June 14. Playa Salinas

Playa Salinas is a beautiful anchorage which is considered a great hurricane hole as it is one of the most protected anchorages along Puerto Rico's entire 300-mile coastline. We are anchored off the Marina de Salinas, which is the only marina here. Welsh Rover and Paradise were looking forward to renting a slip for a couple of days to wash the boat down. Unfortunately the owner of the marina does not like transient boats and has no room for us. But that's OK as we like to anchor better anyway. The anchorage is very cute. The whole bay is surrounded by mangroves, some of them are as tall as a regular trees. Even along the little town the houses built right on the water are surrounded by mangroves, which gives it a really pretty appeal. As we anchored we noticed a sister ship on a dock right behind us. Far Out is hull number 5 but was built into a catch. We had Joe the owner over and the guys just talked and talked and talked, I think in the 4 hours he and Brenda were on board, they didn't cover all of it. It was great to see another great boat like ours out here. As we were once more stuck due to bad weather, a tropical wave was heading towards us, we decided to just chill and eventually rent a car and tour the island. Saturday Jack came by, we met him via VHF radio in Poqueron, he had offered his address for us cruisers to receive mail. We took him up on it and on Saturday he delivered it, three huge envelopes full of mail since February. We didn't realize that he was living on the other side of the island and had to drive over one hour to deliver our mail. Well, his boat is anchored here too, so he probably was keeping an eye on her too, but really that was super nice of him. Of all the other places we've stopped so far, the people are just super nice and are going out of their way to help us. Everybody, especially cruisers and boaters living here in Salinas, told us about the wonderful Cafe here who has delicious food, breakfast all day long and provides internet service. So on Sunday the guys decided that we ladies deserve to have lunch out and took us there. Stacey and I took our computers with us and immediately hooked them up. A friendly waiter approached us: "Hello, my name is Juan, I'm your server", -pause- " I'm blind" -pause- "I'm not kidding, I'm blind, what would you like to drink?!" Toni ordered a pineapple and an orange juice, Sid just an orange juice and us girls unsweetened iced tea. Juan comes back with one pineapple juice and one orange juice for Toni and a grape juice for Sid. Then he starts to take our order and after we told him what we wanted, he said: "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, but you know I'm blind, would you mind writing your order down for me?" and handed us his ordering sheet. No problem the waitress I was I wrote our order down and went to the kitchen to make sure the chef understood my short cut writing. After about 30 minutes lunch showed up. Well, Sid and Toni's breakfast showed up, then we found out that he had to make fresh iced tea, no problem. We also tole him that we had no silverware, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry..... Some 3 minutes later our Ceaser salads with chicken were delivered and the waiter asked if we needed anything. "Yes", Toni said, "my toast and his biscuit with our breakfasts". "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, it will be right up." A few minutes later he finally came back with our iced teas and we mentioned to him that we had no dressing on our salads. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I will be write back with dressing and toast and biscuits!" Another few minutes later he brings us an empty bottle of Ceaser dressing. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry........" Five minutes later he told us that they had no new bottle but presented us with an Asian Ceaser dressing. It was the most disgusting salad we've ever eaten, besides there were a few miniature pieces of boiled chicken in there. Stacey also ordered the soup of the day, which had no flavor nor salt, horrible, and we told Juan about it. Toni got his toast just after he had finished his breakfast and Sid got his biscuits about 5 minutes after Toni did, still frozen. And by the way we never got hooked up on the internet, that didn't work either. As Juan presented us with the bill the horrible soup was still on it, so I approached him about that, he just pointed at the chef and told me to talk to him. So I approached the chef telling him very politely how bad the soup was, he just said that he didn't make it, to which I answered that I didn't cared who made it that I was not going to pay for it. So they took that off the bill. We had a good laugh though, this was the most hideous dining experience ever and if Juan would have said I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry one more time I think Toni would have strangled him. We still laugh about it and believe it or not, Stacey and I are going back tomorrow and see if we can do some email stuff after all. I think I will order a beer, can't go wrong with that unless he cannot get it opened. Actually I just figured out why they serve breakfast every day, that's the only thing they cook well, other than the toast and biscuits!
We did rent a car and drove to San Juan, did some shopping and had a wonderful paella and the most wonderful home made flan ever while it rained and rained. It was fun though we did get the feel of very beautiful San Juan's old town, but I think the highlight for the guys was our 2 hour shopping spree at West Marine, a guys jewelry store. The second day Sid and I took off by ourself. We first drove to the El Yunque Rain Forest, where we hiked down to the Minas Waterfalls, just absolutely beautiful. The south side of Puerto Rico is rather on the dry side but once you drive across the first mountain range it gets really lush. The north side, where the rain forest lies is filled with all colors of greens and not to mention all the blooming flowers in any imaginable color. We spent a couple of hours at the park indulging on the fresh fragrances of flowers and trees and our eyes were feasting on the never ending greenery. Then we followed Autopista 3 to Fajardo and drove out to the Lighthouse. From here we had a beautiful view to the Culebra and Vieques island, where we will sail to as soon as the weather settles. Then we took the Autopista 53 south, past the famous Rosevelt Road Navel Base which unfortunately was closed, then to Humacao and took the 30 back up to Caguas. From there we headed on the 52 back to Salinas but took exit 184 to Guavate and drove a very scenic narrow road up the very lush canyon until we reached kilometer marker 27 where several restaurants and huts are staged which offer fire roasted pics. Oh, that was the best pork we ever had, it was so good we ordered some to go. Puerto Rico has just impressed us so much, we both put it on our list of retirement, if we ever give up cruising that is, LOL.
In the meantime the tropical wave has passed us, the first tropical storm Alberto has hit the Florida coast, we are all provisioned again and are just waiting once more for a good weather window to head to Isla Vieques, Isla Culebra, the Virgin Islands and finally direction south.