Mi amor Puerto Rico!

Day 3, Mabel and Rico took us to Culebra, an island off the east coast of Puerto Rico. You could either take a 45 minute ferry ride or fly a 10 minute flight for about 30 dollars. Rico said it was definitely worth the money for the flight, so we took his word and headed to Fajardo to take a small 6 seater airplane (including the 2 pilot seats). I had never been in one this small... I think the smallest one was in Kenya and it was about a 12 seater. We waited a little while because they wanted the plane to be full, so we had to wait on two other guys to get there. Once they arrived we flew to Culebra and the views were unbelievable. Jack wanted so badly to rent a jeep, so we got a red one and hopped in going to Rico's favorite eating spot, Dinghy Dock. He liked it because you sit right next to the water and you feed tarpon from your tables. Afterwards we headed to Flamenco beach, which is supposedly rated as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. We would have to agree. Gorgeous, a very clean beach and breathtaking clear water. I love being at the beach and this was definitely one of my top beach experiences (up there with St John's barefoot beach and seven mile beach in Grand Cayman). We did a little snorkeling with Rico, while Mabel napped. Then we walked the beach, where we saw an old war tank. Culebra was used as a military firing range and they held marine exercises (this stopped in 1975 when they were bomb testing and killed a civilian). Next, we saw Zuni beach where there was maybe 8 people? It was quite adventurous to get down to the beach with huge ditches and water (now I see why they rent jeeps!). It was gorgeous as well and a major site where the turtles come lay and hatch their eggs. From this side you could see St. Thomas and Culebrita. On the way back to the big island, Jack and I flew with one other guy and the pilot. I told him I felt like we were on the bachelor and I couldn't help but wonder if he would give me a rose. The guy in the back was the camera man. It was a little awkward when we started making out (just kidding!).
Rico has wanted to cook for us but after a long day he just wanted to take us to their favorite sushi place, Ichiban. It was really really good and we crashed at home because we had to get up the next day at 4:30!! That's right, Jack wanted to go scuba diving and the best place was at the wall on the southwest part of the island. Oh yes, we gave him quite the hard time! You better believe it. More about that on the next post!