Caribbean 2011 Pictures

They closed Miami International while Plottie and Ducknik were somewhere over Haiti, but they eventually landed and took off again for SF a few hours after that, and by 7am this morning the suitcases that had gotten lost had been found and delivered. So that's that on a long day which capped off the best family vacation ever, and that was already the delicious icing on the cake of sailing through the American Virgins and arbeluC Island with Cap'n Crow and Helmsman Finch.



You can see the four new blue pins -- two large and two small. You can also see the white pins from the trip two years ago to the Southern Caribbean, and maybe you'll be as surprised as Plotnik was to realize how far it is from Miami (straight blue pin) to Puerto Rico and the American Virgins: more than two hours in the air. Add in two more hours circling, waiting for the airport to reopen and our plane to get in line with the fifty other circling airplanes, and you have new respect for American Airlines -- they got us down, even if everyone's baggage didn't end up where they were waiting for it.



A little square in San Juan is a great place to sit with your boy, smoke a cigar and laze away an hour or two before the women arrive for dinner...



...though maybe you want to think twice about ordering the whole chillo (deep fried snapper) who keeps staring at you as you eat him.



It was a trip defined by water -- swimming under the waterfall in El Yunque...




...or hiking through the woods to La Playa Desconocida (Secret Beach) outside of Fajardo...





...or snorkling off the ridiculously beautiful waters of Tamarind Beach on Arbeluc, while avoiding the invasive lionfish who are as agressive as they are ugly.





You don't have to be connected to the outside world all the time.



Plotnik has new found respect for the I-Pad and the world of the high tech app, but even more respect for the low-tech Chinese guitar played in the cockpit of a beautiful sailboat.



Money won't buy you love but it will buy you an obscenely large megayacht or book you a reservation for the buffet line on a floating apartment building that leaves its bloated footprint in every harbor you visit.




Whatever turns you on. Plot and Duck know how lucky they are. For them it's all about seeing their friends and kids and if you can do it in a beautiful place so much the better. And the mofongo. Don't forget the mofongo.