Arriving at the end of September, our friend Michael, who ran the sailing school was scheduled for hip surgery in October and asked us to stay. He had some students who needed training, so, lucky for us both, our timing was impeccable. 

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We helped him by training his students, and he helped us with a place to stay while we helped with some maintenance work on his boat.   It was a good mutually acceptable agreement.   So we stayed in Puerto Rico for TWO MONTHS on Lola, an Island Packet 37 at Isleta Marina.

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The damage on boats and towns from the two devastating Hurricanes, Irma and Maria in 2017 was still quite evident. If you have not witnessed the power of such wind and water, you are lucky. mother Nature has its own ideas. Boats are still recovering.

Our time on Isleta, outside Fajardo, was made by the friends we made there.

Eva- a smart as ever linguistics professor at the University of San Juan.  She owns a Beneteau 37 which we sailed with her to St Croix on the previous post.

Polito- an 85 year old Puerto Rican mariner.  He sails his boat single handed and takes out charters and students.  Incredible. 

Mariana and ‘Carlitos”  – you want to meet some fun people..???  We did.   And we never want to grow up, just the same as them 🙂 they have a zest for life and a permanent smile on their face constantly. They are the type of people you want to be around.

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One weekends adventure entails a pub crawl,… in Puerto Rican its called a Chincererro. Teenagers would struggle to keep up with this bunch. What fun we had in a darkened bus, music blaring down the road, no idea where you are because you can’t see out the windows!

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Students Herbert, Carlos, and Bob.  We had a lot of fun with these three guys and we made an effort to stay in contact with them.  They were all fun, nice to be around and eager to learn.  Exactly what we like out of students. 

Each of these people have left a lasting impression on us for whichever reasons they have, and will be lovingly remembered until we get back again.

An enjoyable highlight was our meeting of Darrens cousin Ryan from Ireland who HAPPENED to be in Puerto Rico for business the same time we were! Amazing coincidence, and we met up for an afternoon visit.

We may as well have made the best out the the situation and we did, we toured and enjoyed the sunshine and mild weather, because things were about to change.

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