Culebra Island, Puerto Rico

January 3, 2018

I looked online before we left for things I'd be interested in seeing. One of them was on Culebra, another island near the main island, so I wasn't quite sure we'd be able to make it or that the others would be up for it was well. Luckily, everyone was okay with making the journey. Our next issue was trying to figure out if we'd be able to take the van to and from the island. We woke up late and barely made it in time but we were able to get a spot for the van on the ferry. We still weren't sure if we'd get one back because you can't book it ahead of time, but we thought we'd take the risk. The port was very close to the Fajardo Inn, which was convenient. The ferry ride from the port to Culebra was about an hour. I tried to take photos on the ferry, but my lens fogged up. I was freaking out that something had actually happened to the camera and was viciously searching the internet for advice on what could have happened. I'm guessing it just fogged up because about 30 minutes later it was fine. Thank goodness.

When we arrived in Culebra we were all hungry because we hadn't eaten breakfast. We decided to eat at a little hostel/restaurant called Mamacitas. The restaurant didn't open until 11, so we had to wait for a little bit, but we took the time to admire the channel and the giant fish inside it. I ordered the shrimp quesadilla, and it was delicious, but it took a while for it to be served. Since we needed to return to the port by 3, we were a little bit behind schedule for hanging out at the beach.

After lunch we headed towards Flamenco Beach. Yeny let us drive with the van doors open so that I could take photos from the van, but I didn't get many because the motion shots didn't come out very well. The abandoned tanks were on Flamenco Beach, but when we arrived we realized they were at the complete opposite end. It took me some time to decide whether I'd have enough time to walk there and back before we needed to leave. Everyone kept encouraging me to just go for it, so Sherlly and I grabbed some waters and took off. We were making great time, but about half way we were stopped by a military man who told us that side of the beach was closed. I was so upset because it was one of the few things I wanted to see. I'm still not sure if it was closed because of the hurricane or some other reason, but it was just my luck that it would happen.

Sherlly and I returned to our beach spot, and despite telling myself I wasn't going to go swimming because of the medication I was on I just decided to go for it, but made sure I applied sunscreen whenever I could. I'm glad I went for it because the waves were so big and the water was so clear. I tried to keep my head dry but we were knocked over by a big wave so I just gave up trying to fight nature. When I say we were knocked down I really mean it. It took a while for me to resurface after one of the waves. It was fun though, and I wasn't mad.

We were able to get a spot for the van on the ferry back. We passed the time by playing a game I used to play with my classes in Russia where we'd think of a movie and the other people would ask yes or no questions to try to guess what the movie was. It actually took up most of the trip, but you could tell we were over it towards the end. Since we weren't staying on Culebra, we drove back to Arecibo which was a couple hours away. We stopped at one restaurant in Mata de Platano because the entire strip had electricity. The food was kind of pricey, but I was able to get a discount because there were tons of bugs that flew into my soup. I hope to god I didn't eat any of the bugs. When we arrived back at Yeny's house we spent the evening talking on the porch until we were all ready to go to sleep.