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Isla Culebra (IPA: [ku ˈle brə]) (Snake Island) is an island-municipality of Puerto Rico originally called Isla Pasaje and Isla de San Ildefonso. It is located approximately 17 miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland, 12 miles west of St. Thomas and 9 miles north of Vieques. Culebra is spread over 5 wards and Culebra (Dewey) Pueblo (The downtown area and the administrative center of the city). The island is also known as Isla Chiquita (Little Island) and Ultima Virgen (Last Virgin). Residents of the island are known as Culebrenses.
These small islands are all classified as nature reserves and several nature reserves also exist on the main island. One of the oldest bird sanctuaries in United States territory was established in Culebra on February 27, 1909 by President Teddy Roosevelt.[2] There are bird sanctuaries on many of the islands as well as turtle nesting sites on Culebra. Leatherback, green sea and hawksbill sea turtles use the beaches for nesting. The archipelagos bird sanctuaries are home to brown boobies, laughing gulls, sooty terns, bridled terns and noddy terns. An estimated 50,000 sea birds find their way back
Museum
to the sanctuaries every year. These nature reserves comprise 1568 acres (6 km²) of
Museumthe archipelago's 7000 acres (28
km²). These nature reserves are protected by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Culebra has no natural large mammals. However, a population of White-tailed deer introduced in 1966 can be found on the eastern region of the island.
Because of the "arid" nature of the island there is no run-off from rivers or streams resulting in very clear waters around the archipelago.
Culebra has many beautiful beaches including Flamenco Beach (Playa Flamenco), which can be reached by shuttle buses from the ferry. The beach extends for a mile of white coral sand and is framed beautifully by arid tree-covered hills.
The area west of Flamenco Beach and the adjacent Flamenco Point were used for joint-United States Navy/Marine Corps military exercises until 1975. Many military relics, including tanks, remain in the area. Culebra and Vieques offered the U.S. military an experience of great value to the battles in the Pacific as a feasible training area for the Fleet Marine Force in amphibious exercises for beach landings and naval gunfire support testing. Culebra and Vieques were the two components of the Atlantic Weapons’ Range Inner Range. In recent years, the term “Inner Range” was applied only.
Culebrita and Luis Peña are accessible by boat only. Culebrita will always hold a special place in our hearts. It is absolutely gorgeous!
Labor Day provides another three-day weekend. Some people take advantage of that extra day in unique ways. Rob Schroeder loves to travel, and over one recent three-day weekend, he satisfied his bug with a trip to Culebra, a tiny island just off the coast of Puerto Rico. Schroeder hiked, snorkeled and just plain old relaxed. Everything went according to plan. That is, until he got to the airport. His son Charlie brings us his story.
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The day my dad was set to fly home from Culebra, he got stuck at the airport. The weather was bad, all flights were delayed. So he did what everybody else did; he waited. But after a couple hours, he started to worry that he'd miss his connecting flight in San Juan.
"So I ducked outside to get on my cell phone to call my airline," he says. But the airline couldn't change his flight. So he went back inside where he struck up a conversation with another stranded passenger.
"At one point, he spies this gentleman coming in the side door of the airport," my dad tells me. The man was dressed like a pilot. He wore a white shirt with epaulettes on the shoulders. So the passenger my dad was speaking with went over to him. A few minutes later he came back. The man would fly them to San Juan.
My dad weighed his options. He could stick around, which would mean he'd probably miss his connecting flight in San Juan, and have to spend yet another night in Paradise, or he could hop a flight with a guy who just walked into the airport and agreed to give him a lift in weather major airlines deemed too dangerous to fly in.
It was a no-brainer.
In a matter of minutes, he and four other people had paid the pilot $150 each and slipped out onto the runway.
"No security, no nothing," my dad says.
Then, they boarded what my dad describes as a "Volkswagen in the sky."
"Like a '57-'62 Volkswagen. Little rattletraps," he says. "I figured, well, you only go around once, and the pilot was no more interested in losing his life than I was mine," he says.
It takes about 20 minutes to fly from Culebra to San Juan, so the planes never really get that high off the ocean, but because of the bad weather, this Volkswagen my dad was in, flew, well, about as high as a Volkswagen.
"Very low, I can tell you that," he says. "What seems like several hundred feet above the water because the cloud cover is so low."
It didn't take long for the plane to make its way to the international airport, where it got in line with 747s and 757s and Airbuses.
