Remember That Summer We Lived In Puerto Rico... Part 1

Sahara Dust Haze

Four months.  FOUR.  Months.  If you remember back to our pre-hurricane season days, we chose Salinas, Puerto Rico for protection from storms.  So did it work?  I would say YES!

Our rationale was this:  If a storm came off the coast of Africa and headed our way... by the time it reached Puerto Rico it would still be a weak storm having had either insufficient time to develop or would have inhospitable conditions.

This year we had weeks of hazy skies from Sahara Dust blowing off the African coast.  The dust that blanketed this part of the Caribbean essentially kept the sea temperatures down so that storms were slow to develop.

Our sunrise view

Lots of lovely wi-fi at the snack bar...  Every morning we took our computers and surfed the internet...

We arrived here in Salinas in mid-July.  We made it all the way to the end of August before the threat of a storm influenced our days...

Days spent doing things like making grocery runs with our little cart...

And carting bags of laundry to the laundromat just over a mile away...  We had to pass a park where horses roamed free.  One day the horses were between us and the laundromat.

The male horse had a hard time keeping the females from getting too close to us.  He would put back his ears, lower his head and run to cut them off if we got too close.... I would quickly dash back behind Bruce so that if one of us was bitten by a mad horse... it would be HIM!  He took this husbandly duty well...

Other critters from which Bruce protected me... Iguanas!

Marina de Salinas has a weekly BBQ and happy hour on Friday nights.  We met up with some other cruisers spending the summer here and enjoyed the cheap food and loud karaoke...

Introducing JM and Michael to the others...

We welcomed friends from Adventure US 2 as they passed through on their way to Fajardo.  We spent a few days hanging out with Janet Lee and Michael and will see them again in November when we get going again...

Walking through town on our way to the festival

Local statue celebrating the fishermen

A day at the festival!

Local rice dish... very popular!

Pinchos!  Our favorite street-rood!

Janet Lee sharing her fan with me... it was HOT!

Little shack that opened up some days to sell lunch

A home along the way that sells empanadillas ... yummy street food!

We rode the streets of town...

When we arrived here we had thoughts of buying a cheap cruiser-car... but that didn't happen.  So we settled for bikes.  We have lovely folding bikes back in my daughter's garage in Florida.  The cost of shipping them to Puerto Rico was more than just going to the Walmart in Santa Isabel ten minutes away and buying new ones... so we did!  Having wheels opened up our range a bit.

We went out onto the salt flats just east of the playa...

Random Creepy Santa

Back at the marina, there are local fishermen who go out most days and return by 11 am with their catch.  We could buy fresh seafood right off the boat before it went to a local restaurant...  One day we bought a snapper and a nice lobster...

Choices...

We'll take the big one!

And THAT ONE!!!

We took our catch back to the dock and Bruce cleaned them... we had several meals from these two big boys...

Poor Bruce... he always gets the ugly jobs...

It seems like it's always storming over the mountains.

Tarpon hang out here at the marina all the time.  

We did some laundry onboard...

Our guardian

Brunch for about $5 at the local bakery.  We went there a LOT!

More friends arrived, this time it was Kimberly and John-Michael from Louisiana aboard their boat, Pura Vida.  They stayed for a month and we did some adventuring with them...  

Bryce (Smidgen) laying it all out there

One evening we were sitting around talking with them and another couple, also coincidentally from Louisiana... and somebody suggested we have a Gumbo pot luck!  Two nights later, we contributed cornbread to their two pots of delicious authentic gumbo.  Sometimes it's easier to get forgiveness than permission, and we got chewed out a little by the marina for having a renegade pot luck...(read your contract people) but it was already done... so there you have it.  

Bruce and Kenny (Smidgen) serving it up

Big moon!

Of course our storm-free days had to end eventually.  But it was the end of August before a threat came...

That got us going... we went out to Los Jobos and staked out a spot to move the boat should the storm develop into a hurricane before it got to us.

Fortunately,  just as planned, it was barely developed and passed us far to the south.  We had only a little rain and a brief increase in winds...

In early September we had a little more fun with Invest 92...  but again, we were happy with our choice.  The basin here in Salinas provided plenty of protection without us ever having to leave our slip.

Meanwhile, we continued enjoying Puerto Rico...

Since we had saved the expense of buying a car, we rented one a few times while we were here.

Not much room to pull over but stunning views!

Driving up into the mountains was much more exciting than being on the main roads... which have tolls and traffic...  But when the afternoon rains came, the narrow roads could become treacherous.  We have developed a system of determining which roads not to be traveling on when it rains...  Roads with two numbers (52, 10) are the easiest roads.  Three numbers (724, 180) are exciting... roads with four numbers... forget it.  They are narrow and steep with room for only one vehicle in most spots...

Las Tetas de Cayey!

We drove through several tiny towns tucked up into the mountain valleys.  It's difficult to imagine life in these towns-that-time-forgot.  The old buildings still standing after so many years.  The people are all SO friendly and accommodating.

Never pass a bakery...

Lunch!  We had no idea what we were ordering...  The daily special!

A word of advice... never rent a car on a Monday or Tuesday.  Most things that you might wish to see are closed in Puerto Rico.  Some open on Wednesdays, but just about everything is open Thursday-Sunday.

A second word of advice...  Google sucks!  SO many times it took us to the back entrance (or not) of the thing we wanted to see... SO many times it took us to a dead end or roadblock where there had once been a through street but no longer... or maybe there was NEVER a street...  But it was an adventure and we eventually found our way.

Coming down out of the mountains began at about 3:30.  We wanted to reach the more flat roads or be home before dark...

One more stop to take a look at the Hot Springs for a future visit.  Bruce didn't want to sit in hot water during the day...

Our route except the middle is missing...

By mid September we were holding our breath... It was the peak of hurricane season and we had been very lucky...  Will our luck hold?  But life went on...  We enjoyed more touristing with Kimberly and John-Michael.

This piece was more than 2,000 years old. 

Nearby Ponce, PR is a larger city with a lot to offer the tourist.  We visited their Art Museum.  I will tell you that Bruce knows much more about art history than I do, and when we visit a place like this, I really wish I knew more.


We weren't able to get a tour in English, but there was one docent there who spoke to John-Michael in Spanish and he relayed the information.  It was fascinating.

The museum has an extensive collection that dates back to the 13th century...  So much history in one place.  It was awesome!

Our luck just seems to be continuing with attractions we wish to see being closed... This time it was Museo Castillo Serralles... a castle owned by the family who owns the Don Q rum distillery (also not giving tours)

The castle was closed so that they could set up the interior for their annual Haunted House... so we went next door to Cruceta del Vigia and took a look around.

This structure reminded us very much of the Columbus Lighthouse in the Dominican Republic... in that both are very ugly and left us wondering why they were ever built.

The view was nice however...

Our day ended on a more pleasant note... we returned to the Hot Springs in Coamo and soaked our cares away...

So at this point our summer is half over.  We are in the thick of hurricane season and we've decided to stay through Mid-November...

We have completely settled into our lives here in sleepy little Salinas, PR and the time seems to just stretch out before us... We can't believe we've been within this 160 mile area for almost six months.  Six.  Months.

Continued...