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Culebra, Puerto Rico: A Beautiful and Undiscovered Gem

We have just a little over a week before we leave on our long drive to Miami, where we will drop off Suzanne's keyboard so it can be shipped to San Juan before school starts in Culebra. The planning has been underway for a while now and things are all coming together.

We are headed to the small island of Culebra, Puerto Rico, where Suzanne will be teaching Language Arts to grades 1 to 4 and math to first graders. She will also be teaching sociology to some of the upper grades, music to all grades, and a little bit of art as well.

You may be wondering how all of this came about! Great question!!! If you're interested in the story, here it is, and if not, you may skip this day's blog entirely!!!

Zoni Beach....my favorite!

Last year in June, Stan and Suzanne (I'm Suzanne) went on a 15-year anniversary trip to this gorgeous island. I discovered it after many internet searches for a place that was unique, out of the way, and non-touristy. We enjoy nature (especially Stan the biology man!) and wanted a place that wasn't just a tourist trap, but a truly beautiful and quiet location. I found out that Culebra's beaches are all federally protected for the leatherback sea turtles to lay their eggs. People are not allowed to build on the beaches and you can't even be on the beach at night when they may be nesting or during the hatching season.


Needless to say, this was very intriguing to both of us so we took the plunge and made our way to this out-of-the-way spot. We were not disappointed.


During our week-long stay, we were encourage to hook up with "The Turtle Lady" to find out more about the Leatherbacks. In order to do that, we ventured down to Zoni Beach at 5:30 in the morning and found her and her fellow turtle lovers checking for new hatchlings. Although we hadn't planned on such an early morning for our vacation, it was well worth it, as we watched the most beautiful sunrises we've ever seen, walked on the pristine beach, and experienced an unspoiled piece of this wonderful planet! 


We soon found out that the Turtle Lady was not only in charge of tracking the turtles on this beach; she also ran a small (about 24 students) private English-speaking school on the island! Since Stan and I are both teachers, we naturally had a lot to talk about! I was going to be teaching fifth grade in the fall so we decided to have our students be penpals! It was great fun and would be a unique opportunity for all of our kids!

Abbie's School from the Driveway

Fast forward to Spring Break 2011, and Stan and I were on our way back to Culebra. Of course we planned to get together with Abbie and her students, and we ended up spending a better part of the day at her school. I fell in LOVE with the students and Abbie and talked about what a great opportunity to have Hannah, who is going into 7th grade, have a year in school in Culebra.

Students at work at Abbie's school

After lots of conversation, prayer, more conversation, and more prayer, we decided to it was the thing to do: Hannah and Suzanne would spend the school year in Culebra and Stan would stay home to keep tabs on Mom and keep the home fires burning. Our other daughter, Jessie, is off to college in August, so this is the time to do it if it's ever going to be done!


This is our exciting and scary adventure!!! I hope we enjoy it and hope you enjoy sharing it with us!!


I am planning to blog every day once we arrive in Culebra. I may add more to the blog before we go, but only if there's something interesting... If you want to keep tabs on us, please feel free!