Borealis: Day 258- Culebra, PR... still

We came back to Culebra to explore more of the anchorages with sv Arwen. The pace is nice and slow in most anchorages with few transient boats, and not much local boat traffic either. This allows us to freely swim to shore from the boat without worrying about getting run over. In fact, it is wonderful to let the kids swim around the anchorage and between boats on their own, without worry. The waters off Tamarindo and Carlos Rosario beaches were great for snorkeling; with lots of rays, turtles and an assortment of fish. You would think that after a while watching turtles would get less interesting but I still get a thrill every time a turtle surfaces near us or the boat. We decided to take the local ferry to mainland Puerto Rico even though we heard that it was less than reliable. Good provisioning and the opportunity to explore the mainland a little bit was too much to pass up. I stocked up on enough non-perishables to last us until we get back to the States...hopefully. We searched the marine stores for courtesy flags, and charts of the Exumas and Bahamas with no luck. We ended up having to order them from Florida and now are waiting for them to arrive. The shipping services arn't as reliable here as at home even though it is still technically within the US. We did actually see a UPS truck driving around so we know that they operate here to some extent. While on the mainland we visited El Yunque Natl Park, a rainforest with jungle like foliage, waterfalls and many species of coqui. Unfortunately we didn't get to stay long since we had to rush back to catch the ferry. The ferry ended up being 3.5 hours late. From the reaction of the locals this didn't seem too unusual. The delay was partially due to a high tide that made loading cars almost impossible. The entertainment value was high as the cars and trucks tried to drive up a ridiculously steep and wet ramp. Almost good enough to make us forget about the delay.