The End of Spring PR Trip 2010...

Written while waiting on my plane early morning on April 30... posted tonight because I have been going nonstop ever since getting off that plane! Great to be home! But it took a long time to post the last blog :)

I am sitting on the side of the road somewhere between Quebradillas and Isabela with my back against a chain-link fence. My seat cushion is a tree root that is exposed through the gravelly dirt, happily located in the shade during this blazing hot 6pm. As I sip a Cuba Libre, I stare across the street to a neighbor’s mint green house: there are multi-colored sheets hanging to dry, a crying newborn, and lots of chickens running around the dirt yard. A 10-year-old white van emits 10-year-old Top 40 hip hop intermixed with popular reggae tunes as I pass a bag of Arrow nacho cheese chips back and forth with the van owner. How did I end up here?

Random roadside Cuba Libre and nacho cheese chips!

That’s just the pinnacle moment of another funny adventure I found myself on two days ago, my second-to-last day in Puerto Rico. It was yet again another failed attempt to seek entertainment with my good friend Masso. This time, we were looking for a spot to surf in the towns north of Aguadilla because the swell was almost gone from there. We started out checking all the spots of Isabela—Jobos, Secret Spot, Golondrinas, Las Dunas—but to no avail. It was even flatter than Aguadilla!

Pretty much flat at Golondrinas. That wave in the picture is 1.5 feet and breaking on the shallow reef.

We even ventured 20 minutes further to Quebradillas. No waves here either, but we did find a really cool public beach park. We declared our search for waves a failure, and resigned ourselves to walking around the park. Typical beautiful PR beach, but this one had a river coming out of the mountains flowing into it, with little mini rapids and freezing-cold water. On the other end of the park, a tunnel built by the Spaniards (or really, the native Taino laborers under the whip of the Spaniard) hundreds of years ago as a pass through the mountains. On the other side of the walk-through tunnel, pretty cliffs and rocks out into the ocean.

Tunnel, otherside of tunnel

Well, no waves, should we go have a drink instead? We check out a bar by the park, but find its “tourist prices” unacceptable (“she sees you’re a gringo, she charges us $5 for a drink”). So, we travel into the city proper of Quebradillas with the idea to find a store and get a small bottle of rum and some coke. We find no such small bottle anywhere. We next attempt to get food at Taco Maker, and my credit card is not accepted without ID. Fail, fail, fail. We are 0 for 3 at this point. So, we hang our heads and head for home.

On the back roads home we find a small mini-mart/speakeasy in the middle of a neighborhood. This is where we score a small bottle of Bacardi, a liter of coke, and some nacho chips--$7 total! We were already laughing at our multiple failures and sweating profusely from a blazing hot afternoon with no wind, so we sat right there on the side of the road to enjoy the spoils of our journey. At some point, we began laughing at how we ended up in the middle of this neighborhood drinking Cuba Libres on the side of the road.

We headed back to Aguadilla, and got the crazy idea to go back to Surfer’s Beach to surf (the very place we left originally because the waves were “too small” to bother paddling out). With only a sliver of daylight left, we quickly ran out of the van and down to the beach. The waves were teeny, and I had a bit of a rum-buzz, but we had so much fun surfing until we could no longer see! It would be my last surf in Puerto Rico.

The two days before, however, the waves were great! Back in the head-high to overhead range at Wilderness. I had fun surfing, though I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to do a lot of the stuff I had learned on the smaller waves on these bigger waves. I was surfing a little more conservatively on the larger, more powerful waves. I even had John, a local surf photographer, come out one day to shoot me. It was really crowded this day, and it must have taken me 20-30 minutes before I was even able to get a wave. Unfortunately, John ended up having an equipment failure after a while, and only got pictures of me on my first couple of waves, which were nothing spectacular. I am still really happy to have some surf pictures! I also happened across more pictures of me surfing from early April on another photographer’s website, which made me even happier… at least I have SOMEthing for PR surf shots, even if they aren’t me at my best… as opposed to having none, like I did before.

Shot by Osiris Torres, Wilderness April 3, 2010. Osiris has a great site mysurfingphoto.com

Yesterday, it was decidedly FLAT and not a surf day, so I went scuba diving with Darryl, local dive instructor I mentioned in a previous blog. We were lucky that the conditions that day were ideal for a really cool dive at Shacks Beach. I haven’t been on a dive in 12 years, and I must say this one was incredible for my first time back. The reef at Shacks is quite expansive. We explored it for an hour, even going through some “tunnels” in the reef to get to different sections. I saw tons of different coral, sea fans, urchins, and tons of colorful tropical fish. We also saw a spotted Eagle Ray which is a little bit rare. He was super cool!

Shot by Darryl Stansbury, the reef at Shacks beach

What timing, they are calling us to board our flight to Orlando now…and I am pretty much done with this blog. I have a few minutes before my row is called…

My closing thoughts on this adventure? I am so incredibly glad I came down here for a month. I did do what I had intended: surf as much as possible and progress my surfing. I met some great people, ate some great food, spent time in the incredible PR nature, and experienced a different culture. It’s a bit of a transition time for me in life, and I really got some insight on what is important to me and what I want out of life. I really couldn’t ask for more.

