We have found our perfect winter vacation spot....Culebra! The vacationers seem almost as laid back as
the locals: no fancy "resort
wear" or fancy jewelry, mostly shorts and teeshirts and walking sandals,
even for dinner. The homes and
businesses are basic small Caribbean/Mexican/Central American concrete buildings, the area looks
unkempt, the people are helpful and gracious and most speak some English, many
are fluent. The weather is perfect; we wear shorts during the day and usually evening,
unless we're outside in a breeze, in which case I grab sweater. Each
day there has been a shower lasting about 5 minutes, we don't even bother to
look for cover.
Sunrise from our deck. |
Breakfast for us has been: day 1, French toast in a panaderia run by an
American ex-pat, today breakfast in a panaderia that made me an excellent latte
when I asked for café con leche, tomorrow we're breakfasting on a deck over the
ocean where giant tarpin swim up looking for scraps. All meals thus far have been super. My diet starts the instant I'm back in
Minnesota!
There is a U.S. Fish
& Wildlife station on Culebra, which we visited yesterday. They help coordinate a program that uses
volunteers to record giant sea turtles laying eggs. I thought it might be fun
to volunteer....until I found out the volunteer recorders start at 6:30 pm
and stay out until dawn. I'm just too
old for such nonsense. Here are photos
of their office, logo, and one of several boats they use. Culebra is home
to two endangered species of sea turtles (the largest turtles on earth), the
Leather Back and Hawkbill, and two proposed for the list, the Loggerhead and
Green sea turtles.
Yesterday we snorkeled in Tamarindo Bay, and what an
experience! Dave always scouts out the
underwater sights first, and he was excited to see a giant sea turtle feeding
on grass on the bottom. Dave swears he could see the turtle take bites of grass
and chew! Today we went back to
Tamarindo. I snorkeled a bit yesterday,
but got panicky when I saw how far I was from shore, so sent Dave out alone -
with lots of other people around. He saw
20+ sea turtles, manta (or sting) rays, sea urchins, banded jawfish, angel fish,
trumpet fish and other fish we don't know the names of. He was absolutely thrilled with the
snorkeling. We're going back for more
tomorrow. Dave took pics with our
disposable underwater camera, once we get those developed I'll add them to the
blog.
From the road this looks like a hill, but it is a tree covered with vines. |
Most of the homes are in the same pastel rainbow as the
public buildings, very Caribbean looking.
Tomorrow I hope to get a good photo of Flamenco Bay, one of the top 10
beautiful beaches in the world, then I might wrap up photos until we get our
underwater shots.
Mox's favorite picture is the vine-covered hill!
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