HASTA LA VISTA, BABY

Culebra, Puerto Rico

(July 28^th, 2011)

Here we were, camping on a beautiful beach on the gorgeous island of Culebra. We had watched a lovely sunset the night before, followed by an awesome lightning storm off in the distance, but what I wanted to see most of all was the sunrise. It’s my favorite part of vacationing on a beach—my butt is always out of bed well before sunrise so I can capture every moment.

It was very important to me to catch the sunrise, but I had the roughest night sleep, tossing and turning in the tent. When the sky began to lighten about two hours before sunrise, I kept checking the time to see how close it was to the official sunrise and contemplated getting up and sitting on the beach to wait it out, but then I found the most comfortable position of the whole night and promptly passed out.

Remember those wild roosters roaming our campsite the day before? Well, let me tell you something about roosters—they truly are nature’s alarm clock. Lord, have mercy. Those little suckers were LOUD. Luckily, they were loud enough to penetrate my sleeping brain and wake me up.

I woke up in a panic, thinking I had missed the sunrise, grabbed my camera, and ran to the beach. No sooner had I sat down on the sand than the sun started peeking over the hill in the distance. It was absolutely stunning. The distant sky was filled with clouds that kept capturing the sun’s rays in various shades of oranges, yellows, pinks, and purples, so the sky was exploding with color. And the most amazing part of the experience was the fact that I was pretty much alone on the whole beach. One of my campsite neighbors came out and sat nearby for a while as she ate her breakfast, but for the most part it was just the sea and me.

I took a really nice stroll down the beach and then decided it was too beautiful not to go for a swim. The water was deliciously warm, and with the lack of people around so early in the morning, I felt it was the perfect opportunity for a skinny dip. I had been in my swimsuit for over twenty-four hours, having been in it the entire previous day and sleeping in it that night, so it was luxurious to give my skin a break from it for a while. 

My friends started waking up, and after they relaxed on the beach for a while and took a look through my sunrise photos, we walked back to the main campground to get some breakfast. I made the mistake of getting a bagel with cream cheese. Being a New Yorker, I am very rarely satisfied with a bagel made outside New York, and I knew better, but I ordered it anyways and was quite disappointed. Oh well.

We headed back to our campsite, grabbed our snorkeling gear, and headed out to the reef. Miriam and Laura swam on ahead of me as I wrestled with one of my flippers, and when I finally started catching up to them, they both turned around and high-tailed it back to me. Apparently, they had gotten close to an eel that was hiding in a small alcove of the reef, which excited and terrified them, sending them swimming away from the eel in fear and towards me with the thrill of their story. We attempted to find the eel again, but, alas, it had disappeared.

The deep red, spiky balls are sea urchins

Me in my snorkeling gear under water

Once we got back to shore we relaxed on the beach to soak up the sun. It was really cloudy, as another storm was attempting to roll through, which made all the blues around us pop. It was gorgeous. And off in the distance we actually witnessed a rain cloud passing over the water. It was crazy to see blue sky with one low rain cloud breaking through it, pouring rain. I’ve never seen anything like it!

The rain storm amidst the blue sky

We decided the day before that we wanted to fly back to the main island instead of taking the ferry, since the flight left later than the ferry, and our car was already parked at the airport, meaning we would all have to pay a cab to take us from the ferry dock to the airport. More time luxuriating on the beach? It was a done deal, right there.  So as the afternoon came around and the storm clouds got closer, we decided to pack up, and pack up in a hurry. The first drops of rain were coming down, and we wanted to get the tents taken down before they got soaked through. 

Right as we finished up the rain started coming down more steadily, so we sought shelter at a nearby picnic area. Once we got under cover, the skies really opened up, and the downpour began. We all huddled together with the other people who were also trying to stay dry, as the wind and rain tried their best to reach us.

Another Sherman tank located by our rain shelter

Rick decided to have a little fun while we waited for the weather to calm and grabbed one of the coconuts that were lying around on the ground, chopping off the top with his hunting knife, so that we all could try fresh coconut water. I’m not the biggest fan of coconut water, but who could pass up drinking directly from a coconut after watching a guy hatchet it open? It was exactly like the coconut water I’ve had from the grocery stores, but for some reason it felt a little more exotic...

Rick busting open the coconut

The rain didn’t look to be stopping any time soon, so we decided we were just going to have to brave it. We left the campground and, thankfully, there was a shuttle bus waiting to take people to the airport and ferry terminals. Yay!

We got to the airport with plenty of time and found out our flight would be delayed because of a medical emergency—someone had fallen ill and needed to be flown back to the main island to get to the hospital, and they would be using our plane to do so. So we got comfortable and had a bite to eat from the little eatery inside the airport.

Once it was time to load the plane we discovered we would be sharing the flight with another couple. How does an airline fit seven passengers on a six-passenger plane? By making Laura the co-pilot, of course!

Laura's perspective during the flight

Laura was given the empty seat right next to the pilot, and she was petrified! She said her nerves calmed down almost as soon as we took off, though, since she had a perfect view of everything the pilot was doing. The flight back was not as scenic as the flight the day before, mainly because the sky was so overcast that it muted the colors below us, but it was just as uneventful as the day before, which I was thankful for.

We loaded up the car and started back to San Juan, planning on having plenty of time to get back to Laura’s house, take showers, and grab some dinner before I had to get to the airport and they had to get to Laura’s movie premiere. What we didn’t count on was the tropical storm that was causing floods, shutting down roads, and slowing traffic to a near standstill. It took us a bit longer than we anticipated getting back to San Juan.

Laura’s mother was sweet enough to prepare dinner for us, so while we all took turns jumping in the shower, we would sit down with a plate of delicious food. Then it was time to pack up the car once again and hit the road.

Laura was going to be dropping me off at the airport, dropping Rick and Sara off at their hotel in Old San Juan, and then going with Miriam to her movie premiere at a Spanish film festival. She had performed the soundtrack in a short film that was being shown that evening.

Before dropping me off at the airport, they swung by a grocery store to grab me some of their favorite coffee, Yaucono, so I could gift it to my sister and brother-in-law—I could have gotten it in the airport, but it would have been four times as expensive. And, wanting to also bring back some Puerto Rican rum, Laura gave me the best tip to wait to purchase it at the duty free shops by the gates in the airport. The prices are still cheap, and you can bring the bottle on the plane instead of trying to wrap it up in your checked luggage. Score!

I said goodbye to the gang, following Laura’s instructions to go to the USDA bag screening area before checking in, as all bags need to be screened for bugs/plants to ensure no foreign species would be introduced to the mainland agriculture.

After checking in I sailed through security, bought myself a bottle of passion fruit Puerto Rican rum, and got comfortable at my gate.

I landed after midnight back in New York, and not only was my buddy, Miriam (the other other one), waiting for me, she surprised me by renting a Zipcar and loading it with cat litter. (Hey, relying on trains and busses to get to and from your home means having to carry 20lb containers of cat litter on the train once a week. Getting a car and loading it with enough cat litter to last me two months was pretty dang exciting!)

It was the perfect ending to a fabulous trip. I headed home and crashed…Hasta la vista, baby!