After our stay at Coffin Island, we headed to Ponce, PR for a visit to the town and see the upcoming Carnival...PR's largest. Our group included Herb and Karen, from Aaranda.
I recommend a visit to Ponce for the scenery as well as the architecture...but not necessarily for the Carnival. The parade was nice, but our expectations were of a somewhat more elaborate affair...like what you'd see during Mardi Gras (anywhere). The 2014 Ponce Carnival featured a few costumed folks, some HS marching bands, a couple of carnival floats and a lot of youth groups (ages 8 and under) in uniforms. There were a number of booths set up around the center of the square, offering a host of souvenirs and food items...the usual things you see at most small town festivals. There were supposed to be a variety of bands playing, but we chose to leave before most of them played.
We discovered that the town square was near the final destination of the parade-goers and the bottle neck of the entries seemed to be right where we were standing. So we were able to check out each group of kids and the various bands in full detail...for up to 10 minutes at a time. All in all, it was a nice community parade. We stopped at a really nice sidewalk café for lunch and walked around the square to see all of the booths and vendors. Karen and Karen picked up some nice jewelry, of course, while Herb and I looked for a place to get dessert.
We discovered that the town square was near the final destination of the parade-goers and the bottle neck of the entries seemed to be right where we were standing. So we were able to check out each group of kids and the various bands in full detail...for up to 10 minutes at a time. All in all, it was a nice community parade. We stopped at a really nice sidewalk café for lunch and walked around the square to see all of the booths and vendors. Karen and Karen picked up some nice jewelry, of course, while Herb and I looked for a place to get dessert.
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| A 1969 Chevelle!!!Yes I know it's a Malibu and it is not a Chevelle SS, 400hp 396 V8 Big Block, 12 bolt main, with 4 speed manual transmission and positraction rear end... but it still fits at the top of the best-car-ever-made category and worthy of any parade! |
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| Traveling buddies, Herb and Karen |
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| The stage area, near the end of the parade route |
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| I'm not sure if this is a good or bad creature. The Bride of Chucky was riding in the car in the background... maybe this wasn't meant to be a feel-good parade after all. |
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| I thought this was a happy kind of costume...but I'm not so sure, now |
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| We toured one of the older homes in the area, and there were a lot of really neat features, but I found the stand-alone shower pretty cool: side sprays, overhead spray each with their own controls...and pre-1940. ...our "modern culture" seems to always imply that we know so much more than those of the past. It just goes to show that we're not so smart after all! |
We needed to head back to St. Thomas and pick up cousin Sharen for a visit with us, so we said our goodbyes to Herb and Karen and slogged our way eastward. Our next stop was a return to Bahia de Jobos, then on to Patillas, PR. (where we saw a manatee in the water under our dinghy) and then to Culebra. Each stop was just for the night, then we were off again. There were some long days of sailing/motoring to windward, but the weather was great and the waves were small... less than 3'. It took us 4 days to sail from Ponce to Water Island for our provisioning.
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| On our way with a 6am Sunrise at Bahia de Jobos. A nice send-off for our rip back to the USVI |
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