Whew! We are in the midst of the Christmas party season here in Puerto Rico! It has been so much fun! We hope all of you are enjoying the holidays as well!
We have been going out to parties and events almost every single night for the past 2 weeks!
A fun ugly sweater/white elephant party with our great friends the Kersch’s- a little hard to find sweaters in the tropics though!
I still somehow managed to garner 3rd place in the contest though! haha
And afterward we ended up at the neighborhood bar where the reindeer (me) played some cowbell
The winter solstice party on the beach was awesome too!
We hung out with friends, played music, hula hooped and played with fire
Our friends the VanEes celebrate 3 birthdays in December! We are always honored to be included
Our band also had a gig at Calypso which was a lot of fun!
Thanks to Daisy for this pic
When we’re not out partying, we’re still slowly and steadily moving over to the cabin and spending time enjoying the beautiful tropical winter.
We recently took an island adventure to Isla Palominitos also known as Palominito Island. This is a tiny islet off the coast of Fajardo that is so small it is more like a sandbar than an island. At one point in time it had a bit more vegetation and palm trees, but due to some storm damage and erosion, when we arrived it was desolate. Still, there was an intense beauty and rawness that beckoned us to enjoy it.
Sunrise!!
We started our day off early in the morning around 6am and saw a rare (for us) sunrise on the drive out before caravanning with some friends. It’s a long drive from Rincón (the farthest west) to Farjardo (the farthest east) and after a couple of short stops and many toll booths we arrived at the Marina a little before 11am. Some other friends had left the day before and we met them at the dock to load up onto the boat that we chartered with a man called Captain Mingo for $35/person.
A fun group of friends!
On the boat trip we took the long route and saw the islands of Icacos and Palomino Island before finally arriving at our day destination: Palominito. The water was the most turquoise blue I have ever seen! It was truly the Caribbean destination of the magazines. All that was missing were the coconut palm trees!
Vibrant cerulean and turquoise colored waters
When we arrived we set up camp sort of like on Survivor with some tent sails. We turned on some tunes, grabbed a cold drink from the coolers and set out to the warm water.
Setting up the area we named “Boneyard Camp” for the bleached trees and white coral fragments
Coral fragments of the Boneyard
We had the whole island to ourselves for about an hour and then a few people came and visited us. They said that from afar it looked like we were having a grand party. And in fact, we were!
White sand beaches and crystalline waters all to ourselves!
We greeted the first “invaders” to our island and found out that they were with a movie production crew. It’s such a great spot that even Pirates of the Caribbean has had a scene on Palominito (when it was a little more of a lush oasis).
Our visitors with me and Jill on the ends
Britton and I laughed that we drove 3 hours just to go to another beach, but it was definitely worth it! We liked the adventure of the boat, the new area and the feeling of being castaways on a deserted island. We had a lot of fun just lazing about in the water, tossing a football around and taking fun photos.
Thanks to Daisy for this pic
The water was like a swimming pool!
Flying!
Postcard perfect!
Britton and I enjoyed the gorgeous day
Strike a pose with the moon
We spent about 5 hours out there eating, drinking and being merry on an island in the sun. When Captain Mingo returned we were a little sad to leave. On the way back, Britton even got to drive the boat for a while! He said it takes a little bit of getting used to because you have to steer using opposite inputs.
Captain Britton at the helm
As we were unloading everything from the boat and into the truck some drunk fisherman crashed right into us! Britton ran over and moved the truck out of the way of the ramp and then he rammed us again and started rambling incoherently at us! Captain Borracho as we now call him. Thankfully he only hit our bumper and did virtually no damage to our truck! These are the unknowns to any adventure! After all that commotion we decided to just head back home rather than spend more time with friends in Fajardo like we had planned.
On the way back we took the northern route through San Juan instead of the southern Ponce route. If you are coming from the west coast I would suggest always taking the southern route. There are fewer exits to navigate and much less traffic.
Overall our day trip to Palominito Island was definitely an adventure and the beauty was beyond compare. For anyone who loves raw nature and the idea of just hanging out on a small deserted island with white sand beaches and crystal teal waters this is the place for you!
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.
A fun stop in Boquerón (notice the bicycle with coconuts!)
A beautiful beach scene in Aguadilla
A cool treehouse in Aguadilla! I need to do some more exploring of this! It’s amazing!
Because I do love to climb trees!
The finca is producing lots of food! Especially bananas and papayas right now!
And also cool stuff like turmeric (curcuma) and ginger
I did a fun photoshoot with my friend Laura at the Lighthouse Ruins in Aguadilla
And we are super proud of our chef friend Tommy’s new Poke Shack venture in Rincón!
With local caught tuna and many other fresh local ingredients!
It has been a bit rainy lately but that means gorgeous rainbows!
And still lots of fun times!
Oh and check out this cool stick bug I found on the screen door of the cabana!
We went to Aguadilla for an appointment and ended up in Aguada (watery-land)! Literally.
View overlooking Aguadilla out to Rincón
In Aguadilla we ran our errands, stopped and had lunch and then headed back home. On the way home it began to rain a little, and then a little more. We drove through Aguada and realized we forgot something and turned around splashing through a growing overflow of water on the road. We went to the nearest Farmacia. They didn’t have what we were looking for so we returned the way we came. This time there was a police car blocking the road with cars turning around. We could see that the road was flooded out, but we had just passed through there 20 minutes earlier! It couldn’t have risen that much more that we couldn’t pass, could it?!
The police spoke through the speaker and said in Spanish we could pass at our own risk to ourselves and vehicle. Britton took that as a green light! We went through one part just fine and then it started to get deeper and deeper. There was a slight hesitation on the part of Britton and then it was over. The truck stalled out in the middle of the road that was now a river…
How stuck we were! Look at that water flowing!
Like we were in a fricken boat!
That was sinking!
Ooops…
We sat in the truck as it filled with water for about 20-30 minutes. People around us took pictures and video and yelled to us from the safety of the parking lot to make sure we were ok. Eventually the Emergency Rescue Management team showed up. The people in the military-looking Hummer first said they were going to look for a chain to tow us out and then decided to just get us out and we then would wait for a grúa (a tow truck) to get the guagua out.
It was pretty exciting to get extricated from the truck by climbing through the window barefoot. I’ve never had to be rescued before and I am so thankful these people are here! Everyone was super nice and didn’t give us a ticket or even a scolding except to tell Britton that he should be more careful since he had precious cargo on board (me)! Awww. I think they knew we had received our own punishment. They even said they were happy to make new friends with us even if it wasn’t in the best of circumstances. People here in Puerto Rico are so wonderful.
With a few of the crew that rescued us! Thank you all!
The grúa came and towed out the truck and took us home. Now we are working on the truck to see if we can get it to run again…
Checking the engine
What an adventure!
Here’s a little video I managed to take in the midst of the chaos.
Our band also had a gig at Calypso which was a lot of fun!
