Liberty's Memorial Day Review (photo heavy) - Including Extra Days in San Juan!!

[trippingpara]

Tripp again one of the best reviews ever. Awesome Pictures and Epic writing. Thank your for sharing your vacation and family with us.

 

Fair Winds and Following Seas....

 

Wow! Thank you so much for such an incredible endorsement! And thank you for taking the time to read along. Cheers!

[Shih-tzu]

I am so jealous that you will be enjoying my beaches and azure waters in the Caribbean while we are up here in the frozen tundra of New England!

 

I shall wave flying over RI - we are even more frozen that time of year (I'm on the Canadian side... to the east and north of Maine....).

 

You have given me some good ideas of tours (Bernard's in St Martin) and almost (notice I said almost) enough nerve to try SNUBA. Those underwater photos are wonderful!!!!!!

Edited July 3, 2015 by Shih-tzu
Added phrase

[trippingpara]

I shall wave flying over RI - we are even more frozen that time of year (I'm on the Canadian side... to the east and north of Maine....).

 

You have given me some good ideas of tours (Bernard's in St Martin) and almost (notice I said almost) enough nerve to try SNUBA. Those underwater photos are wonderful!!!!!!

 

Now you're just being kooky living that far north!! You really need to try snuba! It's awesome! You get to dive without all the expensive training and you don't have to do complex mathematical calculations on how long you have to stay at a certain depth to acclimate or other crazy scientific stuff that really gets in the way of shutting the brain down and just enjoying the scenery! C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, you gotta try it!!

[Peemagg]

I am thoroughly enjoying your report! Please keep it coming!

 

I was wondering if the tour you took with Bernard's might be one that someone with mild mobility issues could do? I guess what I am saying is, is there a lot of walking?

[trippingpara]

I am thoroughly enjoying your report! Please keep it coming!

 

I was wondering if the tour you took with Bernard's might be one that someone with mild mobility issues could do? I guess what I am saying is, is there a lot of walking?

 

Thank you for reading along. There isn't a lot of walking on Bernard's tours. They pretty much drive you right up to everything. I would suggest mentioning your mobility concerns to the driver so he will seat you in the passenger seat or the front row. That will make it a lot easier for you to get in and out of the van. Happy cruising!

[trippingpara]

As we were loading up the Jeep, it suddenly became very apparent that we were very hungry. Go figure! As we drove away from this little slice of paradise, we chatted about what we wanted to eat. Trippette was very intrigued about this small ad on our map for this place Zaco's Tacos. As far as she was concerned, any place that has the Sugar Skull or Day of the Dead skull for a logo has got to have great food. It sounded totally reasonable to Lady Trip and me so we were off to find this joint.

 

It turned out not to be too difficult to find. The difficult part was to find parking. The main town in Culebra is packed in pretty densely with very little room for parking. The locals have become experts in parallel parking with mere centimeters between bumpers. A serious art form! Having a Jeep, I simply just parked on top a small car that just looked annoying. I wish. I did however, locate a real parking spot (or at least I made it a parking spot) about a block away. It wasn’t too hard to spot Zaco's Tacos.

 

 

Not sure why the picture above came out orange, the building is really a bright yellow. Which sorta catches your attention! The seating area is in the back of the building. You can either sit under the covered area (which we did) or sit in the lower level which looks more like what would have been the backyard.

 

 

 

The quesadillas and carne asada tacos were awesome!! They were so good, I ended up having both!

 

 

 

They are also the home of the Culebra Taco Eating Champion. Now there is an athletic event to be proud of!

 

 

When we arrived there were only a couple locals hanging out. By the time we left, the place was packed and people were waiting for our table. I would highly recommend this joint if you ever find yourself in Culebra. Guy Fieri would go nuts here. We loved the open air bar and eating and even the baby chicks running around our feet added to the ambiance. The prices were very reasonable too. Lady Trip enjoyed it so much she ended up buying an authentic Zaco’s Tacos shirt. Go to Culebra, swim, play around and be merry. When hungry, go here. Be happy!

 

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[trippingpara]

Once we were all fat and happy and ready for a nappy-wappy, we headed back out. With all of the driving around we did, I was in need of some gas and since there is only one gas station on the island and it was right down the street, now was a good time to stop. It took me a little bit to find it (it’s a small gas station with only 2 pumps). A gentleman that was sitting on a half broken chair came over to assist. Of course he had to chug his beer before he was able to do so. After he chucked the now empty can over his head (and just missed his drunk friend peeing in the bushes) he looked at me and asked how much. In Spanish of course. Luckily I knew how to count to 10 in Spanish so I replied “ocho”. I stood there praying that I actually said “ocho” not “oro”. I had a sneaky suspicion that this guy would not appreciate being called a bear even though it is much better than being called a horse like I called some lady in Beijing. Watch those inflections when speaking Chinese!

