The drive from San Juan across the top of the island was really pretty. It's not like the Pacific Coast Highway where you get to see ocean the whole way (sadly!). But the scenery was really interesting.
and I was so curious about them! Sam said this was probably a karst landscape (a place where water has dissolved the limestone) and that makes sense because there is a big cave system you can visit in this region, Rio Camuy caverns. I had read about it and was sad we didn't have to time to go there. Next time!
The distance we covered wasn't even that great, but a lot of the road went through small towns where you'd line up for the one traffic light (that did remind me of the California coast), so it took a long time, especially as it got toward evening.
Even though it was so green and lush, it didn't really remind me of Hawaii. As with so many other things, this felt like its own unique place.
We were hurrying a little because we wanted to find our rental house before it got dark, and it was a good thing, because the road ended up being straight up one of those little mountains (they did seem like mountains once we were actually on one!). We said, "This can't possibly be the road," but it was the road, and luckily Sam is a very intrepid driver from having driven our van (both rightly and wrongly) in so many odd places. :) Our little rented Kia was no problem for him! After driving up the impossibly steep road, we came to this forbidding gate, which opened with a code, and then we parked and emerged out into a little terrace with this view down to the ocean:
So pretty!
When we ventured back down the mountain to find food, we noticed that a lot of the restaurants are actually food trucks or tiny food stands with semi-permanent outdoor seating areas, which makes sense in a place where the weather is always so warm! The place we ended up eating had a whole sort of balcony built over a forest ravine, and as soon as it was dusk the coqui frogs started chirping like crazy. It was so beautiful and strange with the frogs and unfamiliar insect sounds and the heavy, humid air. I couldn't believe we were there.
This is a Puerto Rican dish we learned about and tried several times. It's called Mofongo. It sounded so weird to me when I heard it described—a mixture of mashed plantains with salt, garlic, broth, and olive oil. But we were willing to try it. This was a mushroom version Sam ordered. When I tasted this, with a kind of mushroom gravy on top, and onions, and picked beets for tartness, I suddenly understood. It's like mashed potatoes! Just a starchy, savory base for different sorts of meats or seafood! In that context it made sense to me, and I could see how it could be customized in different ways. It was delicious. Just familiar enough not to be off-putting, but surprising and tropical in all the right ways. We loved it.
When we got back, we sat outside in the hot, humid darkness and called the kids at home and tried to have them listen to the frogs. But they couldn't hear them very well.
I am endlessly pleased by these sounds. I love them. Maybe just because they are so foreign to me?
More views from the house
Breakfast!
Sam and I found a place we could sit and watch. The beach seemed like a beach in a postcard, the way it curved in a neat crescent around the turquoise water.
We had taken precious luggage space to bring a full-face snorkel and I was so glad we did. It was lots easier to use, in my opinion, and it was so FUN to see under the water! Sam was particularly fascinated with the snorkeling, to the point that Seb and I threatened to buy him a new shirt that said "Look, a Fish" instead of "Look, a Rock."
And here are a few other pictures from back at the house and this lovely side of the island…
We were so impressed with Seb! He always has been persistent and determined with the things he wants to do. I assumed he'd mostly just paddle around, though, and maybe manage to stand on the surfboard a few times. But he was great! He was able to stay standing up nearly every time! It was fun to watch him.
The most amazing thing, though, was when I went into the water and IT WAS WARM! I was so surprised. The water in Hawaii was warm too, and it surprised me then, but we had Clementine with us so we didn't really spend that much time in the water. Or maybe I have just forgotten. Anyway, it astonished me all over again. I think it might have been even warmer here than in Hawaii—the air outside was warmer, certainly.
I can't adequately describe how nice it is to walk into the water, not cringing and gasping with the cold, but with relief and pleasure. Then you can just lie down and float, or swim along upright, or go under water with a snorkel where you can see, to your great surprise, whole schools of fish swimming around as if the world above the water doesn't bother them in the least. Which I guess it doesn't. Amazing!
You can see in the picture the detail I didn't take much note of at first when we got to this beach—that everyone is IN the water! Compare with an Oregon or even California beach scene where the bulk of the activity is on the sand, with a few brave wet-suited souls out in the surf. But here all the relaxing happened IN the water, understandably, as it was too hot to sit for long on the sand. People had their drinks in hand, and floated around in little groups just chatting away as if they were at a tea party. And the fish just swam unconcernedly around their legs!
