February 20, 2015: We all met in San Juan, then drove 2 1/2 hours to Rincon where we rented Casa la Tortuga, a beautiful 6 bedroom house. During the drive we stopped for lunch at one of the many trucks along the road selling pollo (chicken), beans and rice. The owner asked if we wanted a quarter, half or whole. Michael ordered a quarter, so the guy took his knife and whacked a chicken in half, then quarters. Not much like Kentucky Fried, but very nummy. We ate mostly with our fingers, sitting outside under a tree enjoying the warm day.
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The view from our porch
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Sunday, February 22: It seems to rain for a few minutes every afternoon. Today's shower left us with this beautiful rainbow! The air temp. is 85 degrees, the rain is 85, and the ocean is 85, so no matter where we are, the temperature is constant. Nice! Not at all like Minnesota...
Yesterday we arrived at the house mid-afternoon and the kids immediately headed for the infinity pool with its swim up bar.
This morning everybody headed for the ocean first thing. This time of year Rincon is a popular surfing spot because of large waves. The kids not only got to play in the sand but got to watch surfers and jump into huge waves themselves.
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| Erik and his sons enjoy Domes Beach, a major surfing attraction. |
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| Living area. |
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| Porch |
Rincon, which means "corner" in Spanish, is on the northwest corner of Puerto Rico so some beaches are on the Atlantic Ocean, others the Caribbean. It's know for superb surfing during the winter; February is the tail end of the surfing season with its huge waves. Rincon is laid-back, no need to dress up for dinner, and shorts, teeshirts, and flipflops are good enough anywhere.
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Mi familia at the beach
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Oh no! Annie has been buried alive!
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| Patch party celebrating that Jude no longer needs to wear an eye patch. |
Monday:
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| Photos of silly Papa, the steps and Mox were taken by Marty. |
This afternoon we went to Steps Beach, where Dave, Erik and Mox went on a guided snorkeling tour. Mox, who snorkeled in the lake last summer, was amazed by everything underwater in the ocean; elkhorn coral, brain coral, fish. I'm ashamed to say the waves were too high for me, so I chickened out.
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It's easy to see how Steps Beach got
its name. I have no idea how the
steps got there. |
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Mox and Marty on the famous concrete steps, sitting in the middle of a beautiful beach.
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The day ended with a hot game of Farkle.
Tuesday and Wednesday
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| Another beautiful sunrise. |
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| Followed by a morning swim for the cousins. |
Lots of time spent in the water, either ocean or pool, every day. Rachel and Michael went scuba diving, they had a 15 minute kick-out for each of two dives, which sounds pretty tiring to me. The important thing is they loved the dive.
The top of Annie's head was sunburned so her mom told her she had to wear a cap. Annie didn't want to wear it with the bill in front, we thought perhaps wearing the cap backwards would work. Oh no, the independent 3-year-old knew how she wanted to wear her cap.
The boys loved playing in the ocean waves, riding the waves on an air mattress they named the "train."
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| Marty working on a trench to catch ocean water. |
After a busy day, the cousins usually wound down with some iPad/Kindle togetherness time. The afternoon rain shower was a perfect time for that.
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| Mid-afternoon rest and relaxation. |
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| Mox's favorite corner of our living area. |
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| Another short afternoon shower. |
After the rain, this guy showed up. He/she was probably 5 ft. long from nose to tip of tail. Such excitement he created!
Wednesday was Fiesta night to celebrate Dave's coming birthday, plus it was the last night Erik, Mox and Marty would be with us. We had Mexican food followed by a dance party. Of course Dave and I had to show the youngsters our cool moves...which I suspect totally embarrassed Mox and Marty.
Thursday, Friday Saturday
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| Last photo op for the whole group. |
Thursday morning Erik's family headed for San Juan and on to Minnesota, the Tierneys headed out to check out the nearby waterfall and more beach time.
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| Trying coconut milk but not liking it much. |
At about 2 Thursday afternoon the power went out in our neighborhood. It was a looong, dark evening, but we still had fun reading with the kids on the Kindle, using candles for light. Note to self: bring flashlight on next trip. My phone was dead by morning as was the laptop. Thankfully the electricity was back on by 10 a.m. The kids immediately got their cartoon fix and the adults got their electronics fix. At noon Friday theTierneys left for San Juan and a night there before heading home.
Friday and Saturday Dave and I napped, read books, did some beach walking and took lots of pictures of the area. There are many beautiful murals on buildings, here are a few, plus some shots of the colorful buildings.
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Rachel and I had a girls' night out at the Lazy
Parrot where we had our best meal of the week. |
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| Pretty house along our route. |
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| Local clinic |
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| Decorated stairway. |
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This is on our street. The sign at the left says
$20/day or $300/month. |
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| Certainly the cutest barbershop I have ever seen. |
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There isn't much zoning. There are huge homes across
the street from much smaller homes, rentals everywhere, not much parking. |
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| Desecheo Island, a deserted island offshore. |
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| This little gecko, along with his buddies, welcomed us home most days. |
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| Just getting too and from beaches we drove through beautiful jungle every day. |
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday
Our last morning at Casa la Tortuga.
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| The beautiful foliage around the house. |
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This is the power pole right outside la Tortuga.
It's easy to see why there might be frequent
power outages. What a snarl of wires!
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A 38 minute flight from Mayaguez to San
Juan brought us quickly from the countryside
to the city. I used to hate the small 10-passenger
planes, but I've learned to enjoy the trip. Where
else can one hear: "Hi, my name is Shawn
and I'm your pilot today. There are flotation
devices under every seat. In case of
emergency, kick-out the red window in the
second row. Have a nice trip." No flight
attendants needed!
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| The ocean seen from the plane. |
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Puerto Rico is beautiful. The low-lying mountains can be
seen in the distance. |
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| The view from our 17th floor balcony on Sunday. |
We're settled for 3 days at a condo in San Juan. Quite a change from laid-back Rincon! Sunday the beach was full of activities: people beach walking, sunbathing, sailing, para-sailing, driving jetskis, swimming, just about every water activity there is. Monday there were 1/4 as many people on the beach.
Tomorrow we head for home. I'll miss the weather here, high of 85, low of 70, for 12 consecutive days.
This was one of our best trips ever, thanks to our terrific family who were with us. The truly amazing thing? Nine people made this trip and
no one got sick. We asked the kids what they liked best and they all loved the ocean.
Good-by Puerto Rico!
The boys loved playing in the ocean waves, riding the waves on an air mattress they named the "train."