 

Luckily for me, his face broke out into a wide toothless grin and pointed me towards the small worn down building to pay. I strolled into the building and had to wait 10 minutes while the young attendant ignored me and continued to hit on a young good looking man in front of me. Seeing how I was clearly not in the same league as the man/boy in front of me, I settled in for a long wait. You see, comparing me to the young man/boy in front of me is like comparing Donald Trump to Channing Tatum on stage of Magic Mike. Get the barf bags ready, its going to get real ugly in here! Any ways, it seemed like the two young'ums clearly came to some sort of agreement and the man/boy sauntered off clearly quite happy with himself. With her plans all set, she was now able to do the actual job that she was being paid to do (well, hopefully she was being paid to do!). Like her drunken co-worker outside, she only spoke Spanish too. Again I muttered “ocho” knowing for a fact that this little lady would definitely not like being called a bear. Or a horse. Or probably any animal really. Again, luck was on my side and I pronounced it properly.

 

She happily took my money and gave me a smile while she continued chewing her gum. As I walked out, she shouted something to the toothless drunk which I took to mean “the gringo paid, give him some gas,” or it could have been “hey, we have money, let's get some more cerveza!” When my buddy was done pumping the gas, I was in such a hurry to get out of Culebra’s version of redneck purgatory that I did not see the sign that was behind me. Needless to say, there was a loud crunch from outside and a lot of cringing inside. I pulled around the building and did a quick spot check on the vehicle. Everything looked good so we were back off and running. We made a quick stop to the main bay on the south side of Culebra for a couple quick photos.

 

 

 

Our next stop was Playa Tamarindo Beach.

 

 

 

 

 

This is another great snorkeling spot. Unfortunately, we were running short on time so we were not able to hop in and check it out. Yes, I’m still shedding a tear or two over that! This was a much more popular spot as it is in the middle of the natural reserve and is where the tour groups go to. There is a long, curvy and very bumpy road to get here. It was paved at one time but most of it has washed and crumbled away. Having a Jeep, it was no problem (actually fun in some areas!) however, if you drive slow a regular car of golf cart should have no problem.

 

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[trippingpara]

Well, our time in Culebra was coming to a close. We slinked our way back to the airport and turned in our Jeep and began the wait for our flight back to the mainland of Puerto Rico. There were like a total of 10 chairs in the entire airport and they are clustered together in two rows with their backs to each other. And those chairs took up the entire center of the terminal. That should give you a pretty decent idea of the size of the terminal.

 

Our plane was finally ready so we climbed back into the small plane (same plane, same pilot as before) and began our journey back to San Juan.

 

 

 

Another shot of Lagunda Grande, aka Bio Bay off to the left

 

 

 

Looks like our friend the Splendor has decided to join us in San Juan!

 

 

We were unfortunately stuck on this tiny airplane with a very obnoxious guy from New York that was furious that this plane was going to Isla Grande not the main international airport. He had to catch another fight back to New York and how dare the airlines make such a mistake. Did this guy not look at his airline tickets? What about when he booked the airfare? It was pretty clear to me which airport this plane was going to when I purchased the tickets as well as when I checked in.

 

Of course this guy complained the entire way about how the airline must have screwed up because he clearly bought tickets to go to the main airport. Couldn’t everyone see that? It was all their fault. I was getting ready to chuck this guy out the door at 12,000 feet! I think the pilot was feeling the same as me as he kept giving the guy dirty looks. As soon as we landed he started moaning and groaning about how there wasn’t a taxi waiting for him on the tarmac. Really? Get off your high horse buddy. I’ll be more than happy to knock you off of there. Luckily, he stormed away from us before I had a chance to knock him off his high horse. We last saw him getting into a taxi yelling at the driver to move faster. We just kept a smile on our faces praying that karma will same day rear her ugly head on that guy.

