Punta Cana to Ponce, Puerto Rico

Christmas day in Punta Cana

The loom of Mayagüez in the distance is enough. A fine mist of stars falling silently across the southern Caribbean.

The half moon materializes frighteningly, like an alien spaceship suspended not three feet above the horizon. The control room lit up, the pilot somewhere in the orange glow, unimaginable. Poised for liftoff--rising gently, inscrutable, lost to us.

     An hour after dawn, the edge of the island, jagged hills, too steep to imagine climbing, pummeled cliffs. The mesmerizing luck of arrival.

Ponce

To the mall