Steps Beach is named after these concrete steps that have been there for many, many years
One thing that is great about Rincón is that there are so many different beaches for different types of activities. There are long stretches of sand to walk or run or search for shells and sea glass, there are great surf beaches, swimming beaches and snorkeling beaches and even a beach to launch boats (the Marina). Steps Beach, also known as Playa Escalera in Spanish, is part of the 3 Palmas Marine Reserve and is probably most famous for its snorkeling. Here you can often spot sea turtles and it has one of the best elk horn coral formations in the entire Caribbean. Now that we have a waterproof camera (thanks Sean!) we need to go out and take more underwater pictures.
Playing in the tide pools
But on this particular day, we got to enjoy another special part of Steps Beach: the tide pools! Especially for folks with young children or people with limited swimming skills, the tide pools are awesome. The sun warms the water up and they are just deep enough to sort of float on top. There are little hermit crabs and snails and small fish in there with you so it’s a lot of fun to search for creatures as you laze about in the warm water.
Floating and playing around in the tide pools
It was a great place to spend time with our friend Missy and her munchkins. We had a nice picnic lunch and watched the parasailors, snorkelers and boats as they floated past. And Britton and I each took a turn swimming in the deep area as well. But mostly we just hung out under the shade trees and in the pools. There were a few people out, but since it was a weekday it wasn’t too crowded. Just a really nice way to relax!
Cultivating a love of nature and the beach early! Missy and the newest member of the family
With our friends Missy and Ben and kiddos we headed up to the coffee festival in Maricao once again. Before we left Mayaguez, though I wanted to at least see the huge replica galleon ship that was docked there and our friends agreed. It was quite impressive and I would love to go aboard and learn more about it and the history of these ships that brought the first Spaniards to the islands, but it will only be in Mayaguez for a few more days. Here’s an article in Spanish about it. We saw it sailing out near Rincón so it is sea-worthy. It would be cool to see it with all the sails out too!
Thanks Missy for this photo!
Anyhow, it got us thinking and talking like the pirates we be! Argh! And the whole way up to Maricao we talked about wenches, sword fights, rum and hidden booty! So when we arrived we looked to the first ship we could find to commandeer!
Ye ship belong to we rabbit-eared swashbucklers now!
And we be practicin’ our sword fights so beware lest ye lose an eye, matey!
Coffee Festival Poster
Since we came Friday afternoon, the coffee festival was just starting to get going but we walked around and checked out the vendors for a bit. We even saw one of the performers in traditional Jibaro garb. A fellow swordsman he be! Argh.
Jibaro Pirate!
I didn’t stay for long though before I went to help show and interpret at our friend’s coffee and citrus finca that is for sale. I didn’t realize it would take that long to drive up to the farm and back, but Britton hung around at the festival and enjoyed his time with friends and the evening drew more and more people. Overall a great day with great friends….and pirates! Argh!
Our experience in Puerto Rico has been somewhat like a dream. Maybe that’s because it really was a dream of ours to move here, but it just seems like a sort of magic occurs more often than not. It’s a convergence of people, energy and just simply being at the right place at the right time mixed together to form experiences that even in the moment you know are special.
The most recent magical experience happened just this week when we recorded one of our band’s original songs. Our singer/guitar player wrote a great, funny song called No GMO (We Want Natural). It is super catchy and fun and we all believe in it -both the message and the song itself. The chorus goes: We don’t want no GMO, just go outside and grow your own! We don’t want no GMO in our food….we want natural!
Anyhow, he made some arrangements with some big names in the musical industry even on a non-existent/ shoestring budget. And we were on our way.
Practicing to the click track at Rob’s House
We spent the last week or so before recording practicing to a click track which is much harder than you might imagine if you’ve never done it before. It is the most annoying metronome sound you can imagine and we had TICK TOCK in our heads for hours on end. Probably is some form of torture. If not it could be!
Habish getting Rob’s drum mics all ready in the studio
Finally the moment came for us to record. We had two full days set aside to do this. We recorded at Spectra Studio in Aguadilla where the owner Habish Rosario welcomed us. It took a while to get all the equipment ready and so there was a lot of hanging out before each of our parts.
We spent a lot of time hanging out under a beautiful flamboyan tree -Kevin, Chris, Me and Britton
One of the special guests of the recording was retired sound engineer Corky Stasiak. Corky’s resume in the musical industry is crazy impressive. He has worked closely with Kiss, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Beatles and so many others. He has been retired now for nearly 30 years and lives part time in Rincón. To have him come out and help with our production was quite simply amazing!