 

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[trippingpara]

We returned back to Caribe Hilton to find hundreds of really nice cars in line dropping off high school couples in formal wear. Prom, we thought! We later found out that it is Senior Week where graduating seniors go away for a week and enjoy the beach and just relax (aka party) for a week to celebrate their recent graduation. At least, that is how it was explained to us. Apparently all of these young men/women were having a formal gathering in one of the convention halls and then staying at the hotel as well. It was neat seeing all of these young couples dressed up so fancy. Ahh, memories of our senior proms…and then 3:00 in the morning rolled around and we quickly were reminded of the after prom parties. Trippette wasn’t too thrilled with them partying in the hall so she put a quick end to it. That’s my girl!!

 

Any ways, I was jumping ahead a bit. We were pretty exhausted from all of the running around that we did today in Culebra so we kept to the hotel property instead of venturing into the main drag of Condado. We ate at Quiznos which is located just off the lobby area and watched all of the young couples stroll by us. We then went up to our room and watched the sun set.

 

 

 

Once the sun fully set, we decided to head back down to do a little bit of shopping in the various stores in the hotel and then we made our way to the pool for a nice evening swim.

 

 

It wasn’t long afterwards that we called it a night and hit the sack. Unfortunately, tomorrow morning we depart this little slice of heaven and head back to reality in Boston.

 

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[trippingpara]

I decided not to set my alarm this morning as I know I would have sent it sailing over the balcony when it went off. I was dreading this morning. We waited forever for this vacation to come and now it is over. What’s that saying; “don’t cry that it’s over, smile because it happened”? I first saw that in Jamman54’s signature line for his son and I always remembered that. Thank you Jamman54 for that little tidbit! I decided to try that concept on for size and put a smile on my face. With that smile, I wandered out onto the balcony and saw this:

 

 

That helped to brighten my smile some more. Lady Trip and Trippette joined me on the balcony and tried to soak in as much as we could. Eventually, we had to turn our back to this magnificent view and finalize our packing. After we triple checked everywhere to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind, I took one last look out the balcony.

 

Being a Marine that has spent a lot of time on Navy ships, my eyes will always catch sight of a navy ship. Off in the distance was the Brazilian Navy logistics and landing ship, the NDCC Almirante Sabóia.

 

 

After watching her sail by, my gaze settled back onto the beach and nearby fort.

 

 

I felt like I was leaving an old friend. I refused to say “good-bye”, instead I said “see you later mate” as we will surely return here again. Puerto Rico has become one of our favorite islands and there is no doubt that we will be back. Prepare yourselves PR, the Trips will land on your shores again!

 

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[cath32]

I enjoyed your review. Thank you!!

:)

[Froufie]

Fabulous review - heading out on a 10 day journeys cruise on the Triumph in November - and spending a few days in San Juan pre-cruise! So looking forward to it :)

[Rock_ON!!]

I really enjoyed reading your review. We were in PR this past August and did the same cruise. It's a great trip, I loved all the port days. Counting down to my next cruise this December.

[trippingpara]

I enjoyed your review. Thank you!!

:)

 

You are very welcome and thank you so much for reading along! :D

[trippingpara]

Fabulous review - heading out on a 10 day journeys cruise on the Triumph in November - and spending a few days in San Juan pre-cruise! So looking forward to it :)

 

I really enjoyed reading your review. We were in PR this past August and did the same cruise. It's a great trip, I loved all the port days. Counting down to my next cruise this December.

 

Thank you very much for reading along and the kind words. Foufie, you are going to have a blast in San Juan!! Happy cruising! :D

[Shih-tzu]

Wonderful job!!!

 

I felt so bad for you on the last post of your review with your final glimpses of PR. If I was that close to tears reading a review, I know I shall be a wreck when I have to leave after my Liberty cruise.

 

I hope you have another trip coming up that we can enjoy along with you here on CC.

[trippingpara]

Wonderful job!!!

 

I felt so bad for you on the last post of your review with your final glimpses of PR. If I was that close to tears reading a review, I know I shall be a wreck when I have to leave after my Liberty cruise.

 

I hope you have another trip coming up that we can enjoy along with you here on CC.

 

Thank you so much for sticking all the way through my review! If you're like me, then you probably will be a wreck when the Liberty makes her final port call back in San Juan!

 

Thankfully I do have the inaugural cruise on the Vista coming up (way too far away!!). And yes, I will most definitely have a review coming for that! And if you thought I had a lot of photos on this one....yeez! Just wait for that one!

