Unfortunately, I only planned to spend two days on Culebra, which is a shame because now I finally understand why people always talk about “going to the beach” with a smile on their faces. My previous beach experiences have been good, but it was largely due to the company I was keeping during such trips. Never before have I been pulled toward the beach solely because it was a living, breathing thing that deserved my attention.
In all the excitement and awesomeness of yesterday’s beach trip, I seem to have misplaced my Harry Potter beach towel. Oh well. As John Locke from LOST would say, “It was a sacrifice the island demanded.” Michael would start screaming “BEACH TOWEL!” and start killing people in order to get it back. Kate would go looking for it, then turn around, then go back to looking for it, torn about what she should do. Jack would organize a search party and make a promise that we would find it together. Juliet would make it a grilled cheese sandwich, and Sayid would use his superb interrogating skills and intellect to find out who has it now. Sawyer would miss it terribly but would deny any sort of emotional response. Ben would use cunning and deceit and tell me that he found it, but only so he can use me like he uses everyone else. As for me, I’m just going to pull a Hurley and head back to the beach, but not before I buy a snorkel and mask.
When I called Culebra Divers earlier in the week to see if they had any snorkeling trips planned offshore they said, “it depends on the weather.” Well, apparently windy conditions don’t bode well for the aspiring snorkeler. No matter…I ran into a couple yesterday who were snorkeling experts and they told me that I could easily swim the reefs within Playas Flamenco y Carlos Rosario. With my fluorescent green (a tribute to all the things I owned and wore that were the same color during the 80s…man, I loved fluorescent green) mask and snorkel in hand, I began my pursuit just offshore. I saw the coolest fish…different colors, shapes, sizes…snorkeling is AWESOME! I can only imagine what it must be like further away from the island. Guess I’ll have to go again sometime…bummer. In total, I went out four times during the day. The final time, I took my cell phone with me; it is currently sitting in a bag of rice because someone told me that’s what I should do to dry it out. Dry out, little phone! You’re so user friendly, and you have all my contacts in you!
The painted tank below is a reminder of the U.S. Navy’s former presence in Culebra. It sits on the edge of Playa Flamenco. Do you know what sits at the bottom of Playa Carlos Rosario? Bombs. Yes, bombs. The sign at the beach said, albeit much more diplomatically than I shall write it, “Hey, enjoy your snorkeling, but don’t step on the ocean floor because there are bombs and you might kill yourself and others.” Yeah, that’s what it said. Awesome. As you can see, Playa Carlos Rosario is much less idyllic than Playa Flamenco…but it did have some killer coral sitting on the beach.
Playa Carlos Rosario
After all my snorkeling and bomb-avoiding were through, I grabbed a fresh, ice cold coconut from a vendor and opened my copy of Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist. For those of you who have not read this timeless tale of a young shepherd boy following his dreams, please do so immediately. As I read from its pages, I kept thinking, “Oh, I should type this part into my blog! Oh, and this part, too!” Do yourself a favor and stop whatever you’re doing (including reading this blog) and pick up a copy immediately. Immediately! I love this book!
Sadly, as dusk began to appear, my time at Playa Flamenco and Culebra had come to an end. These two days were the very best two days of any vacation I have ever taken, even with the food and taxi mix-ups. And yes, even with the intense sunburn that has somehow managed to spread itself across my entire body…including the places that were covered up. Don’t worry, Mom, I put on lots of sunscreen throughout the day! These things just happen! And Culebra, don’t worry…I’ll be back. You still have my beach towel. And hey…where are my sunglasses? You have those, too.
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