Month: May 2010

Caja del Muertos

bearcruzer

May 2nd,2010

Michael and I pulled up anchor and followed the fishing boats out of the harbor and east 7 miles to Caja del Muertos, Coffin Island.    It is also a favored spot for families to take a ferry on the weekends and hang out in the water along the beaches.     We arrived at the same time as the ferry from the mainland and found a mooring near the ferry dock just off the beach in about 8 feet of water.    It was a coast guard post that is now a nature reserve.    There is a lighthouse on the top of the island that was built by the Spanish in 1887.   We watched a small local sailboat come into the anchorage and drop sail and anchor in one smooth movement,  stern to the beach,  opposite the wind.  Within minutes a BBQ off the back end of the boat was fired up and the men aboard were dropping fishing lines into the water and catching fish for the grill.  It wasn’t just confidence that they would catch fish….they had a system.  One man would swim around the boat with a mask and snorkel and then tell the guy with the pole where to drop the bait.  If that wasn’t impressive enough, we then watched as he came up with a fish in his bare hands.    Wow!   Since we are only staying one day we opted to leave Mighty Mouse on the davits and swam to shore to explore.   We hiked the trail up to the lighthouse encountering many drought resistant plants and organ pipe cactus that was prolific and up to 30ft tall.   Iguanas and Lizards scurried beneath the scrub and cacti.   We found a monument that was erected by the Masons who used the island in the 1800’s for their clandestine meetings when the Spanish had forbid them to meet openly.     The lighthouse was closed and locked so we explored around the grounds and took pictures from the observation platform back down at DD.    Frigates and Pelicans rode the thermals around the Island and after our hike we sat in the shade and watched their aerobatics.   We swam back to DD and at 3:30 the Ferry took their passengers back to the mainland and the other families on small boats who had come for the day also returned home.    By 5:00pm Dancing Dolphin had the Island to herself.

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Touring Old Town Ponce

bearcruzer

May 1, 2010

The fishing boats headed out to begin the competition around 8:00am.   Michael and I got out the Bicycles and spent the day riding around Ponce.   We rode a couple of miles to the Plaza del Caribe Mall and found ourselves strolling in air conditioned abundance.   This was a typical American mall scene with masses of people everywhere and lines of people spilling from the banks located in the mall and then later at the check-out counters of the many stores.   You wouldn’t know there was a recession if you visited this mall.   Of course it is the 1st of the month and a Saturday so maybe it was more crowded than usual.  It felt strange and a bit overwhelming to the senses being surrounded by so much and so many after traveling in towns and countries with so little.  After cooling down at the mall we continued our ride into the heart of old town Ponce riding among and photographing the beautiful old buildings.    I had put my basket on my bike and we had brought the backpack so we stopped at a couple of stores and picked up a few items from our provisioning list.   When we got back to the boat, David and Trudie invited us to Persephone for Mojitos.    The sun was setting and we watched as the large sport fishing boats returned to the club a few sporting Marlin flags to signal that they had a successful day.   The Yacht and Fishing Club music and festivities continued that evening and well into the night.    It was surprising to see some of the some of the crew of the fishing yachts up so early the next morning  after partying so late the night before but up they were and on their way by 8:00am again the next day.

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Ponce, PR

bearcruzer

April 30th, 2010

We left the anchorage at Guilligans Island in the dark and traveled to Ponce, the 2nd largest city in PR.  We passed S/V Sanctuary and S/V Just Imagine leaving the harbor as we were entering.   They have been a few days ahead of us since Luperon  in the DR and we have been gaining on them steadily.   Ponce is very much an industrial port.  We anchored off of the Ponce Yacht and Fishing Club.   They discourage any use of their facilities by thrifty cruisers by charging $10.00 per person to tie up there or for any service including asking directions or answering questions.     There is a public boardwalk along one side of the bay with numerous food kiosks, little bars, and music.   It gets very busy in the evenings as it is a favored place for people to gather.   This particular weekend was even busier as the Yacht Club was hosting a Marlin Fishing tournament and had music and activities for the members and their families including climbing walls and inflatables for the children along with bumper cars and a mechanical bull pit.   Friday night music blared from both the boardwalk and the Yacht club both competing to be the loudest.    Many of the huge multi-million dollar fishing boats were decorated that evening with flags and lights and we found we had a front row seat for their boat parade.   The boats would circle our boat and then pull up in between us and the fuel dock in front of the judges and spin 360’s and then get as close to the dock without touching before circling our boat again and moving on.   This went on for about 2 hours…..Michael had retired before the start of the parade and so I was left to enjoy the festivities and music from the cockpit alone.     It was quite the party and continued well into the evening!

