The island
of Culebra is around 20 miles east of Puerto Rico and was around 40 miles sail from the BVIs.
We had a lovely downwind sail, we hardly had to touch the sails as we whizzed
along admiring the US virgins islands which we passed to our North, this area
is littered with small islands which we to weave around, shame we never visited
the US islands but just don’t have time to do everything.
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| Amanda relaxing |
The entrance to the harbour was a little tricky carefully manoeuvring between the reefs but it is clearly marked and you could see the reef above the water in places.
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Approaching Culebra
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| Mark at the helm |
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| Reef one side |
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| Reef the other side |
The majority of visitors on
Culebra are Americans who are either staying on the island or taken a day trip
from Puerto Rico. It is a strange mix of locals who are made up
of the Spanish speaking locals and the Americans who have decided to make this
chilled out island their home.
First stop for us was the airport
to check in and our first encounter with US Homelands and they we very nice and
helpful. We also visited the Dingy Dock
bar for happy hour, lots of English locals and yachties having a cheap beer or
yet another variety of rum punch.
Next day we walked to Flamenco
beach, the guide books and locals will tell you this has been voted one of the
best beaches in the world, funny some say 2nd some say 5th
and it was very pretty with stunning clear water. We were desperate for a dip after a hot walk!
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| Flamenco beach |
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| Amanda relaxing |
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| Mark relaxing |
Next day we went diving with Dive
Culebra and the dive school was as laid back as the rest of the island. The boat had seen better days and we had a
very wet ride out to Isla Culbrita, with the couple who ran the dive school, a
couple who were just getting a lift to the island and a couple who were
snorkelling off the boat. There was
little in terms of dive briefing or safety checks, we were kitted and in before
we knew it. We did 2 dives from the boat
in the same location, what really made the dive for us was seeing a couple of
Eagle Rays, one which was no more than 5 foot away from us, we saw a big turtle
sleep and a shark sucker which we had
never seen before which took a dislike to Amanda. It was a cheap diving option
but not the best!
It would have been nice to have
had a few more days to see some more of Culebra as it was very undeveloped and
generally the people seemed very friendly but next day we were off to Puerto Rico.
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| Sunset at Culebra |
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