Just arrived in the very well protected bay of Luperon on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic. This is one of the safest Hurricane Hole in the Caribbean!
This place turned out to be a great stop, fantastic anchorage, good cruising community, many arrived here and never left! So there are about 40 resident boats with fun Yachting activities. Life is cheap and the locals are so friendly that you tend to say:
"Oh, we will go tomorrow, and never do!"
We drove inland with our friends Eve & Yan to the mountain region of Jarabacoa and Costanza. We were really surprised to see giantic villas and the latest 4x4 Porsche. If the country is poor they also have a lot of very rich people.
Everywhere Dominicans were open and helpful. We took some incredible dirt roads through the hills to see a 150 meters high waterfall. In our two days out in the country we did not see a tourist so we had a very nice experience.
In the Dominican Republic we notice that the locals girls and women pay very much attention to the way they look. They will sit in front of their house doing manicure, pedicure and putting rollers in their hair for hours. So a bit everywhere, from the bus to the market or the town you will see lovely Dominican with rollers. When the rain starts they will quickly put on a Bath Cap, it is so amusing! Then there is also a very important dress code, which is tight denim and top with high heels. And this is true even in the small tiny farming villages, on motorbikes or on dirt roads! So most people look good which is rather nice.
Then there are the Expats and this is a diffrent story, they were mostly all some kind of unbelievable characters! And as they say in the Rough Guide:
"Milling among the tour operators, itinerant sailors, timeshare salesmen and retirees (with often lovely young Dominican wifes) are a number of questionable people. Colourful in the extreme, many on the lam from the lawfor tax evasion, insurance fraud and various other white-collar offences. The Caribbean adjuster for Lloyd's of London claims that at any given time you will find five of Interpol's ten most-wanted wandering the streets, and a British crew filming a documentary on English expats said that everytime they turned on the camera inside one popular watering hole, a half-dozen people ran for cover!"
It lends an eerie film-noir feeling to the towns and we did meet some strange one!
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After sailing to Culebra then Palominos islands which is a real little delight of a tiny sand circle with a few palm tree surrounded by crystal clear water and magnificent colourful reefs. We headed for old San Juan and went through a big squall with strong wind and sharp seas. We were pleased to enter the protected harbour and to anchor in a near perfect lake.
The old town is really pretty and reminiscent of the colonial time. It is lovely to explore the maze of little streets lined with ancient buildings painted in marvellous colours and covered with flowers.
We also met up with our long time friends Alicia and Don, they drove us around to visit the island. We enjoyed very muc the Caves and the Tropical Forest Drive.
While in San Juan we saw coming in the port an incredible sight, the Earthrace boat! You can go to my Gallery or their website to check it out.
Earthrace Website
It is a very fearce looking 78ft wavepiercer designed to break the world circumnavigation speed record using Biodiesel!
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Charlotte Amalie, the capital, can be quite quaint in some way, it has a lot of old buildings representing very well the Caribbean (see in the Photo Gallery) and some really interesting signs! I have never seen this one before!
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We arrived in Spanish Town to check in with Immigrations and Custom. We came here to explore the famous rock formations of the Bay of Baths. It is late in the morning and we could see maybe 30 boats anchored so we waited by the town until they all left by one French sailboat and I must say it was worth it. This is a really incredibly beautiful place, stunning huge boulders which seems to have fallen here to create an intrigate natural sculture. They are all different in shape and colours, in the background it is white sand beaches covered with lush sparkling green vegetation and palm trees. Then beetween this already amazing setting are some gorgeous villas hidden behind magnificent gardens. This is really breathtaking, a little idyllic piece of paradise.
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Just arrived in the lovely big protected lagoon of Virgin Gorda in the UK Virgin Island. It is so nice to be in such an unspoilt place after the over-developped islands we had visited earlier. This has a stunning setting and a out of the way atmosphere to it.
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St Marteen, the "Friendly Island" is divided between the Dutch and the French (and there is a nice legend about it) but it was first inhabited by the Arawak Indians who came by pirogue from South Africa. The great salt lake which they discovered continued to yield one of the island's main resources until the beginnning of this century. It was therefore called "Sualouiga" by the Arawaks, Land of Salt.
But when Columbus landed is 1493, he named it after the day of his arrival: St Martin's Day.
So here is the charming story regarding the division of the island, obviously not supported by historical facts. The French and the Dutch were so civilised (nothing surprising for the moment) that rather than fight, they had a Frenchman armed with a bottle of wine walk in one direction and a Duchtman equipped with a flask of gin take the other. Where they met became the boundary, and the French ended up with a bit more because the gin was stronger than the wine! And since they signed the treaty in 1648 it has remained inviolated, the frontier is only marked by a stone!
The island is lush and colorful and it character really peculiar with a bit of Caribbean, French and Dutch influences. We enjoyed the Tuesday Night at Grand Case with music and street's vendors, barbecued Ribs to eat on the smoky village with our friends Alexandra and her Mum. They will be opening in February a Restaurant, Quai Rouge by the Lifting bridge on the French side outside Marigot.
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Heading for St Marteen we spotted a quite extraordinary sight, S/Y Maltese Falcon, with most of its sails out passing us at great speed! We are now in Simpson Bay which give us access to the Lagoon where we can either go to the Dutch side of the island or the French.
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This has been a very special place for spending the New Year! Fantastic firework, famous people enjoying the view from their 5 storey megayachts or the helicopters. At the end of the firework display we've got an orchetra of fog-horns!
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