Puerto Rico

The Travels of Running Tide
Mick Norman
Wed 1 May 2013 13:18
18:27.50N 18:05.20W
The marina at Farjardo was megger expensive so we moved off down the coast
a few miles to Puerto Del Rey. This apparently is the largest marina in the
Caribbean. Its big but populated mainly by stink boats, sorry motor boats. Its
mainly locals so there is not much going on for visitors. No decent shop, no bar
miles from anywhere.
The plan, at least for me anyway was to head off into the interior. Norm
opted to remain on the boat and relax, read, whatever. Thrifty car hire provided
a small car and I headed off to the town of Ponce on the south coast.
Town of Ponce Old Fire Station
![]() Ponce
![]() Ponce
![]() Ponce was atmospheric having an impressive Plaza (Town square) and lots of
impressive building matching historic significance within the country. I spent
the night there and headed off north to the following day to the coffee
plantations. Unfortunately to get a tour I needed to have prebooked so after a
look around their small visitors shop I headed off east along the spine of the
country stopping off for a few hours briefly in the Torro Negro Forest to bag a
peak and go for a swim in the river.
Torro Negro
![]() Torro Negro
![]() Torro Negro
![]() My intended destination was the El Yungue National Forest. I was heading
for the Casa Cubuy ‘Eco Lodge’. Not sure what was Eco about it other than it was
painted green at it was located in a wonder rain forest wonderland. The noise of
the frogs and rushing water from the nearby stream was deafening. I got there
quite late too late for dinner at the so I was dispatched back down the road to
Noelia’s Bar. This place was amazingly friendly, granny was half cut and dancing
around the pool table taking the occasional pot shot the rest of the clientele
seemed to be related in some way to Noelia who insisted on having her picture
taken with Captain Mick.
The next couple of days were spent trekking through forests and fording
river and generally getting wet, great fun though and very impressive palm tree
based rain forest vegetation. I was hoping to climb the peak El Yunque however
believe it or not the road leading over to the north of the range was blocked by
a landslide, that happened in 1970!
El Yunque
![]() El Yunque
![]() El Yunque
![]() El Yunque
![]() El Yunque
![]() El Yunque
![]() Back on RT Norm and I headed off for an overnight anchorage on Cayo Icacos
on the north east tip of Puerto Rico. The following day we ran down the northern
Atlantic coast and into San Juan the capital city of Puerto Rico. So we are now
in the San Juan Bay Marina. Probably the worst and most over priced marina we
have stopped at on our whole voyage. Again its populated by stink boats
and the odd sail boat. Most occupants are locals so thankfully the single toilet
and the shower when we can find it won’t be over used.
The plan now is to to vital up in readiness for a departure for Bermuda in
the next few days.
The response for extra crew for the homeward journey was deafening in its
absence so it looks like Norm and myself for the crossing to Blighty. Sorry
about the timing Dave. Passages are available from Bermuda and from the Azores.
Contact my mickandpat email address if interested. Details were included in a
previous blog item.
Old San Juan
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