Boqueron, a Birthday and a Rainforest

You may have noticed that there are parts of our recent journey that have been skipped over, namely a good deal of the time that we were in Puerto Rico (excluding the Spanish Virgins). I was sick for half of the time that we were there :( hence the lack of blogs. Anyhow, I thought I’d fill in some of the holes for anyone who is interested (b/c I know that these blogs just keep you all on the edge of your seats with anticipation…lol).

UPDATES:

Boqueron
We spent our time in Puerto Rico in Boqueron, Parguera, and Ponce. I was sick for most of Boqueron so while there a charming little town on this beautiful bay, I don’t have much else to report except of course that thankfully I was well in time for the Superbowl.
Parguera In Paquera we spent hours touring through all of the small islands of mangroves in search of monkeys, who ended up eluding us – but the search was still worth it for the experience of cruising through these tiny islands, some of which are so close together that they create a canopy overhead and there is scarcely enough room to pass through by dinghy. Also in Parguera we took a night tour to the phosphorescent pools. Very cool – and several from our group even dove in.

Happy Birthday David
David and I moved on to Ponce from Parguera to fill up on fuel and water before heading to Culebra. We woke at dawn to get an early start on the six hour journey. We were sent off by Crux coming out on their deck (and mind you, they are not early risers) to sing David happy birthday as we sailed out of the bay. Very sweet. On our way down, David was to receive the wonderful birthday gift of catching his first Mahi…the ultimate prize! For David’s birthday dinner we splurged and went to this wonderful Argentine restaurant. On a cobblestone street in the center of Ponce you could easily have been in a European village.

The Rain Forest
While on Culebra, we took a ferry to Fajardo and rented a car to go and explore El Yunque, the only tropical rain forest in the US park system. We opted for the long, strenuous hike up the El Yunque trail to the top of the mountain (3500 feet!). The trail was lush and we were shaded the entire ascent. Once at the top the views were absolutely breathtaking.