It took me a while to come up with a good title for this travel blog. It's about Culebrita - a little tiny isle off of Culebra in Puerto Rico which I already wrote about. It's one of those places that I'm dying to go back to (even though I usually favor traveling to and seeing where I haven't yet been). So a 'smaller virgin sister' fits Culebrita perfectly I think, because as I remember that isle - it was absolutely unspoiled, untouched and the most undiscovered place I've ever been to.
I remember getting there on a small boat we rented during our stay on Culebra. There aren't any ferries that go from Culebra to Culebrita. And, it was not a typical excursion where you're taken places by tour guides. We rented the little dinghy style boat with a couple horsepower propeller engine in the back. (Sorry, I forgot the place we rented from, but there must be only one or two boat rental places on Culebra like that.)
Getting there took I'd say about 1/2 hour, but not because of a distance. You can see the isle from Culebra, but the waves slowed us down a lot that day. Also, we were trying to be careful as we've seen the rocks on the way that are literally sticking out of nowhere in the middle of the ocean. That made us think - I don't think we'd ever go sailing with a bigger boat on our own in the Carribean. I've heard it's rocky like this, but this was a little to scary. We actually managed to damage the propeller a bit when anchoring by Culebrita. (got a little too close and it was absolutely my fault)
When we stepped on the land we were absolutely amazed. We've heard Culebrita is actually a park - protected area where only birds and turtles roam freely, but I wouldn't expect not seeing one person. (later in the day we met few other explorers, but not in the morning)
First we took a great hike to the highest point. It has excellent views of Culebra on one side and St. Thomas (Virgin Islands) on the other. There is a building on top which if I remember correctly was an old lighthouse.
From there we looked down and saw amazing strip of land with two beaches. One very peaceful, bay kind of style and the other side windy with big waves. It all looked almost as if the rocky one is trying to get to the calm one and the land is in the way. Absolutely amazing. So that was our main destination. Only a narrow path leads you down there and then it splits left and right to the two beaches.
First the calm side. Walking through lush vegetation made me feel like Robinson Crusoe. We did a lot of snorkling, did some photos (nude) and gathered a lot of wonderful corals that we to this day have in our house. The other side was idyllic in a different way. Big waves and steep bottom made the bottom feel almost like a 'quick sand' and made us afraid of swimming in the ocean. Yet, the power of the ocean was in the sense relaxing when sun tanning and looking at it from the beach.
We stayed the whole day. Got burned a little. Didn't see the turtles or any amazing birds (not a season for it) and got back exhausted while riding the boat against the tide. It was all worth it. 100% recommended!!!
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