Category Archives: Food

Snapshot Update: Boquerón, Aguadilla, Rincón and Finca

Life just keeps trucking. Sometimes there’s more exciting things than others, but I always try to have my camera ready. Here are a few snapshots of recent moments of our life here in Puerto Rico.

seahorses-bk-ck-cropped
A fun stop in Boquerón (notice the bicycle with coconuts!)

aguadilla-water-beach
A beautiful beach scene in Aguadilla

aguadilla-treehouse
A cool treehouse in Aguadilla! I need to do some more exploring of this! It’s amazing!

tree-climber
Because I do love to climb trees!

banana-bunches
The finca is producing lots of food! Especially bananas and papayas right now!

turmeric-flower ginger
And also cool stuff like turmeric (curcuma) and ginger

laura-and-cassie
I did a fun photoshoot with my friend Laura at the Lighthouse Ruins in Aguadilla

cassie-tommy-poke
And we are super proud of our chef friend Tommy’s new Poke Shack venture in Rincón!

fresh-fish-tommy poke-and-salad
With local caught tuna and many other fresh local ingredients!

rainy-day-rainbow
It has been a bit rainy lately but that means gorgeous rainbows!

silly-britton-and-cassie
And still lots of fun times!

Oh and check out this cool stick bug I found on the screen door of the cabana!

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (1)
  • Awesome (11)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

Fiestas Patronales de Rincón 2016

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.

Carnival rides
Bright lights, loud music, swirling rides and fun times!

Playing pica
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.

Pica
The bets are placed with a domino

BK CK Lichi
Britton, me and our friend Lichi

Pinchos Aranitas
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

Cassie Carnival 2
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.

 

 

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (7)
  • Interesting (1)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

Coconut Harvest and Other Island Scenes

Climbing Coconut tree
Climbing a coconut palm

When we are out and about we often see things that we call “Island Scenes,” you know, scenes that you would never see if you didn’t live on a tropical island. Palm trees, especially coconut palms, to me are one of the quintessentially tropical markers. And as we were walking down a beach one day we came upon two men who were harvesting coconuts from tall 50 foot swaying palm trees.  One of them climbed up using his spikes and the other one caught the heavy bundle of coconuts that descended from a rope.

Man in the trees
Hola from on high!

These coconuts are mainly used for their coconut water, but of course can be used for any number of preparations from coconut oil, toasted coconut, coconut milk, even piña coladas! This is a great service for the beaches because a coconut that falls from that height could easily kill an unwitting person below. Win/win! Here’s a video of them at their work:

We hung out for a while nearby with a friend and enjoyed the sunset. I tried my monkey best to climb a coconut palm, but without the spikes I couldn’t get too far 🙂

Cassie in Coconut Tree
My coconut tree climb is not nearly as impressive!

Dogs and Horse on Beach
Horse riding and a pack of dogs on the beach

Cassie and Britton at Sunset Nice
Classic sunset shot

We also watched another traditional method of living off the land and water when we saw a man setting up the fishing net at the edge of the sea as the tiny ripples lapped softly against the sand. I’m not exactly sure what he was fishing for, perhaps sardines as we often see them when we enter the water. This is the kind of economic activity that has been going on for hundreds of years and that you probably won’t hear much about on the news or through the government: a direct connection to nature and your livelihood.

Boat and Beach
Boat at sunset

Island Time literally
A ceiling fan and a clock on a bamboo pole. Is this where island time came from? haha

Cassie and Britton Monkey and Horse
Yeehaw!

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (6)
  • Interesting (1)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (1)
  • Whoa (0)

Fun out and About: Rincón, Mayaguez and Boquerón

We’ve been getting much further with the cabin. We now have the drywall installed and are working on the flooring. So close to moving in! But we’ve also been taking some time to go out and have a little fun! Staying close to home we spent a nice afternoon with some friends at Steps Beach. It was a bit rainy, but the water was warmer than the air! We slid around on the slimy mossy rocks, snorkeled and dove for pebbles and just lazed in the water and on the beach.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Silly girls!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
My view as I floated around

I also found a great sturdy vine and I just had to climb and swing from it. I think I am becoming more and more monkey living on this island!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Hey, hey I’m a monkey!

Before our band practice I also had a chance to have a little chat with the horse that is pastured where we park. We’ve been watching him grow from a foal to a young horse and it’s pretty cool.

Horse talk

We go into what we call “town” about once a week now for materials for the cabin. Usually that means Mayaguez, but sometimes it’s to Aguadilla. This time when we went to Mayaguez we stopped at the area near the water that they use for the “ferry.”

El Faro del Abuelo
We stopped at this hole in the wall across the street from the water -Grandpa’s Lighthouse

The ferry according to some guy there in this case isn’t a lancha but rather a small cruise ship that goes to “Santo Domingo.” And I don’t mean Santo Domingo the capital city, but rather the word you may hear here more often than not for the Dominican Republic as a whole. But apparently this nice cruise ship is being repaired in Africa….The things you learn just hanging out.

Mayaguez Sunset
View of the water in Mayaguez near the “ferry” area

Climbing trees crop
The monkey strikes again: I took the opportunity to climb a sea grape tree

Boat Cassie Boricua
And check out some of the cool defunct boats

Next we went searching for a little nightlife. It was not the weekend yet, so we weren’t sure where to go. We ended up down in Boquerón! I don’t think Britton and I had been in Boquerón since our honeymoon. It’s such a fun and lively place. I loved all the live music and all the restaurants that are right on the water. We even danced a little salsa! So fun!

Britton and Cassie Dancing
Dancing in the street!

Britton and Cassie Boat
In Boquerón, most of the bars and restaurants back right up to the water!

Cassie and Pirate
Argh! Buy me a mojito, matey! I’m hooked!

Boqueron Galloways 11 years laterWe ate at a restaurant on the water that we could feed tarpon from the table. We went to this on our honeymoon! Crazy!

Whether we stay home in Rincón or venture out a little further, I am still just so delighted with this fun-loving island!

Here’s a quick video of our time in and around Boquerón.

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (2)
  • Awesome (8)
  • Interesting (2)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (1)
  • Whoa (0)