This year we rang in the new year in a small agricultural town in Puerto Rico called Maricao. Maricao is mostly known for its coffee production, cooler temperatures (about 10-15 degrees cooler than lowlands) and slower pace of life.

View from the mountains of Maricao where we stayed

However, while it is considered a very rural community, they are well-known for their New Year’s Eve celebration. The mayor’s office hires a live band, has a fireworks show and used to even have a pig roast in years past. Rincón doesn’t even do this and it is about 2-3 times the population (about 15,000 people) as Maricao (around 6,000). We thought it sounded like a great time when our new friends invited us to come to the fiesta and then stay the night at their 100-acre finca. And indeed it was.

We had a lot of fun dancing to the merengue and salsa music, eating a great meal and ringing in the New Year 3 hours earlier than we did last year.

Our gracious hosts then showed us around the farm in the morning and we admired all the beautiful tropical plants. We also noticed that while Maricao is only about 20 miles away as the crow flies from Rincón, it is actually quite a bit different when it comes to vegetation because of the climate differences. It really was quite a bit colder than in Rincón. Britton and I both had to snuggle under two quilts to stay warm! Maybe we are just getting acclimated, but it was the first time in Puerto Rico that we were a bit chilled.

Beautiful plants like this heliconia

It was also our first night away from our property in Rincón and it was fun to get away for a night. Seeing what a mature finca with 10+ year’s worth of growth looks like also reinvigorated all our efforts around the property. Plus thanks to our hosts, We went home with more starts to plant. What a great start to 2014. We hope you all have a Prospero Año Nuevo con mucha felicidad.