"It was quite an experience coming in between all these large planes," my dad says.
Then the little plane landed.
"The pilot taxied around the back of the airport. We had no idea where we were going. At this point, we were just along for the ride, into an area where there didn't look like there was anything. But there was this single door, and we taxied over to within maybe 100 feet of that. He shut down the plane, we hopped out, grabbed our bags, followed the pilot over to this small door, he opened the door and we are literally inside the airport. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen."
Three hours later, my dad was back home in Pennsylvania.
For my dad, this was a great adventure. But for me, it raised a lot of troubling questions. Like the whole clandestine way it went down. No security in Culebra, secret door behind the airport. So I called Nico Melendez from the Transportation Security Administration to find out if all this was legal. Did my dad breach security by hitching a ride in an air taxi? He says, "No."
"Air taxis or those kinds of tools that are used in places like Culebra are very common," Melendez says. "Flying from Culebra to Puerto Rico, everything happened as is normal."
So my dad didn't breach security, because there isn't any security when you ride in an air taxi. That secret door? Just the air taxi's entrance. But here's the real kicker: This isn't just normal in Puerto Rico; it's normal in the United States. It's just that my dad didn't know about it until he went away.
So on your next three-day weekend, if you're headed to St. Louis and get stuck in Chicago, you can, according to my pilot friend, Jeff, just flag down a pilot in another part of the airport.
"You could go to 'Joe's Charter Service,'" he says. "And write them a check, give them your credit card and fly you to your destination."
It'll cost you more than the $150 my dad coughed up, but if you can round up some other people who need a ride, maybe.
We did an overnight sail (no wind so mostly engine, as usual) to Culebra, one of the Spanish Virgin Islands that came highly recommended. Culebra is a magical little island. It is small and very hilly but full of little bays on all coasts, which make it a superb cruiser's stop. The main town of Dewey is a delight with many of its buildings colorfully painted and well maintained, while others are decayed a bit- our guess is it is on the rise as a tourist destination. We pulled up with our dinghy to the Dinghy Dock bar, a local favourite. We immediately met a long bearded American who arrived here 26 years ago on his sailboat and never went any further, although he moved to shore. He is part of the land based English speaking expat community. Amy Jo was the entertainer for the night- singing out her heart to soft rock, country and her own original songs. She is trying to make it on the big circuit but has been using Culebra as her base for the past few years. We can't blame her as it is an idyllic little island, yet easily accessible to Puerto Rico's mainland by ferry (1 hour) or plane.
As we traveled around Culebra's little bays and outer islands we saw beautiful villas dotted along the hills, all with an unbeatable view (and the providers of our wifi - thanks!). There is certainly scope for loads more development. We did some nice snorkeling and a dive off of Culebrita and wandered up the hill to its pretty little derelict lighthouse for a great view down on the bay. On Sunday there were 10-15 motor yachts rafted up for the day. But once the early evening hit, they all disappeared in a flotilla and left us the whole bay. A very peaceful few days for sure.
After Culebra it was time to head back to Puerto Rico's mainland to get work done on the boat and spend a day in Old San Juan before Dana flew back to the dirt and the world of making money. It was somewhat of a shock to choose a marina that had 1,000 slips after owning the bay in Culebra.
THE FOLLOWING JOURNAL IS TAKEN FROM MY "PUERTO RICO OVER NEW YEAR''S" ENTRY, PLEASE GO TO THAT ENTRY FOR ALL ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.
We arrived in the village of Dewey, the only town on the island of Culebra, at about 4pm on the 27th. With luggage in tow, we started searching the town for our hotel. Now when I say village, I mean three streets. This is really a true Caribbean village. You can walk everywhere in the town. If your hotel is on other parts of the island, then you will want to catch a taxi (easy from the pier).
We made it to the Posada la Hamoca to find it closed (they are only open from 10-12 and 2-4), however they left our key right there on the counter with a sign that read "Room 6". . .that should tell you something about this town. . .LAID BACK! We climbed our way to the top floor (actually the second floor, but who''s counting?) and into room 6. By the way, there are actually 10 rooms in the Posada La Hamoca (see my journal "Posada La Hamoca") and it is the largest hotel on Culebra. After settling in, we decided to find our dive shop to confirm our dive excursion for the following the morning. It couldn''t be that far in this village, right?. . .it wasn''t. About 100 steps from our room we found one of the two SCUBA dive outfitters on the island. Once we confirmed our dive time for the next morning, we asked Luz (the owners wife) for some help with dinner choices. . .the choice was pretty simple due to a lack thereof--Mamasita''s or Dhingy Dock.
