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To celebrate our being recently married, Thomas and I are flying to Isla Culebra, translation "Snake Island". Here we are during a layover in Ft. Lauderdale, enjoying airport wine and discussing all the snakes we'll soon see.
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Culebra is situated 17 miles east of mainland Puerto Rico, so our trip is bookended by two nights in San Juan. Here's Old San Juan on a Monday night. Please take note of how quiet it is. When we return, it will be Saturday and things will be different.
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Unlike Austin and other nouveau American cities, Old San Juan's hotels all seem to be walk-ups. (We're on floor 3, so it's no big deal.)
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The next morning we fly to Culebra on this contraption. It seats 8 passengers and is basically a flying bus, but the views are spectacular.
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I suspect our hotel is the best of Culebra's lodgings as it has a lovely back patio overlooking the canal...
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The canal. Mamacita's next door is, of course, on the same canal. However, their portion is taken up by a busy restuarant, whereas ours was deserted during most of our stay.
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More of downtown. We're walking to the ferry dock, were the taxi-buses wait to take tourists to the beach.
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Things you can't do on the taxi-bus. I'm confused by the double negative here. No non-smoking?
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Three bucks per person will get you to Playa Flamenco in the north, Culebra's most celebrated beach. As you can see, it's also the most crowded beach on the island.
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We walked back to town from Flamenco, which was probably just under an hour. In the noonday sun, it would be been a chore. But by early evening it's a fine stroll and you get to take pictures in front of this awesome fish mural.
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Today we go to Playa Tamarindo for snorkeling. On the surface, it's the least spectacular beach we saw, but in the water there are fish and coral and TURTLES!
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Chicken of the sea. What Culebra lacks in snakes it makes up for in chickens, so you occasionally see juxtapositions like this.
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And now we walk from Tamarindo to Flamenco (maybe 30 minutes?) for an afternoon swim. That's the lagoon at the bottom of the road and the ocean beyond that.
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If you turn left at the water and walk along the shore, you eventually come to Culebra's most photographed object: this graffiti-covered tank, a remnant of the island's military-beleaguered past.
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Punta Soldado is at the southern tip of the island, so we just cross this bridge (adjacent to our hotel) and follow the one road available.
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Stopping to for a vista break along the way. It's not a long ride, but there are some steep hills.
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There weren't any turtles here, but the coral was more diverse and the weather was perfect.
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Sunset over Playa Melones. It's the only beach in walking distance from "town" (though we biked) but we only saw it at dusk, so I have no idea how it looks in daylight. Possibly swarming with sea monsters.
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Dinner at El Eden, recommended by both Guide Book and the electrician guy on our flight. Here we experienced the only good glass of wine we would find on Culebra as well as some delicious food.
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Day 4: More snorkeling! This time at Playa Carlos Rosario. You can hike here from Playa Flamenco, just walk right past the "DANGER: LIVE BOMBS" sign/gate in the parking lot and follow the trail.
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By this point I'm an expert (enough) snorkeler, though this is a really easy beach to snorkel from. You enter through the clear part and just swim toward the coral all around.
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Thomas can't be trusted to correctly apply sunscreen (as evidenced by a nasty burn incurred at Tamarindo) so we got him this UV protective swimmy shirt with in Culebra colors.
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Back at the Playa Flamenco food trailers (like I said, Flamenco is the most touristed of Culebra's beaches). Believe it or not, one of these trailers had the only decent beer on the island, the "kofresi" from San Juan's Old Harbor Brewery.
