Our plans changed due to a southerly swell so we did not go to our planned stop on Vieques, but went to the town anchorage of Esperanza.
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| Looking at town from the boat. |
Had a nice beach walk - beach was narrow, and minimal shells, so decided to walk the town. Was quite surprised to find horses just wandering around the town.
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| Quite the vessel we passed in the anchorage. plastic 55 gallon drums, picnic table and zip ties. |
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Pier severely damaged in hurricanes - no longer used
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Nice stretch of beach, but narrow
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| "Wild" horses come into town to get water - drinking from gutter runoff, but in the road. |
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| Just walking and grazing along the road |
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| If you want to keep your shrubbery - you will need a taller fence |
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| Charm at anchor |
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| Typical street in Esperanza |
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| Most the homes have a grating on all the porches. This had more than most |
After Esperanza, we headed to Isla Palaminos, hoping for some snorkeling, but the swell was out of the south, which would not be good in that anchorage, so part way there we detoured to Isla Pineros. As we got close, the swell changed to the east. We were already committed to the anchorage, so spent the night, and next day over to Isla Palaminos. We got in the dink and took our looky bucket out to see if we could find some snorkeling, but only saw white broken hard coral, with limited soft corals and few fish. The last hurricane did a lot of damage here. We hung out for a couple days, - and enjoyed the rain. Also had to redo the patch on the dinghy as one had a slow leak.
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| Dumping rain off Isla Palaminos |
Next we headed to the anchorage off of Isleta Marina near Fajardo. Hung out for a day, letting the dinghy patches cure before we headed into town. We have been seeing another catamaran off and on for the past several weeks "In Cahoots". We anchored next to them again in Fajardo and finally met the owners, well only Rick because his wife is gone for a week. They are on the same path as us so more running into each other will probably occur.
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View of Fajardo area from the boat.
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We decided to walk the 2.5 miles into the large grocery store and stock up. We had to take the dinghy to Isleta Marina, pay $5 per person for the dinghy dock, and take the free ferry to the mainland. No other safe from weather dinghy options were available.
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Obviously not a lot of traffic on this road we walked.
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| Nice statue as you enter Fajardo proper on the main road. |
It is amazing what you can learn about the local area from the grocery store. In Connecticut stores pasta selection took up almost a full aisle. In Idaho - the selection of Hispanic foods took up almost an entire aisle. Here there was a very large selection of Spam, corned beef, and other processed canned meats.
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| Quite the amazing selection of processed meat products. |
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| Downtown area quite empty on a Saturday - lots of cars - no people. |
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| Nice church and square in downtown. |
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| All the poles on this street were painted pink. A previous street was pastel green. |
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| Interesting archway near the ferry dock. |
Fajardo and Puerto Rico is an interesting mix of cultures. It is a poorer area, and the homes and infrastructure show this visibly. You can be at a road intersection, and think you are in the USA, with road signs, lights and make of cars. Then turn the corner, and everything will be in Spanish, and you will feel more like you are in rural Mexico. Chickens and cats are common to see roaming the streets. Lots of dogs in fenced yards. Horse poop on the sidewalk. Then you go on a busy street and see common franchised restaurants and common stores. Burger King, McDonalds, Panda Express (where we had lunch) and Subway. Ralphs grocery, WalMart, Home Depot, and Best Buy. Next street, none of the common USA names - and all in Spanish. National Ferreteria, Econo grocery, and more. It makes for interesting walks with lots to see.
Today or tomorrow we will head to Culebra - where we will focus on finishing the salon cushions and go to Zaco's Tacos (went there 11 years ago and looking forward to it again)
It looks like the areas you are going are not "normal" cruiser grounds. Haha since we know you two are far from "normal".....with all the barred windows, spikes on fences and razor wire - the areas look a little sketchy. There are hardly any people in your photos. I know you said it was a Saturday and not very busy, but was it just coincidence that it doesn't look occupied? And do you get by without speaking spanish OK?
ReplyDeleteIn the old downtown, there were no people. We were kind of surprised as well at that, but no businesses were open so it makes sense. Also, businesses were built up around the highway now, instead of downtown - like the USA, downtowns are dying, while the highway based businesses prosper. Lots of folks and cars in the businesses along the highway. The barred windows, spikes on fences are common and everywhere - more for hurricane protection, and normal fence decorative fence design. Razor wire just along the one street alongside a large pharmaceutical manufacturing facility. Kris does speak some Spanish, and is learning more daily with online lessons, but you can get by without any Spanish, as English is taught in school here, so younger folks better at it than older in general. Most everyone who interacts with tourists speaks good English.
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