and Jo was able to show us about town and give us all the good gossip! She also introduced us to several other boats and we had a great dinner aboard Orion one night. Culebra seems to be one of those places where cruisers get stuck and end up staying years, or at least longer than they intended. Everyone was super friendly and happy to share their knowledge on Puerto Rico with us. The community there is great and we had a fun time.

Ryan and Jo at the Dinghy Dock restaurant.

The beaches on Culebra were stunning. And I can say that having been in the Caribbean a while now we know our beaches. 🙂 Flamenco Beach comes up regularly on lists of the prettiest beaches in the world. The sand is so fine that you practically inhale it when the wind is up and the water is gorgeous.

Flamenco Beach:

We rented a golf cart one day and explored the island. We went to a less popular but just as beautiful beach called Zoni Beach.

Around the island:

Zoni Beach:

There is also a really nice snorkel spot at Melones Beach where you can snorkel just from the beach. We had to check that out and enjoyed the views there too.

Melones Beach:

St Croix – Back on US soil!

March 10, 2014Tourismbeer drinking pigs, Christiansted, Fort Christiansvaern, St Croix, US Virgin Islands, USVIDiana

After 2 nights at sea from Dominica we made it to St Croix around noon on a Saturday. It was a nice sail with the wind behind us and we saw all kinds of sea life…. a pod of feeding whales, many dolphins and had a stowaway bird for a few hours!

St Croix was a nice counterpoint to Dominica and it seemed fairly luxurious! First things first on arrival Ryan found out where the nearest Mexican restaurant was. There is a lack of Mexican restaurants in the Caribbean, but St Croix has a few and we got some carnitas and carne asada! Yum!

The next day we explored the downtown of Christiansted which was originally built by the Dutch. The architecture is cool and the town has a nice boardwalk around the front. We found it interesting that there weren’t a lot of cruising boats. In the “visitors” area of the harbor we only saw about 3 different boats in 4 days!

The town also has a really cool yellow fort right on the waterfront downtown. We had a fun time exploring that and since February was National Parks month, it was free! Can’t beat free. 🙂

While hanging out on St Croix we heard about their agriculture fair which is just like a state fair so we went to check it out. It was a typical fair. Lots of animals, grandstands with terrible singers and delicious fair food (unfortunately no fried butter to be had though 🙂 . There was a cool farmers market as part of it too.

Fair booths

The farmers market.

This goat was crazy!

A majestic peacock.

Go 4-H. Where’s the cake booth?

Crazy goat eating another goat’s tail. .

Emu relaxing.

Gobble gobble.

Downtown St Croix has a brew pub. It claims to be the only one in the Caribbean. The beer was good, but the big draw was the hermit crab races! My friend Alice had hermit crabs so I thought I knew something about them and could pick a good one. I named him Stanley for luck, but he lost all his races! So much for being a hermit crab expert!! 🙂

Waiting in their buckets for the race to begin.

And they’re off!

Getting collected for the next race.

It seems like we spent a lot of time on St Croix looking at animals. When we saw that they had beer drinking pigs we couldn’t resist. They only drink non alcoholic beer but it’s still pretty hilarious.

Leaving Puerto Rico with the wind behind us http://t.co/6ciwPv1pfz

First time in a marina in almost two months, she is so getting a bath! http://t.co/g4ZJbOKJDg

Over 3 mountains and through the valley of desolation to the boiling lake

February 14, 2014TourismDominica, Dominica boiling lake hike, PAYS boat guidesDiana

For Kacie’s last day we let her decide what she wanted to do. Kacie wanted to hike! So we asked our PAYS guide Titus what would be a good hike. He recommended that we see “the jewel of Dominica” and do the boiling lake hike. He told us it would take about 6 hours round trip. We said cool sounds good. And scoffed at the idea of 6 hours, thinking that must be the estimate for the average cruise ship passenger, not us young, fit-ish boat folk! Well, it did take 6 hours and we were all in bed by 8pm that night exhausted! LOL…guess they showed us!

So…the hike… First thing we have to wake up at 6am because it’s an hour and a half drive to the trail head. So we drag ourselves up and get going. When we get ashore we meet our guide Francis. Francis is wearing nice jeans, dark black shoes, an Ohio state jacket, a fedora and just finishing a joint. Yup.

Once we reached the trail head it was easy going to start. Then came the steps and the mud!

After the first 2 mountains we reached the valley of desolation. There is active volcanic activity here. Also, Francis painted us up like warriors!

Finally we have reached the boiling lake. Our spirits lagged a bit when we realize we have to go back the way we came! LOL!

A nice stop on the way back was a dip in a hot spring. Ryan and Francis climbed up the waterfall to a second pool!

On our way back. Still smiling! 🙂

And a bonus picture of our guide Francis frolicking among the flowers….

