The Sahara dust that the wind carries with storms over the ocean limits visibility and creates hazy days, but also spectacular sunsets and sunrises
Here in Rincón we are now in the midst of the transition to “season.” Season, as people here call it, is the tourist season. Surf’s up and it’s cold up north, so many North Americans and others come to Rincón and Puerto Rico in general during the winter.
But right now, early October, we are in the transition. A few people are trickling in, but overall the roads are still nice and unclogged, the beaches are empty and the days are slow and lazy. Britton and I have acclimated to the temperature (by NOT using air conditioning and losing some weight) and need little more than a fan and a nice cold beverage to stay comfortable.
At a beach near 3 Hermanos
It’s just as beautiful as ever. Because we really have nothing to gain by the season we have never really cared one way or another, but this year we are looking forward to it a little more because our band has been practicing all summer for it and also because our cabin should be finished soon and we can rent out our little cabana that we’ve been living in.
Britton and Chris installing the interior doors and also finishing up the bathroom
Our little cabana will be available for rent soon! contact us if interested!
Practicing on the keys at a jam
Checking out some costuming ideas too! Halloween is the official start of season and a lot of fun in Rincón! How do you like this look?
Or how about this one in a pink wig?
When we’re not working on the cabin or jamming with the band, we’ve been enjoying our days just as always.
And there’s still always some new and weird thing to see! Yes, this car has horns! Literal horns.
Palm silhouettes in a fiery sunset
Our beautiful friend Isabella at DAR’s weekly horse class near Sandy Beach
Jangueando con amigos Walter y Pedro
Enjoying a girls’ night out at Villa Cofresí (I swear I’m not that tan!)
Just playing around with some cute kiddos at the Lazy Parrot!
Sunday morning brunch at our house with our friends the VanEes
A clear tropical day at our finca
It’s a time of preparation and also relaxation. Enjoying the calm before the storm. When the tourists and part-timers (seasonal people) come everything becomes more electric and exciting, the humidity drops a bit and the days become crystalline, but it also means that the stores run out of certain things, prices tend to get a little crazy, the roads are more dangerous and people can unwittingly (or wittingly) be a little annoying and arrogant. Still, I happily accept this seasonal change over the snow, wind, gloomy dark and cold any day though.
One of my favorite words in Puerto Rico is chinchorreando. The verb chinchorrear could be translated as “to bar hop,” but it is much more fun and just sort of how going out simply is around here. We’ve been out chinchorreando a bit lately with some friends and having a good time.
Out for rum punches on Rob’s birthday
We tried to play a show at the Landing for the 4th of July but there were some logistical/local politics that literally locked us out, so we chinchorreado back to the jam space and played the after party there instead.
A quick stop at the Landing on the 4th
When we go into Mayaguez for cabin materials, sometimes we stop and visit friends. We like this little bar called Valle Hermoso. There’s a couple of pool tables and fairly decent food including grilled dorado and green salads. On the weekends they have live music too.
Britton playing pool. He has learned the phrase- “te toca a tí” because of it
I sometimes play pool but mostly just enjoy jangeando with the lively characters and the awesome mojitos
Yum fresh mojito with real lime, herba buena and brown sugar -no gross 7-up
We even got to talking about Puerto Rican food and one of the guys couldn’t believe I had never cooked tostones. I told him I like making amarillos, but he insisted it was so super easy to make tostones. He went to his car and brought me some avocados and plantains and then gave me an impromptu lesson on toston-making. Then all the other guys joined in on the tips. Check out this video. Haha. Gotta love this place!
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.
It’s summertime and that means things are slow and hot. There are often afternoon rains and everything is super green and beautiful. Lots of fruits are ripe and the flowers are in their showiest state. We also have a few new additions to the farm.
Mail arrival of some new chicks
The chickens and turkeys are doing a pretty good job at reproducing, but we wanted to add in some new genetics to the mix. We shared the order with some friends who are new to chickens and it’s been fun to watch them enjoy chickens for the first time. They are just so super cute when they are recently hatched. Pretty amazing that a little more than 21 days before, they were just eggs! What life energy!
