Boqueron to Guanica

After a very good night sleep, the next morning we had to tackle the immigration issue. Several people had told us that you could check in in Boqueron. Dennis from our buddy boat Magic came in the morning with his dinghy to tell that he had tried several times, but they really wanted to send him to Mayaquez, he asked if Jacques could give it a try, but he also got a no, so in the afternoon the four of us took a taxi to Mayaguez. 

They drive a little bit wild here on very small roads. (Not as bad as in the D.R. because there you had a lot of small motorcycles, who function as taxis, mothers with two children and a big bag of groceries on one of these “taxi’s” was rather normal, really scary!!!!!!). After we were completely legal and back at the boat it was time for a big nap, we were still enjoying our feeling of accomplishment having come this far. We anchored there for three days, visiting the village, doing laundry AND I got a haircut!

The tactic of sailing the south coast of P.R. is that you leave very early in the morning, when the winds are still calm and arrive around ten in the morning in your next anchorage, before the trade winds start blowing, directly from the east (where you need to go). So we did just that and arrived in Parquera at around 9:30 am. (Paul has birthday, but there is no internet here, still congratulations). After a nap we re-anchored, because the winds had really picked up and we had a peaceful day on the boat.

Next day we went into town, you walked that in 10 minutes! Eat an ice cream, the most wonderful treat for a boater, and tried to find an island where a lot of monkeys supposed to live. We had a wonderful dinghy ride through all the channels of the mangrove islands, but did not see or hear any monkeys, although Jacques tried to call them and made a lot of monkey moves….(you know, playing Tarzan!!).

We are now since a few days in the Bahia de Guanica, we did not go to town, but anchored of the Cayos de Cana Gorda (Gilligan’s Island). The island is originally called Cayo Aurora for a woman, who at age 40 escaped misery and mistreatment at the worker’s barracks of the nearby La Bellena farm and swam to the island, where she lived a Robinson Crusoe live and became quit old. None of the books tells exactly how old, but I would say "go girl!!!"

Ria