Culebra, Puerto Rico

Having been to one of the top 10 beaches in the world today & repeatedly throughout the years, where do I begin with Culebra? It's a small (very small) island off the east coast of Puerto Rico, about an hour and a half ferry ride from the mainland.  While it is still considered Puerto Rico and is a part of PR in its entirety, we felt as though we were in a different place altogether.  I don't know if it's the lack of "mainland" Puerto Rico influence, but somehow, driving our jeep through the streets looking for food and groceries, we felt as though perhaps we were in somewhere else.  A slightly archaic, untouched world - yet amazing. And the beaches? WOW. That's all I have to say about the beaches of Culebra... absolute paradise. The sand was the perfect white-powdered sand that is so soft on your feet you feel as though you're laying on a blanket. To date Flamenco Beach is the best beach I have seen in my travels thus far. The water was crystal clear light blue and perfect for swimming and sunbathing.  Essentially you feel as though you're swimming in a giant salt water pool...truly. I had the best 4 days in this small island and I can't wait to go back.

I'll begin with the ferry ride from Fajardo to Culebra. WHAT A NIGHTMARE (but the end result was so worth it!). The crowds were anxious and they had us in a room like a flock of geese, or what is a more appropriate term? A herd of cow? Idk :)... Nonetheless, everyone was pushing and shoving each other while standing in line, trying to get ahead in line and the wait was excruciating.  We had heard that the earliest you could buy tickets for the ferry was 3am (and that they only sold them at pre-determined times).  To give you a little background, Jesse and I landed in Puerto Rico at around 9pm that night... Drove down to Ponce to my dad's house, which is about an hour and 15 minutes of a drive from the north to the south.  We arrived tired.. but ready to go.  We went to bed for a few hours, only to wake up at 1am to leave for Fajardo, the eastern side of the island (another 2 hour drive from Ponce).  When we got there finally, at precisely 3am, we then found out that we weren't able to buy tickets yet - the ticket counter was closed (even though ticket sales were supposed to start at 3am).  We were ready for an all-nighter though, we brought chairs and just 'camped' it!

After a bit of an uproar at the closing of the "ticket window", they finally opened for those sitting there waiting...  Ok, tickets are purchased (a relief) - NOW we just had to wait until 9am when the ferry was supposed to leave...which is hard to do if you're running on almost no sleep.  But the excitement was enough to keep us awake and going (mostly!). :)

Well... to make a long story short, at about 10am that morning we were finally boarding the ferry and aside from the madness I stated earlier (the crowds, the uproar and the wait), it was just so worth it.  Once we were on the ferry it was smooth sailing and the boat ride to Culebra was great and fairly quick.  You could even see St. Thomas in the distance as you neared Culebra...

Upon arrival we rented a jeep to explore the island with.  We crammed 6 people's bags and bodies into this jeep and off we went!  I think having a means of transportation in this island is crucial, so something to keep in mind! We arrived at our villa and immediately checked out the beach which was fifteen feet away from us... It was incredible. (We rented 2 villas which are considered the best location on the island, as they are right on Flamenco Beach. They are called Culebra Beach Villas) Culebra isn't a place where you find lines of hotels and luxury accomodations so don't expect that... The island is protected by the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources and as a Marine Wildlife Reserve so they intentionally don't want it to become commercialized, which is precisely part of its charm!!! (This explains the archaic, untouched world I mentioned earlier!) In the mornings, since our villa was steps from the water, I'd go for walks on the beach alone, as I was generally the first one up somehow (Excitement, maybe? I can never sleep in while I'm on vacation - what a waste in my opinion you can sleep when you're home!) and it was completely deserted... it was unbelievable.

One of my favorite things that we did by far was the hike off the beaten path to find a beach for snorkeling.  It was hot, and a pretty big hike up hill, but the views were incredible and we came across completely deserted beaches along the way.  We finally found one totally secluded we wanted to try (I believe the beach we found goes by the name of Carlos Rosario Beach) so we set our things down and went in with our marks and snorkels in hand. (The equipment was rented from a store in the small town inland)  The snorkeling was "WOW"... it was unbelievable.  We saw everything down there and the reefs were spectacular and the fish an array of beautiful colors. It even beat the snorkeling we did at the Florida Keys (and we were told that was excellent snorkeling, as it was the third largest barrier reef in the world & it was - but Culebra blew it out of the water).  After spending a few hours snorkeling we decided to go back to Flamenco and sunbathe, as the beach we were in was pretty rocky. 

For dinner we ate the greatest place that had been recommended by http://www.tripadvisor.com/.  I love checking out that website to find out what places are good to go to for dinner, and customer's reviews really help me deciding, if one particular place stands out amongst people.  So as we were driving around the small town looking for a good restaurant,  I remembered a review on a place called "Mamacita's" and how they had huge iguanas laying around and the food was good. After a few wrong turns, we ended up finding the restaurant and went two nights in a row, because it was THAT good! We didn't see any iguanas, but the atmosphere, the music, the food and the pina coladas were amazing. 

To say that the rest of the time was spent with good food, family, beaches and suntans, is a slight understatement. It was an incredibly memorable 4 days and I am still searching for a beach to top this.......;p

Culebra, Puerto Rico made it at #8 to the Top 10 Beaches in the World today by the Traveler's Choice Awards.  For the complete list, please go here:  http://www.tripadvisor.com/TCDestinations-p3345