Thursday: We arrived in the afternoon and anchored outside of the channel to the Marina, hoping to get more air and less noise from the bars in town. We are getting fairly savvy at this. On the way from Caja de Muertos we caught another fish; well two actually; the first was a barracuda (which we tossed back) and the second was a Mutton Snapper which was big enough to share. Dinner was aboard "Vanilla". Tonight - BBQ (wrapped in tin foil) - Mutton snapper with orange and onion slices, butter, tarragon and salt 'n pepper; served with rice and a pineapple & mango salsa.

We hope to rent a car. We will be on the search for Frank and MaryAnn and English Steve. Lynne and Gerry - The Incredible Hull mentioned we should say "Hi" but don't know where to find them... I'm sure we'll be able to find them somewhere. We'll be here for a while. It's going to be our re-provisioning stop before heading to the Spanish Virgin Islands.

Friday: We rented a car at 1pm and headed to Ponce for the afternoon. Unfortunately, it was spent at Wal-mart! We headed home for a late dinner... but it was Steaks, baked potatoes and broccoli with cheese sauce. Yummy!

Saturday: Today we traveled by car to El Yunque Park. To Steve's delight, Sylvain drove. It took us around 2 hours. Lise and I sat in the back set with my new friend Vicky (the dog), who recognized me. As you will see by the photos, I dyed my hair today a warm brown colour. Keep an eye out for further photos. I am sure it is going to turn very brassy as the sun starts to bleach it..lol
El Yunque is the best known forest in Puerto Rico (and a finalist for the New Seven Wonders of Nature competition). It is the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. National Forest System and has been a U.S. Federal Forest Reserve for over a century. It was a king of Spain who originally set aside this paradise for preseveration centuries ago, and today its 28,000 acres house an incredible biodiversity. In the article we read, it was supposed to be easily accessed on 24 miles of clearly marked and well-maintained recreational trails. Unfortunately, we drove to a dead end. The road was closed. A family (with food, drink, chairs and tent) sat at the barred off road, by a waterfall and enjoyed an afternoon together. We literally walked by their table of fanfare and hopped over the steel fence and continued by foot up the road. The paved road that had obviously been closed for years cut a pathway along the steep mountain. We walked under huge stands of bamboo and viewed countless ferns and fauna along side. At one point we thought it pointless to continue, but luckily we persevered and continued. After all, we weren't challenged by the hike (paved road) and the forest was beautiful. It turned out that we didn't need to hike into its steep, huge, dense growth).
El Yunque is home to thousands of native plants including 150 fern species, 240 tree species (88 of these are endemic or rare and 23 are found exclusively in the forest). El Yunque National Forest has no large wildlife species but hundreds of smaller animals abound in the gentle forest, many of which exist nowhere else on the planet. And for us, they hid. We heard many birds in the trees, but we could only mock their songs back to them. It was a wonderful day, without bugs, a gentle breeze and a continuous welcomed sprinkle of rain.

Ps: Hi Ted, you should be in Luperon by now and we are sorry we missed you but we had to move on... insurance dictates that we arrive Grenada before the hurricane season. We would have liked to have stayed longer. Say "Hi" to Kim for me. I liked her (even though it was a short visit at the marina) and I believe we would have had a great time getting to know everyone better.