We arrived at Mamsita''s about 7pm, (a casual open-air, canal-side place, with a great view of open water and boats lining the dining area) which happened to be located directly adjacent to our hotel. There was a wait of about 45 minutes. The time passed very quickly with a local band playing "musica caribe" and the Medella''s (a local Puerto Rican beer) flowing freely. As a point of interest, I think that Medella is a cruel joke that the Puerto Ricans play on the gringos, since every local Puerto Rican I spotted was drinking Coors light, not once did I see any drinking Medella. Oh well, we played into their game and drank the Medella, which was actually very good tasting beer.
After a very enjoyable dinner at Mamasita''s (a moderate priced seafood dinner) we decided to head to another establishment for some "refreshments." As we walked I spotted a local man walking out of his house with a beer (yep, Coors Light) in his hand, so I asked him for directions to the closest bar. Ernest turned out to be one of the nicest men we''ve ever met. He literally walked us to a local open-air bar on the corner of two of the three streets. It wasn''t much of a party scene since they only had four stools in the entire 10 x 12 room. We just got our beers and joined Ernest on the stoop outside (see my picture below). We chatted about Culebra and learned all about Ernest''s very interesting, yet uneventful life. I longingly thought of life on this remote, yet somewhat developed, island. What it must have been like 30-40 years ago when all the island knew was themselves and the occasional wayward sailboat with a Hemingway look-a-like on board and a busty blond in tow. Ernest owns a small guest house and the next time we go to Puerto Rico/Culebra we''ll be staying there. . .no offense to Posada La Hamoca.
Everything in Dewey closes at 10 or at the latest 11pm. Don''t expect any late night romps, this town goes to bed early. However, for romance or families this place is perfect. If your single looking for love, I''d recommend you stay in San Juan. While "sleepy" Dewey does have several places to party, just not too late. The nights we were in Dewey we had no trouble finding a cold beer for $1-2.
The next morning we headed out for our SCUBA trip (see journal). This was to be our best dive ever. My wife is fairly small and sometimes needs a hand getting into all that heavy SCUBA gear and even into the water (have you ever tryed to walk with a pair of fins on and a 40 lb. tank on you back?). The crew was great. They saddled her up, leaving me free to better manage my own gear. Our underwater dive guide, Carlos, was wonderful. He pointed out all types of underwater treasures--fish, sting rays, eels, lobster, etc. The day could not have been any more enjoyable. While my wife and I enjoyed the underwater scenery, our travel mates snorkeled with Snorkel SVI - Culebra. They are "certified". . .sounds so official, but really it''s just as nice to snorkel as it is to dive, plus you don''t have to deal with all that heavy gear.
Upon our return to the dock and after getting cleaned up, we sought a place for a late lunch. . . this turned out to be a mistake. We thought we''d head to Gordo''s, an American burger-type place or so it said on the menu at the hotel. However, after what seemed like forever, but was really about an hour of walking, and walking, and walking, we never found the place. Now Dewey is not a big place, remember earlier I said that there was only three main streets. I was not exaggerating. However, all three form a kind of triangle and then "spoke" off in different directions across the island. At any rate, I don''t think that Gordo''s exists. We eventually walked back to our dive shop to ask for help. They suggested that we go to El Batey, which was just what the doctor ordered!
About two blocks from the Culebra Dive Shop, a couple of burgers and beers later we were feeling like new people. After lunch we thought it was a good time to do some souvenir shopping. Shopping on Culebra is rather limited (like two or three stores), two additional places by the pier open when the ferry is arriving.
Culebra is one of the most unspoiled points I''ve seen in the Caribbean. There are some of the most beautiful and secluded beaches in the world on this island. You will most likely have to hike a little to get to them, but with a little adventurous spirt, you will find the all the great qualities of this small charming island. If you can rent a jeep, you should. You''ll enjoy taking in all the sights that this spectacular island has to offer. While you''re there, long after sunset, take a moment to look up, enjoy the stars and take a deep breath. . .you''re on vacation. . .
We
hired Snorkel SVI to take us out today. We dropped the gals off of the boat in Culebrita, which
has a beautiful white crescent beach that’s normally calm.
