Holidays in Culebra

We anchored in Ensenada Honda which offered good protection and easy access to town.  After making sure the anchor was well set, we headed to town. 

We had a couple of options for places to leave Puff.  There is a municipal dock and then there’s the Dinghy Dock.

The Dinghy Dock is a great little restaurant/bar on the water where you can motor up, tie off and grab a drink(if you go there, order the ribs!) . Villa Veritas had arrived in Culebra before us and we met up with Jazz and Andrew at the bar.  They’d just finished Christmas caroling with some locals and had secured an invite to a potluck Christmas lunch on the beach.  This was exciting news as it was just a few days before Christmas and we hadn’t made any plans.

The next day, another cruising couple came up to Ddraig to introduce themselves.  Patrick and Darnell are both from Louisiana, she’s from Baton Rouge and he’s from Iowa which is just about 10 minutes from where we live.  Talk about a small world!  They began their cruising with a five year plan similar to ours but have been out on their boat, Island Dream, for almost three times that long now and have no plan to stop any time soon.

Christmas morning found us all heading to the ferry dock in search of a bus to take us and our potluck contributions to the beach.  Flamenco Beach has to be one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen.  It’s a naturally curved beach with powdery white sand and amazing blue water. 

We had an awesome lunch, complete with turkey and all the fixings, and then just relaxed and enjoyed the view and great company.  Jazz and Andrew built a giant sand man (or woman) and once our food comas had subsided, we took a long walk down the beach.

That evening we went into town for a parade.  We found some seats in front of a pizza place and settled in to wait.  It was a good thing we found seating because as usual, it was a little late getting started. Also, we had chosen spots near the end of the parade route and since there wasn’t enough room for the floats to turn around, they were backing them down the street in front of us!  It was interesting to say the least.  But there were tons of people out and about and it appeared a great time was had by all.

During the next week, we welcomed Kracken into the anchorage and said farewell to Villa Veritas, explored the island, went to the beach, checked out numerous bars and restaurants, had some great snorkeling, saw some beautiful sunsets and did our normal shopping/laundry/boat projects.

We also got to watch the most important football game of the year so far – LSU and Alabama!  Geaux Tigers!!

Of course, as New Year’s day came around, we had to plan for our black-eyed peas and cabbage.  We invited everyone over to Ddraig for lunch, including a couple we met who were vacationing here from Austin, Angela and Keith.  After lunch, Cameron, Grace and Patrick entertained us on their ukes and guitar.

Culebra is very cruiser friendly with easy access to everything we needed.  Just off the main island is another small island, Cayo Luis Pena, which is a nature reserve.  This provides for some great snorkeling areas with lots of fish.  Our anchorage had good holding and even though there was a lot of charter boat traffic in and out (some with naked people on board) there was still plenty of room and you could swim from the boat. All of the above, along with its amazingly beautiful beaches, made Culebra one of our favorite islands so far and we plan to come back here someday.

All in all, while we very much missed being with our families this holiday season, we feel blessed to have been able to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s with wonderful friends in this beautiful place and look forward to seeing what 2020 has to offer.