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Guilligans Island

bearcruzer

April 29th, 2010

We left La Parguera and traveled east to an anchorage next to what is called Guilligans Island by locals after the 1970’s TV show.  I guess there used to be a local fisherman that looked a lot like the main character Bob Denver and the Island has a shallow bay where people come to lounge in the water sipping cool drinks.  They really understand how to beat the heat…..just don’t get out of the water.   The island has been equipped by the local parks service with picnic tables and brick BBQ’s for the enjoyment of visitors that bring their coolers and take the ¼ mile ferry ride over to the little Island on the weekends.     Mike and I traveled over to the Ferry dock and did a walk down the beach on the mainland side.   At the dock we were met by a black cat that kept crossing our path so we tempted fate and visited with him a few minutes.   We came upon Copamarina All Inclusive Resort and toured their beautifully manicured grounds.   We walked along the shore to the public beach where families were enjoying the beautiful weather and cool water.    We took Mighty Mouse over to Guilligans Island humming the theme song from the TV show and walked the couple of trails we found through the mangroves.   Supposedly a slave woman had escaped at one time and had swum over to the island and lived there undiscovered for many years.   It was hard for us to imagine anyone living on this Island with its tangle of mangroves and lack of fresh water.

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La Parguera

bearcruzer

April 27th & 28th, 2010

We left the bustle that is Boqueron at Sunrise and made our way around Cabo Rojo to the Little Town of La Parguera.    S/V Persephone had left the day before and found the town to be virtually closed down.   It had once been a place where, like Boqueron, college students would congregate on the weekends.    The residents of the town did not like many of the problems that came with hosting throngs of out of town partiers every weekend and so the town began instituting and the local police began enforcing a number of ordinances.  The hefty fines imposed produced the intended results and drove the party goers back to Boqueron.   We arrived to find a handful of souvenir kiosks and a couple of restaurants with just a few local people in them.   There were other restaurants and Bars along the main coastal road but none looked to be in business.    We walked around and looked for what was listed in the guidebooks as the local Mall where there was supposed to be a large grocery store and a post office.   We found the Mall with everything, including the Post Office, closed down completely and permanently.  We also asked where we might be able to purchase fuel and were told we had to go to the next town as the gas station has also closed down.    Like I said they got rid of all the undesirable behaviors including the annoyance of having to make a living.    That said it is a quaint and quiet little town with a small local convenience store where we picked up a few supplies.  The harbor is protected by a number of reefs that we had to navigate before we anchored just off the main ferry dock.   As soon as we dropped anchor we had a guest come aboard.  He was a Caribbean Martin and he thought the cavity in our boom looked like it might be a place to check out for nesting.   He came by to check out the boat 3 or 4 times and was kind enough to pose briefly for a photo before deciding that maybe nesting in a moving boat wasn’t the best place.    We along with our friends David and Trudie,  took the dinks out to explore.  There are many cute bungalows built on stilts over the water and painted bright colors.   We rode over to what is known as the 2nd Brightest Phosphorescent Bay in the world and explored the mangroves that surrounded it.  The roots of the mangroves are covered with oysters and Pelicans and other birds were abundant.  That evening we returned to the bay to see the phosphorescence.    The bay is best experienced on a new moon and we had arrived at the Full Moon but were still able to see the pale blue glow stirred up by the prop on the dingy motor as we did doughnuts in the calm waters.   The sky was dotted with just a few clouds that we kept hoping would cross the moon so we could see the phosphorescence a little better.   The evening breeze was just slightly cooler than the warm water that surrounded us and the experience was one of peace and quiet beauty.    A lovely evening to say the least!    We spent the better part of the next day swimming, fishing and exploring some of the reefs before a brief squall that loomed on the horizon drove us back to our boats.   Mike hung the Sunshade I had made for the cockpit and we had David and Trudie over for Nachos and a couple of Pina Coladas while we watched the sunset.

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