[cccer]

Hi Again,

I have a question about Air Flamenco. We will be doing a week pre cruise in Vieques and are flying them out of the smaller airport. Did you have any issue with your luggage? There will be three of us also and we will have luggage for two weeks and I imaging there has to be some kind of limit on what they can take.

thanks

craig

[pghsteelerfan]

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to do another review! I really enjoyed this one. I love the pictures you got, just beautiful and some of the best. You had me laughing several times as well. I am so happy to finally see a review with Culebra included. I'd never heard of Culebra until 2010 after an eastern itinerary. We were heading into St. Thomas, were passing PR sometime around 8 or 9 then another island...Culebra. I found out when I looked it up when we got home after that cruise and was surprised it was actually part of PR. Also, congratulations to Trippett on her graduation from VA Tech and wishing her the best of luck in whatever her future holds. Hopefully that will include more family cruises...and more reviews. :D

 

I don't remember if I mentioned to you that I had been "arm twisting" DH to go on this cruise again or not. If not, I have been for almost a year. It worked! :D We will be sailing Liberty out of San Juan on 9/20/15!!! DH wanted to go to an AI and we thought that was set. It just needed to be booked. The weekend before last he gave me three other choices...all cruises and one was Liberty. He insisted I take a few days and think it over. I gave him my decision the next morning. We booked everything over 4th of July weekend. This seems to be a pattern lately...booking cruises kind of last minute. Since DH started a new job last July, he doesn't have enough time for an extended pre or post cruise stay in San Juan. :( He wanted to fly in day of but I insisted on flying down the day before. We'll have to save the extra days for some other time OR visit Puerto Rico for a week, another thing I've been wanting to do.

 

Again, I really enjoyed your review and will enjoy re-reading it to help in making a few decisions.

[trippingpara]

Hi Again,

I have a question about Air Flamenco. We will be doing a week pre cruise in Vieques and are flying them out of the smaller airport. Did you have any issue with your luggage? There will be three of us also and we will have luggage for two weeks and I imaging there has to be some kind of limit on what they can take.

thanks

craig

 

Craig,

The weight limit for luggage is 25 lbs per person and they do weigh your luggage. There is also a size restriction as these are small planes. In my photo below, the small door that is open to the rear of the plane (right behind the main open door) is the luggage compartment. You can see its pretty small.

 

 

I believe the fee is $1.00 per pound over the 25 lb limit. I suggest packing lightly for 2 weeks! We had no problem with our luggage since we weren't staying in Culebra (we just did a day trip there) and we only brought our snorkel gear and camera gear. I hope this helps! Cheers!

[cccer]

Craig,

The weight limit for luggage is 25 lbs per person and they do weigh your luggage. There is also a size restriction as these are small planes. In my photo below, the small door that is open to the rear of the plane (right behind the main open door) is the luggage compartment. You can see its pretty small.

 

 

I believe the fee is $1.00 per pound over the 25 lb limit. I suggest packing lightly for 2 weeks! We had no problem with our luggage since we weren't staying in Culebra (we just did a day trip there) and we only brought our snorkel gear and camera gear. I hope this helps! Cheers!

 

Wow, you have a picture for everything. Thanks for the information. Looks like the monster bag needs to stay at home this trip. The wife has to cut down on her packing anyway so at least I have a good excuse now.

[trippingpara]

Wow, you have a picture for everything. Thanks for the information. Looks like the monster bag needs to stay at home this trip. The wife has to cut down on her packing anyway so at least I have a good excuse now.

 

LOL, glad I could help you out with that. Happy cruising!:D

[MzOhioLady]

I have followed your review to the end. You are funny and your sense of humor is Right On. Your review put a smile on my face for so many days. You and the Family really look good. I love the names Lady Trip and Trippette. Have the Hollywood and Movie producers call you for the next casting of James Bond!! I'm sure you'll get the part. I really enjoyed the entertainment you provided. Take Care and I look forward to your next review on the Vista!

[QTPieRye]

Hi QTPieRye, there were 2 Elegant Nights. The first one (and most heavily attended) was on Tuesday night (Sea Day). The second one was on Friday, (St. Kitts) and was less attended and was much more dressed down than the first one.

 

Thank you!

[trippingpara]

I have followed your review to the end. You are funny and your sense of humor is Right On. Your review put a smile on my face for so many days. You and the Family really look good. I love the names Lady Trip and Trippette. Have the Hollywood and Movie producers call you for the next casting of James Bond!! I'm sure you'll get the part. I really enjoyed the entertainment you provided. Take Care and I look forward to your next review on the Vista!

 

Wow! Thank you MzOhioLady!! Your comments put a smile on MY face!! You are far too kind. Have fun and watch out for the sea horses on the Victory...they bite! Happy cruising!

 

P.S. Go Browns!!

Edited July 9, 2015 by trippingpara