A wave for everyone

Flamenco Beach

The locals say that Flamenco Beach is the second most beautiful beach in the world. This we gotta see. It had been raining nonstop for a week, so on the first nice day, we jumped at the chance to go. We dingied over to the ferry dock and flagged down a publico…this one is driven by Kiko. Kiko lived in New York City, came to Culebra to visit his family and never went back. He’s been driving his beat-up van for 40 years. He also has an affinity for Heineken. We loaded up our surfboards and snorkeling gear and headed to the beach in the van with no side door, making arrangements for Kiko to come back and get us around 5pm. There is pretty much everything you could ask for at this beach. There are numerous little huts serving frozen drinks, beer, chips, and grilled chicken skewers. There are also little campgrounds where people camp out, many, like one guy I met, for months at a time.

 



Maria pointing out the sets



Cath - the snorkling photographer

The beach is truly gorgeous. Nestled in the crook of the mountains, the crescent shaped white sandy beach looks out to the turquoise blue water, spotted with reefs, and yes, much to our delight, surf breaks! A nice left AND an awesome right. Now, Maria and Scott are the surfers, and I like to play around in the surf on my paddle board, which is affectingly known as the Whale as it is 11’4. Too big for me to carry on this trip, so instead I brought along my snorkel gear and underwater camera so I could shoot some pictures of Maria and Scotto. It was about a 10 minute paddle out to the left break, and I got to swim over some really nice reefs. The waves had kind of petered out, but man, it would be going off in right conditions. Those guys checked it out for awhile and then paddled over to the right break. I snorkeled along with them, scanning for Jaws. I was getting a bit waterlogged and decided to head back to the beach to hang out with Nancy. Maria and Scott caught a few good waves…they were waist high, and with Scott’s beer belly, it was barely enough to push him. The potential is definitely there for some great surfing though.

Cath, Bonilla and Maria on Flamenco Beach

We all hung out at the beach, sending Scott off for some food and to scope out the local talent. Along the way, he ran into a friend that we had made, Bonilla, and sent him down our way, as Scott said, all he kept saying was “Where are the girls? Where are the girls?” We shared our wine and snacks with him and around 5pm or so, trekked back to find Kiko, which we did, sitting in the shade, drinking his Heinekens. Bonilla caught a ride back with us, and about half way back, Kiko declares that we all need a beer, and pulls into his favorite local bar for a round.


We made it back to the boat, cooked up some dinner, then went back to town to meet up with Bonilla at our favorite bar (where the last time we were there Maria played guest DJ) and watched the NBA playoff games. It was another great day in paradise.