Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Tuesday Notes

Another breakfast at La Punta Bakery.

Surfing lessons day 2 - back to Aquadilla.

Lunch at a hole in the wall cafe in downtown Aquadilla: yellow rice with peas and stewed "pulpa" or octopus. It was delicious!

After surfing I took a shower and a short nap, then headed up the hill to take some sunset photos.

Dinner at the Shipwreck Bar & Grill in Rincon for some excellent fish kabobs and draft beer.

Back at Tamboo for a beer and some blogging on the deck (where I am writing this). The warm moist breeze feels amazing! I don't want to go inside!

Giant waves are crashing on the beach - almost sounds like the roar of thunder. The waxing moon is bright in the sky. The full moon is coming on New Years Eve - a "blue moon" because it's the second full moon of the month.

This is my last night at Beside the Point. Tomorrow I go to the Bamboo Tree house where I'll stay for the next two nights (including New Years Eve).


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Monday Notes

Up at 0630 ready to surf!

Drove up the hill to La Punta Bakery. Waited in line with the locals to order my "sandwich de huevos, queso, y hamon" with a large "cafe". Ate the fantastic egg sandwich on lightly grilled cuban bread with a steaming hot Puerto Rican coffee. The cost: $3.75. I got another large coffee to go and that set me back another $0.75.

At Rincon Surf & Board I was greeted by Alexandra and Brian who run the place. There were about 10 of us for lessons and after loading the boards on top of a minivan and SUV we headed up to Aquadilla. They chose that location because the surf was too big in Rincon (12 to 15 feet).

I'll add more about surfing later.

Back to Rincon in the afternoon. Teamed up with Annette from Houston (another student) for a couple of hours and drove around to all the Rincon surfers beaches (there are about a dozen) to watch the pros tackle the huge waves.

Dinner on the deck at Tamboo. Annette headed back to Aquadilla where she was staying. I took a nap and later checked out the night life at the Calypso Bar, and La Casa Verde.

There was live music at the Calypso. La Casa Verde is a surfer and turista hangout. I had some fun and interesting conversations with a few locals who seemed appreciative that I was making the effort the speak Spanish. They told me jobs for locals are few and they survive on the money that surfing and tourism brings into the community.


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