I haven’t even begun writing this post, yet I know you’re already questioning the title. Isla de Culebra or Culebra, for short, is a Puerto Rican island located halfway (about 12 miles) between the main island of Puerto Rico and St. Thomas. In Spanish, Culebra translates to “snake” aka “nope rope”. We first learned of Culebra about 9 years ago watching a showcase of the world’s best beaches on The Travel Channel. Flamenco Beach in Culebra was consistently ranked at the top of this list at the time.
Back then, we were younger and had less financial means for personal travel. But, our friends were getting married in San Juan, Puerto Rico, so we took off some of our limited vacation time from work and got to planning. Their wedding provided us the opportunity to begin our travel adventures, since this was barely 6 months into Michelle and I dating. And, because even then we couldn’t let a good opportunity go to waste, we scraped together the money (fares out of SAT, where we lived at the time, were never great) and booked our flights to San Juan and hotel accommodations for a full week.
Once we booked that flight into San Juan, how did we get to Culebra? As you can see from the map, Culebra is both an island and not exactly a simple short cab ride away from San Juan. What we discovered was that there were two main ways to get to Culebra—you can either fly or take a ferry. The flights from San Juan were a bit too expensive for our taste at that time, so we opted to rent a car and drive to Fajardo where both the ferry and closest airports were located. The airport and ferry terminal have since both closed in Fajardo and moved to Ceiba, which is only about 4 miles to the South. On this particular trip, we ended up having to take both a flight and the ferry.
Since it was a holiday weekend, Memorial Day, if memory serves correctly, we took a chance and drove out to the ferry terminal parking lot early in the morning. Upon arrival, we parked pretty far out and walked to the ticket booth. The line that greeted us was something to rival people waiting in line for an IKEA grand-opening deal. With that sight, we took our next risk and drove to the airport. At that time, neither Michelle nor I had smartphones, so we didn’t know what flights would cost or if any were even available for that day. Thankfully, we got to the ticket counter and the attendants were beyond helpful. After asking for our weight to properly load the small aircraft we would take, it was a short wait till our departure time. We boarded the 12 minute flight to Benjamin Rivera Noriega Airport in Culebra for $40USD per person (2012 prices) on an 8 passenger, single prop airplane.
The flight was quick and easy, but more importantly, it was low altitude with stunning views of Culebra Island and Flamenco Beach. The pilot even joked if the plane had any trouble, we could just swim the rest of the way. We were at excitement level 100. Once we landed, we exited the airport and took a cab directly to Flamenco Beach. It was still early in the morning before the first ferry arrived from Fajardo and we were among the first people on the beach. Cue some happy dance music.
We enjoyed the beach for the entire morning and grabbed some frozen drinks to enjoy on the bleach-white sand. The ocean water was so clear, we both walked out as far as we could until we couldn’t stand any longer and our feet were still visible below! Around midday, we grew hungry and ventured up the beach to the area with a few food huts. The place we chose didn’t offer your typical beach food; rather it was shark. Fresh shark. We ate shark, lightly battered and fried, that had been caught that same morning, just off the same beach. It really doesn’t get better than that for an authentic, raw island experience.
After lunch, we headed back to the beach and fell asleep in the sun for a few hours before it was time to return to Fajardo. We knew we had to leave enough time to take the ferry back to the main island, since there weren’t any return flights available that day. Again, since it was a holiday, the ferry was filled, if not over filled beyond capacity so we were glad we gave up a bit of beach time to make sure we could get onto the boat. This leg of the trip was only $1.50USD per person (again in 2012) and about a 45 minute ride back. The ride back was so enjoyable that I fell asleep in the late afternoon sun. Culebra was definitely worth the extra adventure for the day trip. We have since been to several exotic beaches around the world and Flamenco Beach’s pure white sand and clear blue waters still hold up. If you find yourself taking a trip to Puerto Rico, don’t miss out on a day trip to Culebra, since it is definitely yes, dope.
