Culebra

Since I have been to Vieques, an island not far from Culebra, I would love to visit this island to see the cultural differences.  Culebra is around 7 miles wide and five miles long.  It had much of the same history as Vieques with the Navy.  The island is a municipality of Puerto Rico so there is no need for Americans to have a passport.  The population of this island is around 2,000.  The picture on the left is of an abandoned Navy tank on Flamenco Beach. 


Where to Stay:  There is not as big of a selection to choose from because this is such a small island.  If you plan on going here to vacation, I would make sure to plan ahead and have a place lined out.  Generally, I promote HomeAway.  You can let them filter a place by how much you are willing to pay per week and by how many people are staying with you.  On TripAdvisor, there are a few clubhouses and apartments for rent as well. 



Beaches:  Flamenco Beach is the most popular beach on Culebra and is pictured in the above picture.  It is picturesque and is one of the best beaches as voted by Caribbean Travel and Life Magazine when it was in production.  Malena is on the Reserve and is much quieter than Flamenco, but is still gorgeous (what beach isn't, though?).  Another beach worth mentioning is Melones.  This beach is known for its good snorkeling. 

What to do:  Go to the different beaches.  That's a given!  There is turtle viewing because they nest on the beaches.  There is great snorkeling and businesses that offer tours.  There is shopping, which is something I always look forward to.  On Culebra, there are many artisans making their way by selling their wares.  It would be a good opportunity to bring home something different and authentic. There is the Museum of History that would be neat to check out if that's your thing.  TripAdvisor mentions that one of the top things to do is take a quick day trip to the island of Culebrita to see the lighthouse and snorkel.  It does mention that this is an all day thing, it is quite a long hike to the lighthouse and it can be costly. 

How to get there:  The majority of Americans fly into San Juan and then take a smaller airplane over.  The carriers that fly to Culebra include Air Flamenco, Vieques Air Link, Cape Air (we flew to Vieques with them), and Isla Nena.  There is also a ferry that runs from San Juan to Culebra.  I will give a strong caution about this.  First of all, the schedule is sketchy.  I have seen many sights that have had issues with them cancelling or not going at all on certain days.  Another issue is that the ferry is about an hour or more from the San Juan airport.  So, by the time you pay a taxi and the ferry, you could have just flown for a bit more cash.  Much less stressful, in my opinion.  I will give a tip about Cape Air.  As of now, there is no fee for baggage.  We paid for our luggage on the way there because we flew into San Juan with United; however, on the way home, Cape Air checked our bags through to Indianapolis and it didn't cost us a dime.  Pretty sweet deal if you ask me!


Please comment any tips and hints about this island if you have been there!  I originally planned on St. Martin and Dominica next February or Antigua and Dominica, but this little island is gaining ground on my radar! 

XOXO...Becky

Snorkeling in the Riviera Maya & Cozumel

Overall, snorkeling in the Riviera Maya and Cozumel were great.  I have mentioned in a prior post that I enjoy shore snorkeling and I like to go out in the ocean with a guide.  I am not too familiar with any of the reefs in Mexico, I just know that the water is perfect and it's a gorgeous setting!  Actually, as long as I am seeing fish, I'm pretty happy.  The water is clear with blue and turquois colors and fish-a-plenty.  I love that Mexico is doing something to help maintain and build their reefs.  It's a huge step.  Many of these pictures were taken right off of the shoreline at our resort.  The others were taken from a reef off the coast of Cozumel.  Literally, as soon as you get off the ferry at Cozumel, you are bombarded with snorkeling crews.  You can negotiate with them.  I believe we paid $40 to go on a 3 hour tour.  It's not long, but it was long enough for us and they took a picture of us under the water together with fish all around us and had it printed before we hit shore.  Crazy!  We didn't take any pictures, but we snorkeled for HOURS at Xel-ha.  I will have a later post on Xel-ha... 

There were plenty of fish willing to be photographed!

 
So, these large concrete things are fish habitats, which I think are really cool!  We, as a whole, are killing our oceans, and it's nice to see that some are giving back and trying to help maintain what's left.  From what I saw, there were plenty of fish that had made this their home and found protection within the concrete walls.  It's an awesome little ocean habitat!

We even saw Dory

This habitat shows some fish using their home.

Wowza this was a ton of fish right in my face!

 This guy really wanted me to get a close up of his good side!  He sure is handsome, though! 

Barracuda.  It never fails...I always see Nemo's nemesis every time Brad and I have a snorkeling adventure!  I think its pretty neat, though!

Look on the left side of the picture and you will see some teeth that you DO NOT want to sink into your flesh!

 I caught his backside!

Can anyone tell me what kind of fish this is?

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!!!!

XOXO...Becky

Snorkeling Mosquito Pier

           Snorkeling beside Mosquito pier was an awesome experience.  If you go to the pier, hit up the beach to the left of it instead of driving up onto the pier road.  There is a little parking area and you just walk down onto the beach.  The beach itself isn't something to marvel at.  Walk in toward the rocks and get past the sea grass.  Just snorkel as far down the rocks toward the pier as you want!  It mostly stays the same depth.  We went almost all the way to the pier and we were told that if we would have kept going, there are sea turtles that eat around the pier.  Now I wish we would have done that.  Here are some pictures we took with the GoPros!  Enjoy!

Video I took of the Starfish! 

This fish is hard to see...Look in the center. 

The camouflage on this fish is phenomenal! I found this guy and he was about 3 feet long...Not sure what kind of fish this is???

Red Snapper...Brad wished he had his spear gun during this snorkel trip, because further down the

pier, the bigger these guys got! 

More Red Snapper

More Starfish

Look right below the surface of the water in the center of the picture.  I called it a needle fish but not sure of the actual name...

Barracuda ...These fish are probably my favorite fish to get pictures of. 

XOXO...Becky

Our Excursion With "Little boat Sailing" in Vieques

Honestly, this was one of the BEST excursions we have ever had.  The owner, captain, and operator of Little Boat Sailing is Jorge.  He has the most amazing travel stories and he was so knowledgeable about the reef, the fish, and his community.  He made our tour what we wanted, and not something that he does for everyone.  We told him what we hoped to see and he made that happen.  He knew that snorkeling was our main focus so we went to Lemon Reef.  There was some discussion as to the actual name so we decided it should be name "Jorge Reef".  Getting there was part of the fun since it was on a gorgeous Hobie!  The ocean water was spraying on us, the breeze was perfect, and the sun and temperature were just right!  After about an hour and a half of snorkeling, we went into the mangroves.  Jorge jumped out and got a starfish and did some teaching with us. Jorge had waters and protein available for us after snorkeling...I feel like we burnt off a ton of calories!  We were famished!!!  The best thing about this excursion is that it was one on one, we were there with only our two friends Curt and Lorrie, and we got to morph the tour into what we wanted it to be.  There are a ton of pictures, but the do not truly show how amazing this tour is until you just go to Vieques and experience it for yourself.  Some of the pictures were taken by Jorge and some were with our GoPros!  Enjoy!

                                                                         Eagle Ray

                                                                        Eagle Ray

                          Jorge was so awesome at taking pictures and he emailed them free of charge

                                 Jorge says this Nurse Shark was about 5 ft. long and sleeping

Eagle Ray

                                                  

                                                   This is a video I took with my GoPro

I have Jorge's website listed under the helpful sites section of this blog, so check him out!!!

XOXO...Becky