Author Archives: Cassie

Valentine’s Day Adventure

Sweet Valentines

For Valentine’s Day, we headed out to Aguadilla during the day since Aeden was in daycare to do some exploring and go out to a late lunch. We checked out the downtown plaza, saw the flag stairs and then stopped to see the inside of an abandoned airplane. It was like we were on the TV show, Lost!

Cool Flag Stairway in Aguadilla

Awesome abandoned airplane!

Inside of the plane

We enjoyed a nice meal together at Khalan Thai of a stuffed pineapple and then headed on home. Unfortunately as we were driving along, the clutch pedal broke with a loud boom like a gunshot. Britton stopped and tried to fix it with the few parts we had in the car, but it wasn’t going to happen quickly.

Broken down!

We were running out of time to get back and pick up Aeden. A nice man stopped and offered to help. First he tried to help fix the clutch, but when we saw the time, he ended up taking me all the way to Rincon in order to get him before they closed! He took his own time away from his family going out of his way in order to help a complete stranger! I couldn’t believe it!

It was a reminder that love is also found in the kindness of strangers and that we must always pay it forward whenever we can. You just never know when you’ll need help, so always put good karma into the universe! Britton, meanwhile, worked very hard on the car and managed to drive home without a clutch. It took him nearly 4 hours, but he made it! I know I couldn’t have done that. He is so talented. So it was a very exciting Valentine’s Day with a lot of good lessons. Love one another, never quit trying and help out your fellow human! Of course I love Puerto Rico with all the beautiful enticing beaches and sights, but it’s things like this and the people who make it truly special.

Lares Adventure to Haunted La Rambla and Cafe Lareño

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This week for our adventure we headed to Lares. I had heard about a beautiful place that I just had to check out: La Rambla, also known as The Levy Mansion. There are so many legends and stories about this place, but some consensus says that it was at one point in time going to be a hotel/casino, but then became the island’s first bottled water company because of the sweet spring water that came from a blessed source: La Santa Rosa spring. But there is much more to this story, from a wonderful start to complete abandonment. What happened exactly is unclear, but there are some theories including the violent death of a beloved daughter.

At the Famous Original Lares Heladeria

We started our journey traveling with our friend Anthony from Rincon to the Lares Plaza where we stopped in at the Famous Lares Heladeria. It had been MANY years since we stopped in there, but not a whole lot had changed except, that a copy-cat shop opened up just a few doors down selling the strange concoction (rice and bean, garlic, sausage flavor among others) ice creams as well!

With friends at the new El Grito Heladeria also

Fun with friends in Lares!

Then we rambled on down to La Rambla. Even though it is marked as “No Trespassing” we asked around downtown and they said there was a boquete in the fence that everyone uses and no one cares as long as you are respectful of the area. So we walked from downtown a couple of blocks and spotted the beautiful mansion from the road.

Details of the house

The mansion and grounds were themselves amazing, but the area over the spring was something altogether magical! It was a great place for a photoshoot and I am glad I brought along a skirt to add a little elegance to the photos and to honor what an amazing place it is!

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(these two awesome photos above thanks to Anthony Perez)

Finally afterward, we met up with more friends drove up the hills and checked out the Cafe Lareño factory. It was not officially open to customers, but we met the very nice owner, Don Luis Alcover who showed us around and let us eat and drink a picnic lunch at his place. It was very interesting to see that much of the coffee doesn’t come from Puerto Rico, but rather Mexico! It is depulped, roasted, ground and packaged in Puerto Rico mainly. There were some premium bags of purely Puerto Rican coffee, but not many. I hope that the Puerto Rican coffee industry is able to get stronger and stronger over time.

With my friend Berkley and the owner of Cafe Lareño, Luis Alcover

In the rest area below the newly opened coffee shop (that was closed but available to us courtesy the owner)

A beautiful tour of the coffee grounds (haha pun intended)!

A wonderful day in Lares, Puerto Rico!

Check out the video for more about La Rambla and our awesome day!

Wild Guajataca Adventure: Trip to Two Tunnels, Indian Head, Ermita and More

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Tunel Negro…is so dark and quietly spooky!

We have been trying to get out at least once a week for an island exploration. And while we don’t mind going to some of our favorites, we LOVE finding new ones. We had been to the Guajataca Tunnel a long while ago, but we heard about another more challenging tunnel nearby called the Tunel Negro which means Black Tunnel. It is called this because it is long enough to become completely pitch black in the middle unlike the shorter and lighter Guajataca tunnel near the beach.

As we approached Tunel Negro

The trailhead was surprisingly easy to find (coming from Rincon it is just off the 2 on the right side before the lookout point which would be on the left). We were the only ones parked by an abandoned little kiosk and headed off down the trail. It was somewhat challenging mostly because of all the fallen trees that still were down since Maria I am guessing. Otherwise, it was flat and nice although we did need to watch for carrasco and other stinging plants a little. There were also some offshoot trails going up the mountain and down to the lake. We scrambled up a bit to see a lookout, but didn’t go too far. Maybe someday we can go all the way into the river. It looked beautiful from on high.

The lake down below

After that we also went to the other “easy” tunnel for a few pictures and also stopped by the Taino Indian Head. As we were headed back I saw a sign for Ermita San Antonio Historic Site so we took a quick detour there as well. Overall, it was a really fun and fulfilling day. Check out the video for the full adventure!

Taino Indian Head Monument on Highway 2 off Isabela

Monument to Cacicato de Mabodamaca

Mabodamaca was a chief (Cacique) of the Taino Indians (a subgroup of Caribbean Arawaks) that lived on the island of Boriken (the ancient name for the island of Puerto Rico). Chiefs had the privilege of wearing a golden pendant called a guani, which immediately distinguished him as the leader among the people. Local legend has it that during an ongoing battle with the Spanish invaders, Cacique Mabodamaca led his people up the Guajataca River and they disappeared into Puerto Rico’s central mountain range but along the way he lost his golden pendant and it remains embedded in the island forever as does the memory of his bravery.

On the path of the Guajataca Tunnel

On the drive in- What beauty peeking through these walls!

Some of the murals and artwork at Guajataca Tunnel have been updated

At the overlook stop where down below you can see the Guajataca Tunnel

Ermita San Antonio of the Antiguo Pueblo “Tuna”

10 Reasons We LOVE Puerto Rico

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Survival Beach, Aguadilla Puerto Rico

We have been enjoying ourselves this winter season in Puerto Rico even with the scary earthquakes we’ve been having. Whenever there is extreme weather, catastrophes or other issues about Puerto Rico in the news, we have people question our reasons for living in Puerto Rico. So I thought I would make a list of the top 10 reasons we moved to Puerto Rico and continue to LOVE living here.

So I made a video about the ten reasons, and you can check it out here.

The Top Ten Reasons We LOVE Puerto Rico

1) Food and Tropical Produce
2) Gardening Year Round
3) Tropical Climate
4) Explorations and Adventures
5) Beaches and Sea Life
6) The People
7) Culture and Traditions
8) Mixed Language and Customs
9) Simple, Less Costly Lifetstyle
10) Self-Propelled, Free Life

Recently, we have been enjoying a lot these reasons. We have gone on a variety of adventures including to a new waterfall in San Sebastian which was absolutely breathtaking. We finally found Survival Beach and we even went out on a boat (Taino Divers) and saw whales breaching for us! Life is truly magical here. Remember to subscribe and ring the bell on our YouTube Channel for daily life updates and adventures and like the videos if you do! It helps us stay motivated to keep creating if we know people are into it! Also, let us know if there is a topic you’d like us to cover!

Survival Beach hike