Salinas, Puerto Rico

Hurricane season was upon us this summer when Ben, Ruca and I cruised over the southern coast of Puerto Rico, and dropped anchor in Salinas, on the southeastern point of the island.

Salinas is a quiet harbor surrounded by mangrove covered islands, and is known to be one of the absolute safest hurrican holes in all of the eastern Caribbean. We'd heard there was a cruiser friendly marina, and a nice community. We stopped to check it out, to see if it might be the right place for us to safely tuck Wanderlust away the rest of the season.

Wanderlust and crew approached the harbor midday, and had no trouble finding a great spot in the calm anchorage, in a soft mangrove mud bottom. Our anchor held great on the first attempt, and we had plenty of room to swing around the numerous moorings and other permanent boats. The water in the anchorage stayed dead calm most of the time, until the fishing boats and family day cruisers headed out through the harbor channel, and back in the evening. But we didn't mind a wake now and then, plus the insane cotton candy sunset made up for it.

The harbor is located in an area of Salinas called Playita, a little community with a handful of bars and restaurants, a pharmacy, a really great bakery with great deli sandwiches, and a hardware store with limited stock. Most things were within walking distance from the dinghy dock at the Marina de Salinas, but the grocery store and the marine store were a good hour walk at least, a couple of miles away from Playita. Plus, we needed to get our pup, Ruca into the vet for a checkup. With no public transportation or taxis, getting around in Salinas by foot was impossible, and we resorted to renting a car for a day (just $40 per day) to round up all our errands. If we were going to stay in Salinas for hurricane season, we'd surely need to buy a car, which was a bit of a bummer. We hadn't owned a car in 10 months, and to be honest, hadn't missed it once!

After the errands were ticked off the checklist, we jumped in the dinghy with Ruca to explore the area. The small islands surrounding the harbor, called "Cayos Ratones" were covered with mangroves, only peeking out a bit of sandy beach at low tide, at which point locals and cruisers flocked to them in hoards to cool off. It was a stark difference to the miles and miles of beach we'd seen in the Caribbean thus far, but the mangroves are what makes this harbor what it is - safe.

After a week or two of asking around for the best beach, we were finally directed out to Cayo Matias, an island half a mile from the harbor entrance by dinghy, with a great sandy beach and deep, clear, calm water among the mangroves for snorkeling and lounging. The island was adopted by the local boy scouts, who regularly clean and maintain it, and even built a few structures. Finally - somewhere to cool off from the Caribbean summer heat!

We found the Cayo Matias mangrove creek was filled with local families on day boats moored from their sterns and anchored at the bow. Oyster and conch cookouts, loud music, and kayakers and snorkelers were everywhere, but there was plenty of room for us to moor our dinghy for the day. We met a few nice folks, and heard that this cay was the spot in Salinas for monthly full moon parties. We made a note to make it back at the end of the month for the party, and let Ruca swim until she couldn't paddle another paw.

After getting to know Salinas, the verdict was still out. Was this the right place for us for hurricane season? We liked the security of the safe mangrove harbor and Cayo Matias, but were bummed about the lack of beaches, public transportation, shopping and a shortage of fellow cruisers our age. Could we make it work?

Our decision was put on hold, because it was time to take a little vacation from our extended vacation... we were headed back to Missouri for the Fourth of July in the Ozarks.

Thanks for reading,

Ben, Quinn and Ruca

#destinations #PuertoRico