October 2022 was a memorable month! We celebrated the life of a good friend gone too soon (we miss you Jeff), went to the Fiestas Patronales of Aguada, and had a fun Halloween. We even adopted a cat (or did he adopt us) straight from the forest. We named him Pumpkin because of his timing along with our pumpkins.
This weekend we attended the annual Fiestas Patronales in Rincón as we have for the last couple years. It’s a fun weekend of carnival rides, live music, fried foods and sugary or alcoholic drinks, people watching, dancing, games and gambling and more. This year it was a bit wet and muddy due to some tremendous afternoon aguaceros (downpours), but we still had a great time. It always reminds us a little of the Greeley Stampede back in Colorado and the summer fun there. For these Fiestas Patronales this year we met up with a few friends and enjoyed the festivities. Here are a few pictures and a video of our time.
Bright lights, loud music, swirling rides and fun times!
Learning and playing Pica
I finally learned how to play pica. It is essentially roulette. Instead of betting where the ball will land on the roulette wheel though, you bet which little wooden horse will come in first place. There are 24 spots and you win 20 to one on a number. Like roulette though you can bet on the line or a quadrant and earn a little less. Not very good odds, but fun to play for a while.
The bets are placed with a domino
Britton, me and our friend Lichi
Carnie food like pinchos and arañitas which translates to little spiders. A nest-like bowl of shredded and fried plantains with lettuce, tomatoes, onions and bbq chicken
I had as much fun as any kid could!
We also really enjoyed the live music! It’s always so impressive to see these bands perform.
Each year, cities and towns throughout Puerto Rico have their own Fiestas Patronales (translated loosely as Patron Saint Parties). In Rincón, I know very little about the actual patron saint Santa Rosa de Lima, but I know the parties are getting better each year (here’s last year’s post)!
Having fun at the fair grounds (Plaza de la Amistad)
This year we were super excited to hear that Cultura Profética was coming to town! Cultura Profética is probably the best known Puerto Rican reggae band and their songs are often heard on the radio here. We were quite amazed in fact that they were able to bring such a huge name to our little town of only 15,000 people. A free concert in a community venue with a huge headliner? Sign me up! And like most things in Puerto Rico, we went into it without many expectations. This could be a madhouse of people, or muy tranquilo!
One of their popular songs
The big question everyone was asking was what time would they come on? According to the event flyer, the opening bands were supposed to start around 8pm, but we had learned our lesson from last year that due to Island TIme the openers didn’t really start until about 9pm. So we thought we’d get down there around 10pm to watch another great salsa band, Plenealo and guess that Cultura would start around 11.
Plenealo
Carnival rides!
We wandered around and people watched and had carnival food while listening to the openers. I really want to try this game that I had noticed last year. It is always so popular, and I learned that it is called Pica. Our friend Mike said it actually has decent odds.
Pica: A gambling game that is sort of a mix between a horse race and roulette from what I gather
There aren’t any other forms of gambling except Pica and it must be a long-time cultural thing that is allowed in Rincón only during the Fiestas.
A walk through Plaza Amistad when we first arrived
The general scene of the night is super relaxed with people milling around eating and drinking. The evening was cool and refreshing. The perfect temperature. People of all ages come and go and bring in whatever alcoholic -or otherwise- beverages or foods they want as well.
Midnight rolls around and it is obvious that Cultura Profética won’t be coming on any time soon, but by now though we are getting sleepy we are determined to see them. We find some friends and hang out (janguear) for a while. Finally, around 1:20am Cultura Profética takes the stage.
Cultura Profética playing at the Rincón Fiestas Patronales
The show was great, but because it was so late people slowly started peeling away to go home. Their music is so chill it was a sort of lullaby. We stayed for the whole thing and really enjoyed ourselves. By the time we walked back to our truck that we had parked down by the town plaza, it was 3am! We are becoming such farmers that it was weird to be going to bed as the first roosters were crowing. But it was definitely a memorable and lovely evening to be swaying to the grooves under a tropical moon.
Thankfully today we had nothing on the agenda but a beach day with friends to recover from our late, late night out. 
On Saturday, we headed downtown to spend some time at the Surfrider Association’s Fundraiser at Rincon Beer Company. They had a nice dinner for a great cause and we hung out there for a while talking with friends. Then we heard fireworks exploding outside in the plaza. We saw a bunch of people from the church standing outside and so we thought we had better go see what all the fuss was about.
Music in the plaza
It was the annual Fiestas Patronales de Rincón in honor of the Patron Saint Santa Rosa de Lima. In addition to the church gathering there was live music everywhere, a procession and also a big carnival.
Britton working on his Spanish ordering a pincho (meat on a stick)
At the carnival there were the usual things you might see like whirly rides and junk food (Puerto Rican style of course), but also lots and lots of horse race gambling! Well…not with real horses but a fun carnival version that was gambling none-the-less. This was one of the biggest hits! Everyone was placing bets roulette style on the different horses and cheering them on (the wooden horses)!
One thing we have found living here is that there is always a party, somewhere. And this was yet another reason to party.