Philip and I went fishing the flats and mangroves. We had shots at tarpon and bonefish to no avail.
We released the snapper, who is back in the bay swimming around if anyone else wants to catch him.
Big hat tip to our Captain. He did a great job accommodating everyone.
Culebra Heineken International Regatta and Culebra International Regatta Set for March 14 - 16, 2008 Photography by Dean Barnes |
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| Exciting downwind action at the 2008 Culebra Heineken International Regatta. |
Hot racing. Cool parties, and boatloads of island-style hospitality complete with laid-back Caribbean charm are what sailors will enjoy at the 3rd annual Culebra Heineken International Regatta (CHIR) and Culebra International Dinghy Regatta (CIDR). Last year, 74 boats with homeports ranging from the Puerto Rican mainland and Caribbean to as far away as New England and Germany competed, with 39 junior sailors racing in the dinghy event.
Shoreside Facilities & Mix of Courses Highlight CHIR
Set for March 14 to 16, the 2008 edition will once again base out of the Costa Bonita Resort, where on-shore lodgings, plus a regatta village with food booths staffed by local restaurateurs await.
“Courses will be a mix of round the buoys and round the islands,” says regatta director, Angel Ayala.
Saturday’s racecourses will feature windward-leeward racing for the entire fleet south of Punta Soldado. The Racer-Cruiser, Performance Cruiser and Jib & Main classes will also race mark to mark with some roundings of Culebra’s offshore cays thrown in for fun.
On Sunday, the entire fleet – except J24, IC24 and Beach Cat classes – will take off around the island, both starting and finishing in Ensenada Bay so that spectators can watch the action from land.
Meanwhile, the J24s, IC24s and Beach Cats will continue to compete on windward-leeward courses on Sunday.
The IC24 class is expected to be bigger this year.
“Puerto Rico just finished its sixth IC24 re-build and we expect several entries to the class from St. Thomas and Tortola,” says Ayala.
Classes of entry to the CHIR will include CSA Spinnaker Racing, CSA Spinnaker Racer-Cruiser, CSA J24, IC24, CSA Performance Cruiser, CSA Jib & Main, IC24s, Beach Cat and native-built Chalanas.
“We would be happy to dual score IRC-rated yachts that request it, but they must also have a CSA rating,” Ayala says.
An Awards Ceremony will cap the two days of racing.
ISAF judge, Michael Thompson of Detroit, Michigan, will again officiate as Principal Race Officer.
Juan Torruella, one of Puerto Rico’s long time competitive sailors and race officers, who is now based in Washington, DC, as a federal judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, will serve as Chief Judge.
Entry fee is $200 ($100 for Beach Cats and $150 for Chalanas) before February 14 and $250 after this date. For more information and registration forms, visit: www.culebrainternationalregatta.com
New Venue for CIDR
An event-within-an-event, the CIDR will feature Optimist dinghy and Laser racing.
New this year, the CIDR venue will be based further north in Ensendada Bay at the site of the Youth Sailing Center of Culebra. The 150-foot-long dock at this facility will make launching and hosing down dinghies much easier.
Dinghy racing will take place in Ensenada Bay.
Entry fee for dinghies is $50. For more information and registration, visit: www.culebrainternationalregatta.com/dinghy/home.html
Second Leg of the C.O.R.T. Series
The CHIR marks the second leg of the Caribbean Ocean Racing Triangle, or C.O.R.T. Series, which begins in February with the St. Croix International Regatta and concludes in April with the BVI Spring Regatta in Tortola.
New this year, West Marine has signed on as series sponsor. At the conclusion of the three-race series, the first, second and third place boats in each of the classes – Spinnaker A, Spinnaker B, Racer-Cruiser, Performance Cruiser, IC24, and Jib & Main – will receive $100, $75 and $50 gift certificates, respectively. The first place finisher in each class will also receive foul weather gear.
Culebra – An Island Paradise
Seven miles long by two miles wide - and located 17 miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland and 15 miles west of the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Thomas - Culebra is a sailor’s dream that’s yet to be discovered. Only 2000 people inhabit the island. There are no marinas, nor is their overnight anchoring allowed in several bays due to their protected wildlife refuge status. There also aren’t any big chandleries, boat yards, or supermarkets. Yet, it is the unspoiled beauty, easy access via a short voyage from either Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands, and just enough creature comforts to keep boaters happy that makes Culebra an ideal cruising destination both before and after the regatta.
