 How's that for a beautiful beach? Flamenco Beach, Culebra Island, Puerto Rico.
Everyone needs a vacation sooner or later, and we took advantage of this particular one to it's fullest. I have the advantage of having been born and raised in Puerto Rico. My parents moved there in the mid 60's and have had a house in the center of the island ever since. It is a great place to visit, and it serves as a perfect starting point for jumping out to other smaller islands. Having spanish as my first language is very beneficial for traveling around the islands.
 Our trip started at 8:00am from Phoenix with a 3 stopover flight into San Juan, Puerto Rico at 11:30pm (3 hour time difference). A 2 hour drive into the mountains and we were at my parents house. The next day we relaxed and enjoyed the views from the deck, spent some time in the hot tub, caught lizards and tried our hand at opening coconuts with a machete. In the evening the clouds rolled in as they often do and provided us with some spectacular views of the southern coast of Puerto Rico looking down over the city of Ponce and the south-western half of the coastline.
 The next morning we were up bright and early for a 2 hour drive to Fajardo on the eastern coast and then a ferry ride to the small island of Culebra, aka- the spanish Virgin islands due to it's close proximity to St. Thomas. Culebra is part of Puerto Rico, but the beaches are as good as any on the Virgin Islands, if not better. The ferry from Fajardo to Culebra is very modern and very fast and since it is subsidized by the government the cost of the ticket was only $2.50 for adults and $1.00 for children and seniors! The 17 mile trip took about 40 minutes, and it was calm seas and sunny skies. The large ferry is apparently turbine powered because as we gained speed the only sound it made was a high pitched whine and away we went! Very fast for uch a large vessel and much faster than the ferry that I remember from years ago. During the trip we even saw a whale breaching in the distance!
Once on Culebra we were met at the dock by Carlos, the owner of Carlos Jeep Rental and taken by bus to our waiting brand new Jeep Liberty. We had arranged beforehand to have the Jeep for the week so that we could visit the various beaches, go to dinner, go shopping and have the basic convenience of a vehicle at out disposal. This was a great plan! If anyone has plans for visiting Culebra Island I can completely recommend Carlos Jeep Rental.
 Our accomodations were at the Culebra Beach Villas, right off the sand at the edge of Flamenco Beach. Flamenco Beach was rated one of the top 10 beaches in the world by the Travel Channel and one of the Top 2 beaches in America. Click here for the offical PR Tourism page on Flamenco beach, Culebra.
 Based on the fact that the beach fills up on Weekends with Mainland Puerto Ricans and their boomboxes all turned up to distortion volume levels, we timed our trip from Tuesday to Friday to miss the crowds and we weren't dissapointed . There were never more than 20 people on the entire mile long beach at one time during the entire week. What bliss!
 Further bliss was found every evening around dinnertime as we had decided before the trip to pull out all the stops and eat out every night! So every evening we met with the sunset at a different restaurant. Each one with a table by the beach and an unobstructed view of this island paradise. The entrees were typically priced between $16 and $22 dollars. About double what one might find on the mainland, but the views and the location were worth every extra penny in my opinion. The best food of the lot was found at a hotel called 'Bahia Marina'. Oddly enough , despite the name this was the only restaurant located at the top of a hill and nowhere near a marina! But the food was great, the people extra friendly and we are almost certain to stay in their beautiful villas the next time we visit.
Friday afternoon we packed everything up, dropped the jeep of at Calros Jeep Rental and caught the shuttle back to the Ferry dock. The return trip was uneventful and the kids both slept on my lap and shoulder the entire way back. They were completely exhausted from all the playing on the beach!
 Saturday, our final day in Puerto Rico, we decided to take a quick drive over to the Toro Negro Rain Forest Preserve which is a short drive from my parents house. The roads are extremely curvy and I was dreaming BIG TIME about driving La bala, but since the entire family was in the little Nissan Sentra SE I could do no more than simply imagine the drive, and make sure that I took every corner as smoothly and with as little jerkiness as possible. Even so, the kids in the back seat were not enjoying the trip nearly as much as I did. Living in Phoenix their entire lives, they are not normally subjected to anything one might call a curve or a mountain! Ah well... We made it to the preserve without incident and enjoyed the rare day with sunshine and only a few clouds. Usually occluded by clouds it was unusual to see all the lizards out soaking up the sun. There were hundreds of them, maybe thousands! and both my children were delighted in seeing them, in catching them and putting them on their shirts. After too short a while it was back to my parents house for some more gourmet cooking and packing for our trip home. Next day was our uneventful flight and so ended our amazing and fantastic trip to Puerto Rico and the paradise island of Culebra.
And now we are back in Phoenix. Life has returned to normal and I am getting ready to hire someone to help finish the Plug and Lay Up the molds.
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