A Few More Pics...all these and more can be found on my facebook profile: www.facebook.com/people/Courtney-Dutson/843524367

Carved by the Taino natives hundreds of years ago, now held up by yours truly. On the road to Quebradillas...

Cheers Masso!

River runs thru it... to the beach at the public park near Isabella

In the town of Isabella

The Past Week Review: Part 2

Hi again! Picking up where I left off in Part 1...

Sunday night, I went on an adventure to Rincon with my buddy Masso. It started out as a trip to see a reggae show. However, we soon found out the show was not going on and the trip turned into Masso's tour of Rincon's bars. We went to a pirate bar and drank rum drinks out of fresh coconuts, and then stopped by to check out all the surfer dives in the area--Tambu, Casa Verde, Pool Bar, Las Brisas (great, cheap, late-night tacos). It was really cool! I am so excited to go back to Rincon next winter as it seems like there are a lot of cool places to hang out. It was an adventure because we ran into a lot of characters and a lot of the bars are tucked away on crazy winding mountain roads in the jungle-y Rincon town, and because Masso is a hilarious character anyway. How do I explain him? Kind of a hyper guy. When he was driving, we were conversing, and he would get so excited about what he was talking about, he'd look at me instead of the road at least half the time. It was funny, only because I noticed he never went out of his lane the whole time doing that. Otherwise it would have been scary. Plus, he was driving 10 miles under the speed limit the whole time so it was even less scary. Haha, hilarious.

Pirate bar goin' off! Mostly locals. The rest of the bars were pretty mellow because they are gringo/surfer hangouts, and most have gone home for summer already

Monday was the cave day! I went with a big group of people to the Guajataca Nat'l Forrest. We hiked for about an hour or more through the tropical forrest (not quite high enough/enough rainfall to be considered rainforest) to the cave. There's not a ton of wildlife except for lizards, birds, insects, an a small snake here and there (PR is famous for not having any poisonous snakes--the Spanish killed them off with the mongooses they brought to the island hundreds of years ago). Lots of cool trees I've never seen before, like this one that is related to the Sea Grape plant. It has leaves just like the sea grapes, but they are 3 feet across! Cool! Also, I have never seen so many varieties of fern. I like ferns so I was noticing all the different kinds, there were a ton!

The much larger cousin of Sea Grape

The most interesting part by far though was the cave itself. Huge stalactites and stalagmites, columns, flowstone, bats, the whole 9 yards. Mostly a limestone cave, but some of it was crystal too (not sure what kind?). It was really fun exploring the whole thing. It was a huge cave that extended probably just under half a mile from end to end. I really liked the bats!

Stalactites...those black spots up there are BATS!

The rest of these days have involved lots of surfing and working and getting errands done. Had to replace a tire on the wagon and get it an oil change. Also, register her in my name. So she's all set for my winter travels back to the island.

The waves have been in the 3-4 foot range and still mellow. It's nice because the crowds are smaller and the waves are still decent. On Thursday, I surfed the 2 best waves I ever surfed. The first one was a really good left... a long one where sections kept opening up and I was doing these really good turns off the lip with every section. Then a had an even longer right that was the same thing. It felt like I was just going FOREVER on this wave an I just surfed the hell out of it. I was surfing like I want to surf, like I envisioned myself being able to surf for a long time now. It's exactly what I had hoped would come of my trip, that I would reach the ability I was imagining for myself. Now I've started envisioning going even further with my surfing. All progress starts with the clear mental image of where you are going, and I fully intend to "keep on going" !!

I had a great time surfing this morning at Wilderness, there were a ton of ladies in the lineup (which has been quite rare this entire month), and we were all having a lot of fun and cheering each other on. We grilled out and hung out on the shore for a while afterwards. Some of the girls invited me to a Latin Jazz Festival in Rincon tomorrow night that I think I will check out.

Hanging out on shore earlier today

That's all for now. Thanks so much again for reading!!

Courtney

MORE PICS....

Earlier today at Wildo

I talked to my best friend Sharon on the phone today for a long time, and made this little collage while I was sitting there in the sand

Some of the surfer girls from earlier today

Just after surfing today, with my board and my Beach Bomb at my favorite break!

Gratuitous flower shot from my neighborhood

This dog adopted me the other day at Wilderness. I'm lonely without my puppy here so she was a good for a substitute cuddle :)

Cave plants!!!

Stalagmite affectionately nicknamed "The Nipple"

Brad and Lori (left) with their parents (right) inside the cave. I actually took this shot with my iPhone at the same instant someone else took a shot using their flash, that's the only reason it came out! Cool!

Lori had a headlamp. Lucky!!!

Mouth of the cave

on the trail in Bosque Guajataca

Coconut drinks at pirate bar! I believe it was coconut water, rum, coconut milk, cinnamon, and something else that tasted like kahlua

This is Las Brisas in Rincon where they have really good tacos

The Past Week Review: Part 1

Part 1

Greetings! I have had a blast the last few days surfing, hanging out, and hiking. The weather has been incredibly nice and the waves have been very fun. I’ve gotten the opportunity to see and spend time in some of PR’s natural splendor. I am falling in love all over again with beautiful Puerto Rico!!

