DR & PR

We had read a bunch about the Dominican Republic and its historical significance. We had also pretty much exhausted our provisions from the US, the Bahamas and Turks being places where there is not much to buy and what is available costs way too much. We therefore looked forward to a new place, an island unlike the coral bumps we had visited for the past couple of months.

A new experience we both enjoyed but could not quite imagine is how land smells when you've been at sea for months. We used to be able to "smell the sea air"; that had become standard and now we discovered the novelty of "land air" - it was divine! A kind of mild, spicy essence of jungle. As we approached our destination of Luperon', the mild warm breeze off the land carried us away.

Anyway, we arrived in the famous port of Luperon, one of the best places in the Caribbean to hide from hurricanes.

We weren't the only visitors. The bay here is often very crowded and its sheltered nature also means the water doesn't flush itself, so to speak, into the sea. The combination of that plus the third-world character of the town means you don't go swimming. In spite of precautions, we knew many people who came down with parasitic diseases and when we left we were starting to feel pretty sick ourselves. Paradise can be dirty and squalid. It pays to carry Flagyl in your med kit.

This was the third country we had visited and so we were a little apprehensive about officialdom. It was almost comical: a boatload full of officials, all with different offices, all looking for tips. If you didn't want to pay them, that was OK, you just ask for a receipt and they shrug. However, the Capt was still paying a newbie tax and gave one guy charged with "searching" the boat $10 to leave and he did.

The DR is yet another place we seem to have forgotten as a photo-op. We rented a car and drove to Santo Domingo, visiting the oldest buildings in the western hemisphere, but forgot to take pictures. Dumb.

For our birthdays we rented some horses and checked out rural life here. Some areas are truly third-world, complete with thatched roofs, dirt floors and chickens all over. We met numerous ex-pats, who like the laid-back pace and cheap cost of living. Of course, one must also accept that the electricity will go off at random times, the drivers are suicidal and filth is pervasive. But, the Dominicans are friendly, kind and easy-going. Many areas of the coast are becoming infested with Europeans, mostly German guys looking for friendly, local women. The women are looking for a ticket out of poverty, so such pairings are common. This is especially true around Puerta Plata, the big town on the north coast a few miles east of Luperon.

We spent about 3 weeks but couldn't stay longer if we were to make it to Trinidad by August and the worst hurricane risk. Many yachties sail to the town of Samana' and thence past the awful Cabo Engaño (Cape Deception). We had heard that Samana' was a den of thieves, and so opted to leave from Luperon; this may have been a mistake, but we wanted to get to Puerto Rico ASAP.

This involves a crossing called the Mona Passage, so-called because of Mona Island in the middle.

We found it a pretty nasty ride. Once again a shroud connector broke; they were not strong enough and were later completely replaced. The picture above shows actual jury-rigging in action. Note the length of chain being used as a temporary shroud. We glimpsed Mona Island but continued to Boqueron.

The passage included a stunning heatwave just off the Puerto Rican coast. It got so hot we took off our clothes and were still burning up. Needless to say, that's when we got a visit from a US Coast Guard helicopter - not very dignified. They patrol this stretch pretty heavily trying to catch people smugglers trying to sneak into PR, which makes getting into the US trivial.

Check-in here was strangely easy. We expected a boarding, complete with drug and Haitian-sniffing dogs, but nobody came. We had to take a taxi up to Mayaguez. There was supposed to be a tough quarantine of products from the DR, but all we got was a lecture from a nice Customs officer, telling us not to just throw food into PR trash cans.

This a shot of a large thunderstorm in the sunset. If you look closely you will see the south coast of PR under the clouds on the right. It is common to get hit by these thunderstorms in the Mona Channel after they drift off the mountains of PR.

We don't have many pics of our transit of the PR south coast, simply because we adopted the conventional wisdom that sailing east was a matter of sailing at night, when the offshore breeze would cancel out the tradewinds.

We ended up staying in Ponce for a week or two, waiting for parts (as usual). Ponce is what the rest of the US may look like soon, i.e. the roads, etc all look like the US mainland but all signs are in Spanish. No hay nada en Ingles. We had to rent a car and drive to pick up one package in San Juan. The main odd feature of Ponce was that although it was a big city, second to San Juan, it did not have a single book store.

Just south of Ponce is a very pretty island, Isla Caja de los Muertos (Coffin Island), so-called because of it's profile. The must-see here is the lighthouse you can see on the top of the hill, which is a good example of late 19th-Century Spanish Colonial architecture.

For some stupid reason we don't have a pic of the lighthouse, or more likely the pictures were taken on 35mm film, which we don't have access to right now. However, we do have a shot of the view. If you look at the harbor on the right you will see El Tubbo as the boat on the right, just above the dock. The other thing to note is how rough the shore on the left appears. Left in this case is east; this is what tradewinds look like, all over the Caribbean.

After many weeks of waiting and night-sailing complete with a visit to the yachtie nest of Salinas, we made it to the east coast of PR. This coast is covered with real estate developments that look just like Miami - yuck.

One nice feature if the east coast is the stunning mountain of El Yunque, which contains the only US National Park that is a tropical rain forest outside of Hawaii. Here a wood nymph holds a prehistoric-looking leaf. This was a fabulous hike.

This nice sunset shows El Yunque, under the clouds on the right. This is one of those mountains that's often shrouded in clouds and hard to catch in the clear. This picture was taken off the pretty Island of Vieques. Vieques used to be a favorite topic of the news media, which promoted the notion that the evil US Navy had ruined the island by using part of it as a bombing range. The reality was the the USN actually preserved it from being raped, er developed, like much of the PR east coast. We have no idea what's happened to this poor piece o' paradise since the evil USN was forced to leave. If it now looks anything like Fajardo then maybe the Navy should start bombing it again.

Vieques was a jumping-off point to the so-called "Spanish Virgins", a sprinkling of islands east of Puerto Rico. After about a week there we proceeded on to our next destination, the Leewards.

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