Three of 12 new additions!
We love to eat eggs around here and there is also quite a demand for local, pasture raised chicken eggs. So we thought we would put more of a focus on that side of the homestead.
The rain this time of year can also mean power or water outages. One afternoon the water, electricity and internet went out for about 3 hours. So we decided to go out and have a beer and watch the sunset. Reminds you not to worry so much. Worrying about infrastructure and thinking you could surely do it better than it currently is handled is a classic sign you are still stuck in the old Type A mindset filled with watches, schedules and to-do lists. When you are here things go much smoother if you just go with the island flow. Do what you can, let your voice be heard but don’t worry; they’re working on it. It’s just a little harder on a very mountainous island with limited resources, high heat and a more even work/rest balance.
Enjoying a gorgeous sunset at the balneario in Aguada
When these services go out, it’s a reminder that it’s all man-made. They certainly make life more comfortable. It’s pretty darn hot without even a fan blowing on you. But having them go out reminds you that you should probably have a backup water and electric plan and it definitely helps you appreciate them more than when they are just a given.
We have also been having some really great summer jam sessions with the band. It’s so laid back and chill and we’ve been making some really cool grooves. We jam with new people sometimes that just pop in. Our jam space at Mark’s is very unique. We even made a song called Jam Space, and as you can see in this picture below, Mark’s wife, Robin, made an awesome record for the wall of the song. ~~When the lights go down, you can hear the sounds, of eerie moves and funky grooves. It’s a rather magic place, that we call our jam space.~~
Such a cool jam space and crew of people
The finca is doing well. Summer is the most fruitful season of all. More and more fruits are coming on board. We recently harvested our first corazón fruit (annona reticulata). Very interesting! Semi-sweet with a grainy pear like custard consistency. I’ve read that it is related to guanabana or soursop which makes sense because it looks similar inside. At first it is so weird we didn’t want to eat it, but once we started we just couldn’t stop. Such a Willy Wonka world of fruit here! We’ve found that like children your first inclination is to not like something, but the more exposures you have to a certain food the more you begin to like it and then eventually love it. I would say corazón will soon be a favorite of ours the more we have it.
Corazón does sort of look like a heart – whole and half eaten
When we are out working on the farm we have to watch out to not step on iguanas! They are so fearless of humans, sometimes we see them AFTER we have stepped on their tails and they run off! I know they have become invasive pests of the island, but it still gets me every time that we basically have fricken dinosaurs just roaming free everywhere! Not to mention an easy source of clean meat if it came down to it!
Iguanas are still out en force! Our finca is an uncaged zoo of them really!
It was also recently the primary election season here in Puerto Rico. Mostly it was related to senate and mayoral races, though people can vote in the primaries for the US. Too bad we can’t actually vote in the generals though! There were major caravanas (groups of cars with lights and speakers) and you wouldn’t want to accidently get stuck behind one of them or your plans for the day will include a caravan party for a few hours! A different sort of summer jam!
Elections mean posters, murals and speaker trucks of the candidate
Though Zika messaging is getting out, it doesn’t seem to really have changed anyone’s behavior that I have noticed. I thought this billboard in Mayaguez was kind of funny and misleading. Do you want Sex without Zika? Such a funny question in and of itself. Yes, the Zika virus can spread through sex, but no, they don’t put mosquito repellent in condoms!
Do you want sex without Zika? A lot of funny assumptions in this question
We are currently working on the water hook-ups for the cabin. Britton dug a trench and placed water line from the turkey coop all the way to the cabin. He is now working on the copper interior water lines.
Water line connects at the turkey coop and travels 300 feet to the cabin
It’s summertime and the living is easy. It’s a nice pace. Not many people on the road. Most everyone who is here is here because they want to be. Full-timers. There are some tourists, but they are mainly from other parts of the island and so there is less confusion and hiccups. There are events like the caminata of some guy to raise money for a children’s hospital and the Rincón Triathlon and of course the hot sauce contest coming up. And the flamboyans are majestically fantastic. Summer in Puerto Rico is a special time.
Sunday morning brunch at our house with our friends the VanEes