Corky Stasiak with a new book about the making of Kiss’s Destroyer album
So not only were we recording in a top-knotch studio where some of the best bands in Puerto Rico have recorded, we were also working with world-renowned industry heavyweights.
Some of the awesome bands that Spectra Studios has worked with!
What was really cool was that our producer/friend Giovanni could totally hang with them. He knew just what and how he wanted things and kept the schedule moving at a great pace.
What a crew on day one! L-R: Rob, Chris, Corky, Giovanni, Cassie, Britton, Habish
In the studio with Britton, Habish, Chris, Mark and Giovanni
Making a studio song is nothing like making live music. It is all deconstructed and then put back together again. We started with the rhythm which meant Rob on drums, Britton on bass, Chris on guitar and Chris and I on scratch vocals. Scratch vocals mean that they use it just for keeping the reference in the song. We would record our full vocals the next day and dub them over.
Britton made the comparison that this first stage is sort of like the batterboards in building a house. You want the song to be right on beat and time to the metronome just like you want your house to be straight and level. Everything else will build from there so it is very important. This was a tough stage and we took many takes. At one point we were so frustrated we had everyone except the band members and Giovanni leave. We finally decided to play it without the click track and we rocked it -but to a slightly higher beats per minute! So Giovanni reluctantly turned up the beats and we were able to finally get a great rhythm base to build the song on.
Camping out under the flamboyan
The day was just flying by! We basically camped out and had a couple of food runs but spent the entirety of the day at the studio. From 10am to 12midnight on day one! We got all the rhythm including some fun stuff like my tambourine part, stomps, and claps.
Cassie on tambourine
Day 2 was another long day. We got through a lot though! We did the lead guitar part, trumpet part, lead vocals from both Chris and me, gang vocals, keyboard and backup vocals. It is sounding awesome!
Mark on lead guitar! Sounds sweet!
I was pretty nervous doing my part solo. When I was with Chris it was a little easier because we are always joking around. But alone it is a little intimidating to have people behind a window that can hear you but you can’t hear what they are saying unless they pipe through to you. I took a few takes and overall I think it went really well. I tried to have fun with it.
On day one when Corky was in the studio I received probably the best compliment about my voice that I have ever heard, especially coming from him! He said I sounded a little like Kate Pierson of the B-52s and that I have a really upbeat bright sound that is fun and will carry in a band because it adds such personality. It’s probably partly because I really do just have so much fun with this band and the music we make! We are always making silly jokes, wittisms and double entredres. So I am constantly cracking up.
Chris and I have a great rapport together and are always joking around
Day two ended pretty late as well at around 11pm. When we were in between parts there was a lot of just chilling out in the barn area or under the tree.
Pizza time! With Kevin, Chris, Rick and Giovanni
And time to chill between parts -Britton, Cassie, Caitlin
What an incredible, dream-like experience! We can’t wait to see where this dream takes us next! Yesh. Tiptop indeed.
We live just down an offshoot of the main road of the 413 in Rincón and about 3/4 of a mile from the beach. So whenever possible we try to walk. Walking provides a different sort of perspective on the world. You are much more likely to stop and talk with your neighbors along the way, you notice the small details and life just slows way down. We walk down to the bakery, friends’ houses, the gas station, Sandy Beach, food stops and other spots. When Sean was here we took even more walks because we pushed pause on a lot of our other projects.
Britton, Will and Sean hanging at Jackie’s Gyro place
While I literally hung out
Sean also took a few solo walks and found a path from our house directly to the beach and so we all decided to go for the hike to check it out. Britton and I have been curious about a trail that would supposedly end up at the beach but we hadn’t ever actually taken the trip.
Through the back jungle
We took a machete and just followed Sean’s lead through little creeks and over small bridges, bamboo clumps and flower-carpeted trails. We took our time and stopped to admire all the things we came across.
Open meadows
Flor de maga -Puerto Rico’s official flower -looks like hibiscus but is not
We even came upon these beauties covered in burrs that made their manes look like Rasta dreads
We then popped out of the jungle and right into civilization at these mostly empty condos
And onto this beautiful coconut palm fringed Rincón beach It was a fun little side quest that took us only about a 30-40 minute walk through the jungle. You never know what awaits just out your backdoor. Sometimes the best adventures are found on your own two feet.
