Yesterday, Mike and I took a visiting missionary from Uruguay to an island called Culebra. Supposedly Puerto Rico is known for this island which has the World's 2nd Best Beach called Flamenco. Alex practically begged us to take him there. So Tuesday morning our adventure began....
We started our day at 1 am with a 2 hour drive to the ferry. We had no real directions, just a map. Once we got to the port, we got in line. Unfortunetly the 4 am boat was already full so we had to wait for the 9am ferry. So we slept in line on the concrete floor waiting to buy tickets for 6 hours. During this time we found out that the normal ferry which can hold 500 people was in repair and they were replacing it with a cargo ferry which could only hold 150 people so there was a good chance that we would not make it on the next ferry and would have to wait for the 4pm ferry. As people heard this some of them began leaving which was a blessing because if they hadn't left, we might not have been able to get on the morning boat.
After a 2 hour trip, we arrived on Culebra, got a taxi and headed for the World famous beach. It was beautiful!! White soft sand, very clear blue-green water, some reefs for snorkeling, and lots of sun! There was also bathrooms, changing areas, and places to buy food and drinks. It was nice! So we spent hours snorkeling, swimming, eating, and laying out.
We were getting ready to go back to the dock to buy our tickets for the ferry home when we were told by some people that it would be nearly impossible to get on the evening ferry because of the tons of people who were already in line trying to get tickets. (We had also heard numerous stories before coming to Culebra from other people who had been left overnight on the island because the evening ferries were too full to take everyone.) Since Alex had a flight to Costa Rica the next day, staying overnight in Culebra was not an option for us! So we decided to go to the airport and try to get a flight back to PR. Unfortunetly, all the flights on all the airlines were full so we had 2 choices... we could charter a private flight for $350 or we could try to get on the ferry. So we quickly got a taxi and headed over to the dock praying that we could get on one of the evening boats. Praise God that because it was a holiday, most people were staying overnight or for the whole week so hardly anyone was in line!
Our 6pm ferry didn't show up until 8pm so we just walked around the town, watched kids jump off the dock, slept, watched the sunset, and just relaxed till our boat came. We really wanted to change out of our wet bathing suits but we couldn't find any place to do it so we finally decided to stop at a Chinese restaurant, buy a few drinks, and take turns using their bathroom to change. Their bathrooms were really weird for some reason. They had these elevated toilets so when I (Megin) sat down, my feet weren't touching the ground (I haven't had that happen since I was a little kid)!
We were so tired that we slept on the floor of the boat for the ride home. Then on our 2 hour drive home, we got lost for about 30 minutes but finally made it home at 1am. It was a 24 hour long day for us but it was worth it! It was fun, beautiful, scenic, and adventuresome! And God provided for us every step of the way!
.JPG)
