Puerto Rico, Father’s Day 2012
My friend Wren mentioned that her Laura’s birthday celebration included whole roast pig. This got me thinking that there are a good many blog readers who are partial to some nicely cooked pork and who might enjoy photos of Peter, Paul and Tony’s pilgrimage to eat pork in the famous lechonera La Ranchera the mountains of Puerto Rico. Gayle went along as the designated driver; she ate roast chicken.
The island (also called St Barth and St Barts) is named after Christopher Columbus’s younger brother. The main town on the island is Gustavia.
We really liked Gustavia in the off season. Here are some reasons why:
Ponce, Puerto Rico
The electric winch pulled too tight on the reefing line at some point and broke the line and the block and an eyelet on the mast. Oops.
Somehow we’d managed to do over a dozen Caribbean charter trips without ever having visited the British Virgin Islands. The BVIs are training grounds for charterers; most do their first charter there.
So, Sunday was our first experience of the BVIs, and it was much as we expected: lots of mooring balls, nearly all occupied by charter boats. We, however, anchored. We have a good anchor.
Hey, that rhymes. Ponce, pronounced “pon-say”, is the second largest city in Puerto Rico. It is named after Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, and thus the city emblem is the lion. There are lots of lion statues about the place. My favourites are the newest ones. We saw them dotted around the historic city square. Chicago has its cows; San Francisco, its hearts; Vancouver, its orcas. Ponce has its lions.
Ya gotta post when you have good interwebs … and not all of us at once.
We are learning as we go.
Here are some snaps from the Exumas.
Sunset at Hawksbill CayHelm duty on the way to Georgetown