Howard Johnson Carolina San Juan

... back and have done some more research on our specific boat - I know that you can book thru Castillo tours directly and save yourself $6. AND after doing more research I found that if you book through GoToPuertoRico.com you can get the same excursion for only $65, that would have saved us $20. I guess we lived and we learned, but still had a great time regardless - and I was ok with the $85 that we paid ...

... was even a group of 27 teachers doing their own girls getaway, boy they were a fun rowdy bunch!<br><br>For dinner we got ourselves all dressed up and made our way to Old San Juan where we enjoyed a delicious Puerto Rican dinner at Barrachina's. Fun fact about Barrachina's - it is the birthplace of the Pina Colada, so be sure to ask for a free sample to taste - they were ...

... of the Spanish Virgin Islands that came highly recommended. Culebra is a magical little island. It is small and very hilly but full of little bays on all coasts, which make it a superb cruiser's stop. The main town of Dewey is a delight with many of its buildings colourfully painted and well maintained, while others are decayed a bit- our guess is it is on the rise as a tourist destination. We pulled up with our dinghy to the Dinghy Dock bar, a local favourite. We immediately met a long ...

... things we have done with SAS have been really big groups and have taken a lot of time just to coordinate moving people from place to place, it's a lot more fun doing it in a smaller group where you can just go and do whatever. So the second day Will wanted to surf so we headed to the beach by the Ritz Carlton. Took a cab there and then just walked into the hotel like we owned the place. We changed in their bathroom, easily could have just laid by ...

... and a cocktail to match. Considering how hot and humid it was I was literally a puddle of sweat by the time I got to the restaurant. But my manjito (mango, mojito, frozen and blended) hit the spot and quickly cooled me down. The local public transportation turned out to be less reliable than the excellent waitresses so I ended up walking back to the hotel so I got my exercise for the day and blisters to match.

... to San Juan ...

... the water was chilly but just what I needed in order to wake up due to the lack of sleep. The rest of the day was spent walking through Old San Juan where my friend Carina, Lisa, and I decided to by a gallon of milk and enjoy it with our meals in a little plaza. We ran into our two friends Terron and Eric who made fun of us about the milk in which I replied with a quote from Anchorman...perfect timing. In the plaza there was this old Puerto Rican man ...

... rather than the Navy because I was scared of the water. I hated the idea that if something ever happened, if I got lost on land at least I wouldn't have to worry about getting tangled in seaweed or think about what creatures could. be swimming underneath me (I had, and still do, a real phobia of feeling seaweed underneath my feet as I played in the ocean). My Mom disagreed. She said didn't worry about what she couldn't see. But I've definitely ...

Ahoy from Puerto Rico We departed San Juan last night at 22:30 after three amazing days there. It bypassed my expectations 10 fold! Day 1: We arrived in San Juan around 8:30. The pilot boat meet us off the coast at about 7 and but we didn't get onto the dock till 8:30. Once on the dock the immigration officials boarded and immigration began as the Secretary of State of Puerto Rico spoke to us in the Union. They did immigration by deck, and they started with deck 2, then 3 then ...

... that our best bet was to head back into Ensenada Honda to escape the high winds. On Tuesday we chose to anchor in Ensenada Fulladosa rather than Dakity Harbour because though dead calm behind two reefs, boats at Dakity were taking the wind in the face. Overnight things began to settle and with smaller seas forecast we decided to head to Vieques Wednesday morning. The sail across was great though we did take a couple of waves into the cockpit on the port side. As long as ...