Puerto rico salinas

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Palmas Del Mar and Salinas


Puerto Rico, we had really only seen the road to the airport and the marina at Puerto Del Rey, so we had decided to cruise down the coast a bit further.
We left Culebra on a very calm morning and headed on down to a place, which in our pilot book, showed an anchorage. We arrived, and as we got there realised that the anchorage was no more and in it’s place was a large marina. We rarely go alongside, for several reason. The main one is the heat, I like to be able to swim around the boat, to cool off, we like to be anchored on our own, so we don’t worry about noise, or more importantly that vermin can come aboard. Ok, Alan I have to put up with!!
It was getting a little late to go on to anywhere else so we decided to go into the marina. The staff were wonderful, so helpful, the marineros did not speak much English but soon brought a very helpful chap, who seemed to be the manager. He checked our wiring for the plug, and showed us where the lovely swimming pool was. They gave us a lift in the golf buggies, all around the marina. The marina was inside a huge and I mean bigger than Weymouth, development, loads of estates of houses, villas, another more exclusive marina, with fingers by some of the houses. There were gated communities, inside the big gated community! We did find the big building which had a kind of square, quasi Spanish but modern, with a strange fountain made of building pipes, and about 6 restaurants around it. We went back that evening and had an Asian type of meal. There was as usual enough for the next day as well!. We had a relaxing swim in the pool which overlooks the sea. Filled up with water, ran our air-conditioning all night, it was chilly and down to 19 degrees in the cabin when we woke up! But of course, not much going on there really, marina just built, not even a bar to have a drink at, and a really plasticy place in a lush palm tree sort of way! Fantastic beach stretching out with a surf coming in, looked great.

Next day we set off for Salinas, as before we motored all the way, we have never had such calm conditions for so long, it is just like the med, and really hot. Luckily we saw no whales or anything else, only a friendly pod of dolphins. Disaster! Our new chart plotter would not acquire a signal,.., and it is only 6 weeks old! Back to the laptop luckily it worked fine.
Salinas

We were surprised to find how shallow the entrance to the Salinas lagoon was, for us it was almost too shallow, we were kind of ploughing through the mud as we entered. It was a mangrove fringed anchorage, with shallow reefs all around. The signs asked us to go slowly because of the Manatees; this is one of the areas they breed in. The water round the boat was quite murky, and so it would be really hard to see them.
Going ashore meant tying onto an old dock belonging to the Salinas yacht club and marina. There is a small hotel here, and a very attractive snack bar in a garden. There is very little else there, except a self service Laundromat. Three young men were sitting outside looking bored reading books. Apparently only one washing machine worked so they very kindly put my washing in for me when theirs had finished. We went for a walk up the street. Now this is really what PR is like. One storey buildings, built of wood, some rendered and painted, some a bit like your garden shed. Some with little railings, and Christmas decorations looking tired and dusty. Chickens running in and out of the road, and the houses, and a thin horse standing by a door. The café had plastic tables outside and a couple of people drinking. We went to have a coke and met a French couple from Brittany. There was the internet, unbelievable looking at the place. We did go back the next day. We walked on through the small village, along the side of the sea, no beach just mangroves and a few jetties built out on the water. A deli and a small supermarket. Scruffy street , and a few restaurants, all Spanish, no menus.
We went back to the boat and I discovered that I had lost the key!! Alan went back after climbing in the hatch and I was searching the boat, every drawer out for the spare key, some pleasant English people came by, and I arrange d to meet them in the bar. Luckily Alan found the key, where I had dropped it, and we met the people in the bar. We went for a meal to one of the restaurants up the way. Nobody spoke a word of English and I think they found our Spanish a bit strange. Still we ordered a paella, which was certainly very nice, if very different from the usual one in Spain. It had a sauce to pour over it and was served with plantain tostadas, and a very good salad. Loads of prawns, squid, clams and fish then sausage and beans in it. Quite interesting, and cheap.
The next day we did boat jobs and then travelled round the whole area in the dinghy, looking for birds, manatees, fish etc. We met a family about to start an afternoons fishing in one of the many little gunkholes. It was very shallow in places, lots of egrets, eagle type birds, and loads of tree frogs, lots of other birds that were colourful but of course I have no idea what they were.
Out for a drink in the bar of a man Alan had met, from culebra, and then dinner in the marina. Yes chicken stuffed with plantain; do you feel there is a bit of theme coming on?
After being eaten alive by mosquitoes we decided it would not really suit Bruce and travelled back the next day the five hours to Palmas del mar.
We hired a car, met some nice Canadians, had a drink with them, and then had a trip to Ponce, a city which has a fairly pretty square, and not much else. We went to the boardwalk and had some chicken things on sticks, and yes plantain tostadas and then travelled home on the ruta paranomica, which is certainly stunning, up in the mountains and forest. BUT….how many times can you get lost on one journey, how many times can you turn the car round, try to ask people who answer in machine gun Spanish, try to extract information from a drunk man with a beer can, watch the sun go down and realise it will take you another hour to go the 12 miles home…….In Ponce we drove round and round trying to get out, until eventually a kind person drove in front of us to show us the way to the road to the north. You can imagine the mood in the car! We were glad to get home and put our feet up. The nice thing was as we drove up to the car park feeling v grumpy one of the marineros saw us coming and came up in a golf cart to give us a lift to the boat. They are really friendly and helpful in this marina.

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Photos

salinas
An interesting bit of art in the street