Monday, Feb 9, 2015
Sleeping in is the best! But Sandy, who refuses to wear earplugs, has a homicidal look in her eyes when she talks about the roosters waking her up at some ungodly hour in the morning. Rooster stew might be on the breakfast menu!
After taking benadryl and lathering on a steroid cream last night, my rash this morning is … much worse. Ugh. Sandy suggests a visit to the doctor might be in order, but I don't care to explain “el rashio itchio” in my broken Spanish, plus thanks to Doctor Google I've diagnosed myself with PLE: Polymorphous Light Eruption, an immune response to sunlight best treated by duh, staying out of the sun.
We finish our leftover pizza for breakfast bringing the grand total
for yesterday's dinner and breakfast today to a whopping $9. And
tasty too! Sandy is reading an article on CNN about another surfer getting killed by a shark in Australia, but kindly decides not to
share that with me until later today.
Time for my surfing lesson!!! Goodbye Lazy Parrot
Time for my surfing lesson!!! Goodbye Lazy Parrot
When we get to Dogman's, Nolan is
already walking down the street when we drive up and the other instructor Tina joins us
shortly thereafter. I'm psyched to realize there's only one other student and we basically get 1:1 coaching. The waves are still a bit larger than the usual lesson waves, so we go over some extra instructions on shore before heading out.
I am so excited to get out there seeing the beautiful waves, but I am not used to having to paddle
out that far to get to the line-up and my arms are protesting
before we have to get through the breaking waves past the channel. After a quick break and paddling for what feels like forever we're finally in position to catch some waves ... well, after another break that is haha.
Hindsight 20/20: The paddling didn't tire me nearly as much when we were on Barbados and the next day I felt sick as a dog. It would take almost three weeks from the day we got back home before I got better so my guess is I was already fighting something.
They waves look pretty big (to me), but Nolan picks the perfect wave for me. They are
all super stoked for me and when I catch back up to Nolan comments that I looked "really comfortable out there" and questions my having just had one lesson before today. Yay! I must be making progress.
On my second or third wave I get caught by a set of breaking waves when I'm trying to paddle back out to the line up and it SUCKS. It's like being in a washing machine on spin cycle and every time you manage to get out it sucks you back in and you end up even closer to shore than before. The power behind the waves is amazing ... I can't even imagine what it feels like to get trapped by yesterday's monsters.
Tina surfs over to make sure I can make it out of the impact zone and with her encouragement I awkwardly claw my way out of the breaking waves. Wow, my muscles are quivering from the strain when I finally sit up on my board and I make sure to wait a while before catching any more waves.
Luckily, I never got stuck in the impact zone after that one and I managed to catch every single wave I went for today. I
had some of the best and fastest rides ever and on bigger waves than
I'm used to so I am just super, super STOKED!!!
Sandy, meanwhile, has enjoyed total relaxation on the otherwise
almost deserted stretch of beach and is sprawled out face down when I
get out of the water. She is happy to hang out for a while longer
while I walk around and take some pictures while my rash guard is
drying.
For lunch we drive to to the #1 rated
restaurant on Tripadvisor, La Cambija. It's nothing fancy, almost
like a beach bar in residential area with a random arrangement
of picnic tables and high tops under an overhang with big fans
blowing hard enough to send napkins flying.
A little birdie decided to join our table
But my favorite was this brilliant green iguana scaling the water tower across the street. Who knew they were such skilled climbers?
A little birdie decided to join our table
But my favorite was this brilliant green iguana scaling the water tower across the street. Who knew they were such skilled climbers?
Hey buddy, why don't you just take the stairs?!
There you go!
With some difficulties due to our combined language barrier we order
mahi pinchos (fish skewer appetizer), tuna tacos and a grouper burrito for Sandy.
She also got the cheapest Heineken ever at $1.41 a bottle, while I got a Coke that arrived in a cool 100 year anniversary can.
But never mind the drinks, it's the food that I want to tell you about, because this was easily the best meal of the trip. I am now a pinchos addict and the tuna tacos were cooked to perfection! Possibly even better than my gold standard of the perch tacos in Ohio.
The amazing fish tacos:
The texture is fibrous like steak and to a lesser extent tuna, but boy it's delicious! Shark done right!
After lunch, we drive down route 413 a bit and head to Desecheo surf shop. It's a
shoe box of a store, but the racks are packed with colorful
tees and rash guards and I find not only a rad Rincon shirt, but
also a cute orange o'Neil rash guard.
Jack's Shack, a food truck we'd contemplated for lunch is just down the road so we stop there for an acai fruit smoothie. I'm usually a big smoothie fan, but the drab tan concoction doesn't do it for me. The view over the ocean is nice though.
Jack's Shack, a food truck we'd contemplated for lunch is just down the road so we stop there for an acai fruit smoothie. I'm usually a big smoothie fan, but the drab tan concoction doesn't do it for me. The view over the ocean is nice though.
We are staying all the way on the eastern side of the island tonight
so it is high time to start heading that way. There's just one stop
I'd like to make and it's Playa Crash boat, home of the famous
brightly colored fishing boats.
Of course, it's not quite like the postcards since it's raining
pretty good at times with more dark clouds on the horizon. Still, I
think they look really cute all lined up there!
A few of the boats featured a Puerto Rican flag theme.
Someone even painted a flag on the rocks.
Look at all that rain over the ocean!
How cute are these boats?
Meet Debbie:
Demonstrating her stretched out pose ... such a good girl!
After saying goodbye to Debbie we got back onto the road and into
more rain on our way to Luquillo. I've been lucky today: I can
blog while we drive and with just 20 minutes to go I'm caught up.
Luquillo is a quiet beach/surfing town with many of its senior citizens proudly sweeping their sidewalk. We found a great place to stay through AirBNB and our host Marissa and her adorable little dog Winston are some of the most outgoing hosts we've ever met. She immediately pulls us in for a hug as if we've been friends for years and gives us a quick tour of the house, while giving us tips on where to go.
Luquillo is a quiet beach/surfing town with many of its senior citizens proudly sweeping their sidewalk. We found a great place to stay through AirBNB and our host Marissa and her adorable little dog Winston are some of the most outgoing hosts we've ever met. She immediately pulls us in for a hug as if we've been friends for years and gives us a quick tour of the house, while giving us tips on where to go.
She points us to Boardriders, a nearby oceanfront restaurant for dinner. It's a bit noisy, but nicely decorated and the portions are very generous. Then it's off to bed.
Tomorrow we explore El Yunque and the bioluminescent bay!
♥
Lunch: La Cambija
Snack: Jack's Shack
Dinner: Boardriders Surf Bar
Hotel: AirBNB
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