your turn, birdie: culebra!

i'm going to try to do some catching up on my blogging.

while xander was here we took an overnight trip to culebra. the sister island just north of vieques. it's a smaller island than vieques and has had tourists visit it for longer than vieques. there are only about 3,000 people in culebra. we caught the 6:30 AM ferry out of vieques to fajardo, then caught the 9 am ferry to culebra. it was a verry long ferry ride and if you think about it we probably spent more time on the ferry than in culebra but we had a good time anyway. when we pulled up to the dock in culebra i could see that the shops at the water front were very pretty and i could already tell that culebra was cleaner than vieques and more geared toward tourists.

we got off the ferry and decided to go see if we could go check into our hotel. without any maps or guidance we found the hotel all by ourselves!!! (for the people who know chris and his sense of direction, you should know that this is an achievement!! even with a map he could get lost! :) we were able to check in and get ready for the beach. we then walked back to the ferry dock and caught a publico to flamanco beach. chris and xander were verry excited about going to flamanco beach because it is one of their favorite beaches ever! i was excited to see what they were talking about and see how wonderful the beach was. driving to the beach i realized that there weren't very many locals around and that there wasn't as much cultural influences in culebra as there was in vieques. it made me like vieques even more. we get to the beach and chris and xander tell me to prepare myself and get my camera out. so i got my camera and we walked onto the beach.... chris and xander had the biggest smiles on their faces and my jaw hit the sand. it was beautiful, even more so than they had described.

we picked a nice spot in the sand and set up camp. chris and xander were itching to go in the water and play in the waves, so i stayed with the stuff while they frolicked in the water. they were like kids out there, they were having so much fun!!

then chris and i walked down the beach to where an old tank is on the beach that has been painted and left there for many years. the tank was very cool, all rusted and painted over in contrast to the beautiful white sand and blue water. we took lots of pictures and then went and saw another tank that was up on a hill.

we then walked back to meet back up with xander and chris and i went to play in the waves. they were a little too big for me, i kept falling down. they were kickin' my butt!! (thankfully chris helped keep me upright) but once i got the hang of it i enjoyed myself and i didn't want to get out! : ) chris and xan got back in and played for a little bit longer, and then later we packed up all of our stuff and walked down this path (more like hiked for 20-30 min) to the other side of the point of the island to a more private beach with better snorkeling.

we found a little shady spot and put our blanket down and ate lunch. (i know it doesnt look like shade but i promise if you went back into the trees it was very shady. this picture was taken right before we left.)

then we all got in the water about waist deep and some fish started swimming around us, i was not expecting them to be so close to the shore and they suprised me so i may have screamed a little and flailed and ran out of the water! ; ) chris and xander just laughed at me and everyone on the beach stared. but im ok with it. chris and xander went snorkeling. they snorkeled for a while and came back to see if i wanted to go. xander took me out a little ways and showed me the fish and coral and pointed something out that i thought was an eel and again i got scared and turned back and swam away. on the way back in xander kept on looking for pirate treasure, sad to say we never found any. we all dried off a little bit and packed up our stuff again and walked back to flamanco beach and got a taxi back to the hotel. we then walked around the small town for a little bit and then got ready for dinner and went and ate at mamacitas one of the maybe five restaurants in culebra.

i had the baby back ribs and chris and xander had fish. we had a great meal and then walked back to our hotel which was right next door. we then watched some tv and went to bed in the air conditioned room!! it was wonderful! unfortunately, our bed was covered in plastic so every time we moved it sounded like we were inside of a chip bag. (reminded me of trying to sleep in the philly airport with the emergency blanket! :) we woke up early in the morning, checked out of the hotel and went to eat breakfast at the dingy dock, which looks out to the main harbor in culebra. You eat at a dock -hence the name dingy dock- and these big fish swim up next to you looking for food, along with the fish swimming up next to you, people would come in from the bay by boat and eat.

we then went and waited for the ferry and took the 5 hour ferry ride back home through fajardo and then on to vieques. we had a really great time in culebra and want to go back soon. We have figured out a way to make a day trip to flamanco beach by ferry. we would only have about 3 or 4 hours at the beach and the rest of the day would be spend on the ferry....but for some crazy reason we are willing to do this! :)
here are some more pictures from the trip.

you may be wondering what this is....and yes it is a trashcan and yes i did take this picture for a reason! :) its looks like something out of a dr. seuss book! : ) these trashcans were everywhere by the ferry and i thought they were very cool! (i know my mom will too! )