On Friday, I did a hike from Surfer’s Beach to Survivor Beach. Remember the awesome green cliffs I write about when surfing at Surfer’s Beach? Well, that is exactly what you have to hike through to get to Survivor Beach. Lots of scrambling and climbing around huge rocks by the ocean, and through the green jungle. When you finally get to Survivor Beach, it is like an untouched piece of Puerto Rican paradise. No one really on this beach because you have to hike to get to it. Yellow sand, clear water, rocks, dense palms and pines. It’s called Survivor Beach because several decades ago, a military plane crashed off the coast and that is where the survivors ended up coming to shore.

En route to Survivor Beach

Then a long walk up the cliffs into and through the town of Ramey (the area of Aguadilla where I live). It was awesome!

Halfway up the foothill...that beach way in the background is where we came from!

Walked through this neighborhood on the way back

Friday night I had dinner with some friends at Ola Lola’s in the nearby town Isabella. It’s owned by an American expatriate married couple, and it’s definitely an expat hangout. The expats here seem to be a community of kindred spirits--the kind of people who love the tropical beauty of the island and the sea, and who aren’t afraid to chase down their dream and make PR their home. They are usually the adventurous and unconventional type. So, I feel right at home at places like Ola Lola’s ;)

One of the people at our table was Darryl, the local diving instructor. I could have listened to his dive stories for hours—I was really fascinated by all the sea-life stuff he had seen and experienced. He had crazy stories about turtles, fish, stingrays, sharks, etc. Anyway, everyone at the table told me I should go on a dive with Darryl before I leave PR, so I think I will! I’ve snorkeled a lot, but I haven’t been on a dive for 12 years since getting certified in Belize as a teenager. I’m excited!

That night I woke up just before 4am from coconuts falling outta the trees and nightmares of being robbed, and then one of me being the robber (?). I think it was due to one of Darryl's stories at dinner being about getting mugged in Cincinnati. Anyway, I finally went back to sleep and had this awesome surf dream where I was just killing it on this super long left in Cocoa Beach. Well, I woke up a couple hours later and headed out to Wilderness. And would you believe it, I pretty much lived out my dream in reality.

--I'll take a sec to explain “lefts” and “rights” to the non-surfers. A decent wave will peel off either to the left or to the right as it breaks, so that you have a "line" you can surf down. A left for a surfer is a wave that breaks to your left as you face shore, a right is to the right as you face shore. Usually, for people who surf with their left-foot forward like me, it's easier to surf a right because you are facing the wave. The other way, you kind of have your back to the wave. Puerto Rico is known for having mostly rights, but for some reason, I've gotten really good at surfing lefts here... weird.--

When I got to Wildo, the conditions were pretty good with mostly offshore winds and some fun, mellow-looking 3-5 foot waves. Tom and Masso were there, and told me they had fun surfing and there was a great left. So I paddled out, and had pretty much all lefts. I was surfing them better than I think I've ever surfed, or at least close to it! It was so much fun. The current was strong so I also got some great conditioning in by having to paddle constantly to stay in the break!

That day at Wildo

When I got out of the water, Masso was grilling up some chicken in the back of his truck. A bunch of us hung out there for about an hour or so shooting the breeze and watching people surf--and eating some pretty damn good BBQ!

Masso grillmaster

I actually went to another grill-out for dinner with a bunch of the surfers I’ve met down here, good times. It was just a grill-out kind of day I suppose!

Sunday was quite interesting. I intended for the day to be a surf day and a work day. However, I felt like a stubborn little kid all day. The only thing I could actually prod myself into doing was surfing. Other than that, I did pretty much nothing productive the the whole day except eat and relax! Haha. But I had SUCH a fun morning and evening session, surfing at Wilderness both times. In the morning, it was just me and Barb Graves (mother of professional surfers Dylan and Josie Graves from the area) out in the water. Was everyone else at church? Or was it the fact that it was a “small” day for Wilderness, with a lot of the waves that were coming in not even breaking. I’m not sure, but we had some fun 3-4 foot waves all to ourselves. Being from Cocoa Beach, I know all about “scrapping” for any wave that could possibly be rideable, which came in handy on a day like this one where the waves were a little weak. I was catching a ton of little waves and having a blast!

Barb and little Tristan Graves playing in the shorebreak at Wildo, with my buddy Lenny on the stand-up paddleboard in the background catching a ride

This is what my face looks like in front of Wilderness

That evening, the conditions were really nice with a gentle offshore wind. Out of nowhere, seemingly, the waves started going into the chest high and head high range. Wow! This time, there was a decent-sized crowd, but it was still a super-fun session under the setting sun. Later, we found out there had been an earthquake just off shore around 4pm. We all hypothesized that was the cause of the mystery swell!

Part 2 posted tomorrow... a few more pics below. :)

Between Surfer's Beach and Survivor Beach: the surf spot Table Tops

Yoga photo op!

This is Wheel Pose by the wheel. Ah, the irony.

Masso's grilling causing hungry surfers to flock