Category Archives: Rincon

2nd Annual Hot Sauce Contest

Last Monday we attended and I participated in the 2nd Annual Rincón Hot Sauce Contest. It was a pretty rainy day, but cleared up quite a bit toward the evening. I competed with a mango-jalapeño sauce that was somewhat similar to my award winning sauce, Hot Kiss, from last year. I gathered and used the mangos that continue to grow and fall from the huge tree above our cabana.

Some mangos and jalapeños

I also made another cute label. This time the sauce was called Mango Jalapeño Tango.

Britton says they were “salsa” dancing 🙂

Considering the rain and cooler weather there was a pretty decent turnout. We had fun trying all the different salsas. Of course there were some that were just too hot for my taste and took a whole can of beer to wash the burning sensation away!

Set up at the Rincón Balneario

¡Cuidado!

We hung out for quite a while. We even saw our neighbor and his uncle hanging out at the Balneario bar. I had him come over to the event and I think he regretted it. His face turned bright red after eating the burning peanuts. I tried to warn him to only have one peanut but he ate about 3! Pobrecito!

Our neighbor José on the far right turned the color of Britton’s shirt after eating the pique.

Later that evening the psychedelic/rock punk band Blacks en Tela played live and we enjoyed hanging out and hula hooping. About half-way through they tallied all the votes and announced the winners. I won 1st place for best label art and 3rd place for best flavor overall! Not too shabby! (You can find a full list of the winners at this page.)

Jamie, Trina and I were three of the winners and we won these great tie-died shirts

It was also the evening of the summer solstice and we saw a beautiful sunset before the full moon. Overall a fun, fantastic evening. Thanks Frances and Greg for all your hard work in putting this together!

A fiery end to a fiery hot sauce contest

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A Day in the Life: Music, International Surfing Day and Boliche

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Our life is so fun. While we get a lot of work done, mostly we act like kids. Here’s an example of a 24 or so hour day in our life.

About 6pm we show up to band practice. In the area where we park there is a random old dilapidated boat sitting in the yard. So I climb in and Britton takes some pictures.

We have a fun Friday night jam. Lots of laughs, groovy music and beer.

Chris, Markus and Britton getting goofy in the jam space

Around 11pm we arrive home and quickly fall asleep to the sounds of the coquis, bugs and thunder in the distance.

About 8am we wake up, have some coffee, a cookie, fruit and some eggs and check on the birds. We walk around the property a bit. The power goes out for a couple of hours, but no big deal; we’re leaving anyway. We put on our swimsuits and stop by Mark’s to borrow a tool on our way to the beach. It’s time to celebrate International Surfing Day and the Surfrider Association is having a small bbq fundraiser/gathering at Dome’s Beach! Surfrider is a great organization and has done a lot for Rincón particularly and Puerto Rico as a whole.

Nice and sunny to start

Our friend Steve and Britton along with others enjoying the bbq

The clouds roll in and it starts to rain. Time to go home and take a siesta. Around 3pm our friend Papo calls and says he’s nearby. Would we like to hang out? Sure. We drive to Aguada and meet him for a beer. What should we do? How about bowling? ¡Boliche! I haven’t been bowling in 5 years probably, but Papo had NEVER been. Wow!

So we head out to the bolera on Highway 2. What a funny sight. At least 80% of the lanes have the rubber gutters in use and people just drop the balls loudly with a thud and let the balls zig zag bouncing against the gutters. It seems pretty obvious that bowling is not a very serious sport for most Puerto Ricans! The Dude would not approve. -Haha!

Aguadilla Bolera

At the bowling alley we used our funny nicknames

We had to teach Papo the very basics of bowling. He didn’t quite get the form, and it was actually pretty comical but he is super strong and still managed to get a couple of strikes. I learned new vocabulary here as well. Chuza is strike and pins are pinos! Still not quite sure of the Spanish word for “spare.”

At one point a pino got knocked into the lane. Well it seemed that nothing was standard bowling protocol here…so why not take a walk on the wild side! I had never “crossed the line” so this was my chance. It was a weird feeling to walk down the bowling lane (pista I think it was called).

I had to walk carefully not to slip, but it was kind of cool to do. So, Papo had his first time ever going bowling and I had my first time ever beyond the foul line. Ha!

Later that evening we grabbed a bite to eat. We had plantain pizza, a burrito and mofongo. Where? It’s a bird! It’s a banana! No, it’s Platano Supreme!

Does this look a little weird to you? haha

Life’s ever the adventure. We are still often surprised at the places it takes us. And we’re loving all of it.

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Cabin Update: Electric and Water

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Agua y luz. Water and electricity. When you move into a house, this is what makes it a house and not just a shed or storage area. We recently finished up the electricity installation including the fans and it really makes it feel like home when you can just turn on the lights at night, the fans when it gets hot, or turn on a little music.

Outdoor fans for the front deck

Britton also framed in the last bit of the wall and the bathroom loft area. We are in the home stretch!

Bedroom fan and framed wall

Rafters above the bathroom and closet

To install water at the cabin, Britton connected about 300 feet of 1/2 inch tubing, buried about half of it, crossed the property, affixed it beneath the sky bridge and then connected it to the cabin.

Waterline where it travels under the bridge

Waterline where it connects from the bridge to the cabin

Next up was internal copper water lines which Britton soldered. Thankfully we have plenty of leftover copper pipes that we reused from the old wooden house and so this was fairly inexpensive. Britton has also worked a little with copper piping before and so this went fast. There was one pipe rupture but Britton fixed it pretty quickly.

Bathroom plumbing and wiring are ready!

You could call this the house that Britton built. Almost everything he did himself or with one other helper. There has not been a moment when he was not working hands on. An amazing feat. It can take a little longer when it’s just you and you’re learning as you go, but he has been a champ. He’s done a great job!

We are now on to the next phase. The skin. Drywall should arrive this upcoming week and Britton and Waldemar will begin installation. It’s all coming together and really starting to feel like a house. I can’t wait to move in!

Home sweet cabin!