Salinas

2/22/12
Salinas
17 57.00 N 66 17.50 W

We left at 6am as the sun was rising for the 3 hour motor to Salinas – before the trade winds started blowing their usual 20 knots from the East. This is a very protected anchorage, supposedly safe and having arrived this morning – very popular.  Lots of boats squeezed in this bay and it appears it contains the entire Luperon flotilla – it was good catching up and hearing how the other boats fared in their travels across the Mona Passage.

Remember the Commandancia I mentioned in Luperon, Dominican Republic (the cesspool) – apparently he was arrested after we left for corruption and requesting a sexual act as a bribe - he unfortunately solicited one of the two ladies on a boat – the ladies were a domestic couple and didn't take kindly to his advances so reported him.  There is hope for that country !!!

We had fun in Salinas and traveled the island extensively, more thoroughly than expected ie. we got lost !!   Sidney is the “man”.  He runs the rent-a-car business in the little town.  Sidney is the Hertz agent but also has his own car body workshop and he hires out his loan vehicles to cruisers for $30 per day – its a very informal arrangement with no paperwork, no insurance, no deposit, no licence required, you don't even have to pay anything until you bring the car back. Strange but works well for both parties !

Our first trip was to The Parque de las Cavernas del Río Camuy (Camuy River Cave Park), is one of the largest cave systems in the world and the largest in the Western Hemisphere.  The caverns are part of a large network of natural limestone caves and underground waterways carved out by the third largest underground river in the world, the Río Camuy.  Over 10 miles of caverns, 220 caves and 17 entrances to the Camuy cave system have been mapped so far. This, however, is only a fraction of the entire system which many experts believe still holds another 800 caves.  The route took us up into the rain forest and across the other side of the island – beautiful scenery.  We followed the mapped route until its demise – it just disappeared into roadworks – they were building a bridge and the road simply disappeared over a cliff – we had to back-track for 1 hr down a very narrow windy road and all voted to stop by a bakery for cake and coffee and to work out how to find a new route.  The caves were worth the traveling – it was suppose to take 1hr 50 mins to the caves – it took us 4hrs !!!    We shared the vehicle with Heather and Ray from “SV Ner' Do Well” - they were grear fun to travel with, I haven't laughed so much in years !!!

Don and I wanted to visit the hardware and big box stores so hired a car and took off on our own – we visited “El Yunque” which is a national park on the eastern side of the island. El Yunque is the only tropical rainforest in the US National Forest system and rises to over 3,500 ft (1,065m). It contains over 75% of the virgin tropical forest remaining in Puerto Rico. Encouraged by over 100 billion gallons of rainfall a year the vegetation is prolifically verdant.

We took the steep winding road up into the clouds to the visitors car park then took a very muddy slippery walk further uphill.  The wonderful fresh smell and greenery reminded me of home. On the way down we stopped at a tiny shack holding on tight to the side of a rock and leaning over a cliff.  The old woman only spoke Spanish and was wonderful – we ate her empanadas with relish and she gave us a long dark brown thing – it was the size, shape and texture of a dog turd – she said it was carne (meat) and plantain (kinda like a huge green banana).  We plastered smiles on our faces and took a bite, it was ok if you could get over the texture, shape and color :-)   Our host kept pushing more food on us until we had sampled all she had to offer and were full.  That was lunch at $3.00 total !!

Don and I organized another rental car – this time a minivan as 3 couples (Ner Do Well and Fawkes) wanted to visit San Juan (the capital city) in particular the Old Town and the fort “Fuerte San Felipe Del Morro” or “El Morro” for short.  El Morro is one of the premier forts in the Caribbean. The fort was built to protect San Juan Harbour the gateway for supply ships headed to Spain's many colonies.  It is administered by the National Park Service.  Construction began in 1539 with the outer fortification finished in 1584.  Completion was not until 1783 – some 199 years later !

Old Town was wonderful – unlike Old Town in Panama this area was mostly renovated, painted vibrant colours with artistic tiles and ironwork as decoration – I could have walked around all day surrounded by beauty and history.

We were now ready to head off to the outer islands to the east of Puerto Rico - Vieques and Culebra – sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands.   The South African boat anchored next to us had come from Vieques.  Whilst  on a trip to the mainland via ferry, their boat was broken into and the electronics stolen (they left the alcohol), then the thieves went on to the next boat and stole their dinghy and electrics, then took the dinghy to the next motor boat, left the dinghy adrift but stole the entire motor boat - others came and there was a shootout, eventually two of the three thieves were killed (drug cartel involved) - yea !!!!  Might give that anchorage a miss :-)  Apparently this never happens on Vieques - just bad luck, wrong place and wrong time !!