culebra

January 11

After a near death experience(I thought but probably wasn’t in any clear danger), I was ready for some relaxation, so I veered towards fajardo and la isla culebra, which according to many travel sites, has the best beach in the carribbena, playa flamenco. I embarked on the ferry at 9:30 AM and set out to some really choppy waters, and sat next to a man from culebra.  He was a firefighter and was bickering about how there is nothing to do in culebra so he has to go to fajardo to get things done.  As my new carribbena dream island approached, I was blessed by the Caribbean trade winds and a fine mist from the ferry. I landed on Culebra and started hiking towards playa flamenco as the rest of the tourists paid 3 dollars for a 5 minute drive, suckers! But to my avail the hike was longer than expected as I passed the smallest airport I have ever seen  and trucked my way up the hill. A couple in a golf cart stopped and asked me if I would like a lift, and they were right. It is a freakin hot island and hiking doesn’t cool things down. It turns out that the lady was from South Africa, which I guessed her accent right immediately, and she was very impressed, saying” I have never had any one get it right before!”.  It reminded of Kate and the South African accent she picked up while being out there.  The couple even drove out of there way to drop me off, how corteous of them. We said our goodbyes, and I said hello to the most beautiful beach I had ever seen.  It was like the nicest beach in Miami but without the skyscrapers and towers, completely pristine, sublime, untouched white sand and phosphorescent blue water, though ironically enough the military used to shell this beach and there are two tanks on the playa that remind you of it. It was crazy thinking that this island used to be military property and they did practice beach landings here for D-day.  I soaked up the sun until I burned, and burned I did well, and I had to go to the shade.

 I came back out from my nesting hole in the hammock during sunset and took a nice stroll on the beach. From there I spent my night under a luminescent moon that brought the craziness out in me. I jammed out on my Ipod dancing alone on the beach, looked up to the sky and sacrificed to the moon god, practiced yoga like a white bendy twig swaying in the moonlight, ran the beach along the waterline, and skinny dipped in the water after. Then I pondered under the stars and fell asleep until later that morning. I was woken up by someone on the beach and decided to spend the rest of the night in my hammock, but it rained and I had no choice but to rough it out because I forgot to bring the tarp.

 Next, I woke up at 7 in the morning to a man saying with a thick heavy accent, “my name is henry, you suppose to pay 20 dola to camp, where you fron and was ur name? I, in a half daze and without my contacts on(I’m blind without them), mumbled some words in English and told him that the office was closed. He repeated, is ok I give you a warning and if you want to camp another night jew have to pay. My name is henry, have a niiiice day.” Pretty much the only thing I remember him saying is my name is henry about 4 times.

luquillo

luquillo from the top of yunque

 The next day I headed for playa luquillo, and foolishly paid 5 dollars to get in when I could have parked at the beach next to it and walked over. Instead, I parked at luquillo and hiked over to the free beach. Over there, at playa azul, I set up my hamaca and soaked up some rays, but not before long when I was taking a siesta a man coconut hunting woke me up. I asked if he wanted help and ended up helping him fetch coconuts for a couple of hours. The process is rather interesting- he takes boards from the ground and nails them to the tree to scale it like a ladder. I handed him boards tied to a rope so he wouldn’t have to get down, and handed him the machete to cut the coconuts down. Before long we had an efficient system working and got about 20 coconuts. I gave him a mandarina, and he cut a coconut open for me to drink the milk and eat the meat. It was delicious. I think of my favorite things about tropical countries is that you can just walk around pick fruit of of trees for sustainment. Next, we gave a coconut to a nice family for the kids to enjoy, and they loved it.  Before long, I was tired of working but he needed my help and relied on me to help him, but after a while I told him I’m on vacation and I’m here to relax. So I jumped in the water and did a little bodysurfing, which to my amazement was really fun. Up to this point, all of the beaches I had been to had really placid waters, but finally I caught a glimpse of how rough the atlantic can be. In the afternoon, I went to the kioskos and had some great Puerto Rican fast food, all of which is fried to a crisp.

macro mushroom

bomba y plena

luquillo palms

playa azul

playa azul

sr. coconut

 Then, for the sunset I drove up to el yunque national forest, which is the only subtropical rainforest in the US.  I wanted to spend the night doing some free camping, but the ranger said that it was temporarily closed for camping. El Yunque was misty, creepy, dense vegetation, with ubiquitous fog and narrow roads, a foreshadow to the ruta panoramica that I would drive a couple of days later. At el yunque, I took the big tree trail to the waterfalls and jumped in some surprisingly cold and clear water at around 3,000 feet. I ran back to the car(literally) because it was 5:30 and the gates close at 6:00 plus a torrential downpour you only see if you’ve spent a little time in the rainforest was setting in.  It was quite an experience realizing I was at the balmy beach just a couple of hours before. I then decided to sleep in my hammock overnight at the beach in luquillo, although I didn´t know if it was allowed or not. I first wanted to go to a place I had planned out earlier in the day, but as I was leaving town on foot to go to the secluded beach entre luquillo and playa azul there was a creepy man following me and he would stop every time I would stop and text on his phone. I thought he was notifying his friends of a potential mugging victim, and supposed they would storm me and take all of my possessions. Siguente, I had to find a place to camp, So I went to check out another beach just east of luquillo called playa la selva. After driving like a blind monkey for an hour, I found the beach, but it was deserted and eery, and the guidebook warned about this place at night when no one else was camping . So I headed back to the car and passed out for a couple of hours. I woke up around 1am ,determined to sleep in my hammock, so I packed up my things and headed were  I was cutting coconuts all day. I set up camp, but things didn’t feel right. Still, I persisted, and I just became more scared as the night drove on. Though I never saw a single person on the playa, I would sleep with two eyes open that night, constantly looking back and forth for shadowy figures rustling through the bushes or looking for solo campers to mug. I don’t know how many minutes I slept that night, but  It was one of the scariest I have had in a while. Creatures were making weird noises, there were leaves crunching, and dark people-like shadows swaying in the horrific winds.