The snorkel gave me a bit of a headache but only after a long time, and since we were dividing the time between the three of us it was fine. It made me perfectly happy to just float around and enjoy being the right temperature, anyway, and listen to the sound of the (very gentle) waves.
There was a dip between two hills where we kept looking over to see huge bursts of spray going into the air. Seb and I swam over to investigate. Next to the outcropping were a bunch of pools full of HOT water…just warmed by the sun, I suppose, but it felt so much warmer than even the surrounding warm ocean! The hill itself was really rocky—almost lacy with rock and holes, like little tide pools—and we were glad to have water shoes to climb in. The rock was razor-sharp too, like lava rock—unnerving for me as I kept thinking about falling and having my skin cut to shreds on every exposed surface! Seb was unbothered, though. When we got to the top (farther than it seemed) we could see the waves being directed into a sort of channel where they narrowed and finally crashed with great force up the cliff and onto the rocks, filling up the lacy holes. It was fascinating to watch. We stood there enjoying the spray until at last an enormous wave crashed up and over us, almost knocking us over! It was so strong! Then it suddenly seemed scary to stand up there overlooking the cliff, and I finally convinced Seb to head back down.
We swam back across the bay, which seemed to take forever. Seb's surfing teacher had warned that there was a surprising current on that end of the beach that could sometimes carry people out too far. I've never really been to a place where I'm scared of the ocean…probably because I'm never really IN the ocean. But for the first time I realized how powerful it was and how small and helpless we were…probably a good realization to have. We made it back just fine (we're pretty good swimmers and it wasn't that deep and we could have floated to rest if we needed to) but I was definitely tired and hungry when we finally made it back to the other side!
We stayed all day until the sun got low and we were worn out from the heat and the water.
I liked the sun outlining this tree
A green plateau across from our house…where I guess another house could go! I walked out there on another day and looked back at our house from it. The grasses that look so green and velvety are tall green stalks higher than my head!
Here's the picture taken from that green ridge. I'm on my tiptoes trying to see over the tall grass.
A cute little lizard friend
Everywhere we went we were noticing police cars for Ziggy's sake. We knew he would like how they said "Policia." This was a police station with tons of "Policia" cars so we made sure to take a picture!
We got dinner in Rincon and it was such a funny, cool little town. The electrical wires everywhere were a horrifying tangled mess, like they'd just been tied and spliced and doubled and looped up any which way! I don't know why there weren't electrical fires everywhere! Maybe it was all more deliberate than it looked??
This was a cool store full of interesting kinds of popsicles!
Seb got ice cream in this "bubble waffle" (instead of a waffle cone?). It was good!
I went running (except I couldn't; it was too hilly and TOO hot, so it turned into just walking) from our house and explored the (hilly!) "neighborhood" a bit. The views were incredible.
The road went up even past our house, so steeply!
Sometimes there were little intriguing paths going off the road. I went on some of them.
Isn't this view just magical??
Looking back down at the house we were staying in
Vines covering everything!
Some kind of fruit?
An abandoned house being swallowed up by the trees.
Another look at our house
Distant hills
Another fruit
A teeny-tiny lizard!
Some strange fruit we picked from a tree at the house. It looked like a lime, but it was orange inside! And it tasted orange-y. Not as sour as a lime. I think it might have been a calamansi? Sam's dad said they have those in the Philippines and they look like this.
It bothers me that I sliced it this way instead of the pretty way.
This was during a sudden little rainstorm. It was still sunny, so the raindrops glowed, and the coqui frogs went crazy in the trees!
So green! Impossibly green!
We had bought an avocado at the grocery store and it wasn't ripe yet. So Sam lovingly buckled it into the back seat of the car when it was time to go.
This was the dog that lay in the road (that steep mountain road!) the entire time we stayed at the house. He was always there, lying in the sun, and he'd get stiffly to his feet when we came around the bend and move out of our way. We felt he was quite a dear friend, by the time we left.
We were sad to leave our mountain house! But excited for the next place.
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