We've promised ourselves will come back here. The people are warm and friendly, the hillsides incredibly lush and the markets brimming with fresh produce. Tonight we dine on chili peppers stuffed with fresh local cheese and tomorrow evening we up anchor towards our next adventure. . .Puerto
Rico. We will leave here as the trade winds get tamed by the warmed winds sweeping of the island and scoot along in the lee, perhaps anchoring along the way, perhaps just a straight shot across the Mona Passage. Hopefully, we will be sipping morning coffee in PR by Tuesday.
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Let me tell you about "challenging"! First, finding the rental car place, two, negotiating in Spanish, three, driving across barrier less bridges with large trucks overladen with concrete blocks bearing down on you while entire families, including Mama nursing the latest addition balance atop motor scooters. But getting to the waterfalls themselves, was not the challenge the guide was referring to. It's getting UP the waterfalls (we did 7 or 27) they called safe. Well, our first clue should have been the helmets and life jackets they have you wear. Next clue, you must go with a guide, fortunately, a very strong guide. So, after swimming across the first pretty pool, you think, "I can do this." Then, around the corner, you struggle against the current to cling onto a rock at the base of the fall. Meanwhile, the guide climbs around to the top and tells you to grasp his fingers. Right! Suffice it to say, it was not graceful. Six to go. Incredible. But what goes up, must come down. Down the shute! "Just cross your arms". Me, I reverted to my catholic childhood, did a rapid cross, pushed off and came up blubbering with my helmet catching enough air to float me up to the surface. Three more over the edges and our trusty guide is standing on the ledge of a cliff ordering me to jump! James, is unfortunately, not allowing me to comment on his passage. You can ask him yourself! The rest of the day was a breeze, a lunch of lobster and conch cerviche, a glass of wine, a ride up Issabell de Torres (2500 feet) in a cable car with semi-hysterical Latino women and a fabulous view of the coast line we will sail by at night below. And finally, an almost easy drive back to Luperon past burros and horses, women balancing full baskets on their heads and uniformed school children spilling out onto the road at the 5 p.m. dismissal bell.
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The sun finally came out today. There are hills around us and we will head out this afternoon to explore. It's absolutely beautiful here. I'm reading an account written by a bucaneer in 1666 who is harvesting wild boar and cows left by the Spanish 200 years before that. Looking up into the hills from our anchorage looks just like their navigation sketches.
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