Dominica – The island tour

February 12, 2014TourismDominicaDiana

Since we wanted to see more of Dominica, especially the rain forest we decided to go on an island tour. Our guide for the day was KenG (that’s his stage name) who informed us that besides driving a taxi he was a musician! He sang us a little song about the rasta as we drove around. We drove through a lot of the small villages on the island and a lot of banana farms. Dominica is a beautiful island and definitely an unspoiled gem!

Some pictures from us driving around…

We stopped and tried some local fruit by the side of the road. Best bananas and coconuts I’ve ever tried.

KenG stopped and showed us how the bananas are grown. It takes 7 months to grow a bunch and it’s only one bunch per tree. Once the tree has produced its bunch of bananas it needs to be cut down because it starts to rot. We also saw cocoa trees and pineapples!

KenG being artistic…

Cocoa…it’s tasty to suck on the pods!

Our last stop of the day was to see the waterfall at the Emerald Pool. It was a pretty walk through the forest to the waterfall. I don’t know why they had us wear our swimsuits though since the water was only 3ft deep at the maximum!

Oh and just because Kacie is a crazy WSU Cougar’s fan….GO COUGS!

Dominica – The Caribbean unfiltered

February 10, 2014TourismDominica, PAYS boat guidesDiana

Since we’ve been in the Caribbean we had set our sites on Dominica as the furthest south we would go. We had heard wonderful things about the island: its beauty, how unspoiled it was, the great boat guides system called PAYS. All true!! We were met a mile out by Titus from Eddison’s Guide Service who was very friendly and helpful. We still had our friend Kacie with us so we wanted to make the most of our time in Dominica so we had Titus set us several tours for us. Just as a side note, if you ever want to seem like a stud then sail into Dominica with two ladies on your boat! Ryan got all kinds of comments on how lucky he was and occasionally on how miserable he must be!!

Views of Portsmouth Dominica:

Kacie and Ryan lounging.

The furthest south Ryana will see…

Blue Bay…great place for dinner!

Another awesome sunset…

The first tour we did was to take a ride up the Indian River which is just there in Portsmouth. We were told that some of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean (2 or 3?) was filmed there and that Titus had met Johnny Depp. It’s a peaceful ride as engines are prohibited and Titus rowed us all the way in. At the end is a bush bar where you can grab a cold one before you head back out the river. They also made us these cute birds out of a leaf to take home as a souvenir too! Very nice ride up the river and a nice introduction to Dominica.

The river…

Our friendly guide, Titus.

The most southern island we’ll go to this year; Dominica. . . The Caribbean Unfiltered.

Les Saintes – Touristy Guadeloupe

February 6, 2014TourismFort Napoleon, Guadeloupe, Les SaintesDiana

Les Saintes are a group of Guadeloupe islands just south of the mainland. Everyone who we talked to had great things to say about it so we knew we had to stop. It’s a touristy destination with multiple cruise ships and ferries that come from the mainland every day. It is very picturesque with a lovely little town and nice green mountains. What makes it a really cool place is that you can walk everywhere. There are not a lot of cars on the island so it make walking the streets safe and everyone will walk to the beaches or the Fort on top of the hill. There are also a number of nice restaurants in the town and we had a great dinner out.

View of mainland Guadeloupe on our way to the Saintes.

Beach #1 – They warn you not to swim here because the waves and current are too strong but it is pretty!

Views of the harbor and town.

Fort Napoleon. This is a very well preserved fort with a museum inside and we had fun walking around and looking at the views from here!

Beach #2 – This is the beach they send you to for swimming. It’s well protected and we laid out and swam for awhile.

Out and about! We stumbled upon a dance party at 7pm that when we wandered back after dinner was shut down. I guess they party early here. How un-French like!

Deshaies Guadeloupe

February 5, 2014TourismBotanical Garden, Deshaies, Deshaies River, GuadeloupeDiana

After a great time in Antigua and a fun night out with Te Mana we got up bright and early to head to Guadeloupe. It was only a five hour sail and winds were predicted at 15-20 so we were looking forward to a nice sail. Turns out those predictions were wrong (surprise surprise) and we had winds up to 35 but it was still a nice sail over. Ryan did some fishing and caught a barracuda! And he and Stanley caught up on some sleep!

The harbor in Deshaies was nice and we couldn’t believe how clear the water was. We were anchored in 30ft and could clearly see the bottom! Stanley had fun running around barking at the turtles in the water.

Deshaies has a river that runs through town and we had read about a hike you can do up the river so we went to check it out. The river is pretty but it turns out the hike is through the river climbing over slippery moss covered rocks. Not feeling like breaking an ankle that day we turned around after 20 minutes, but we did enjoy the scenery we saw.

While in Deshaies we picked up our friend Kacie! She flew into Guadeloupe late on a Monday night and luckily was able to get a taxi out to the boat. Lucky because Guadeloupe was having an island wide gas shortage and the buses stopped running, there weren’t rental cars to be found and a lot of the taxis weren’t running either. But she made it! The day after she arrived we went to visit the botanical gardens which are up the hill from Deshaies. A nice stroll through the garden was a good way to start off her visit!