Day 2

"Surf Brain"

We have a saying in Bikram yoga: "yoga brain." It's what happens to you after getting your butt kicked in a Bikram yoga class--you leave and forget your keys, someone asks you a simple question and you stare at them blankly and say, "huh?", etc.

Today I surfed so much that after my sunset session, I had SURF brain. I got my butt kicked, in a very good way, by surfing a ton. By the time I got out of the water tonight, I could not have basic conversation with people on the beach because I was so dazed! The waves are so good right now, I have to get the gettin' while the gettin' is good, or something like that. I saw on the surf forecast that the swell fades a little for a day or two before we get another, so maybe I'll get some work done then! (I am currently setting up my own web design and digital marketing business)

In the morning I surfed at Surfer's Beach. I'd say it was about 5-6 feet and a little choppy here. It started off a little bit packed but as the wind picked up, it thinned out. I had some good rides here and was just really loving being out in the water in beautiful PR... Surfer's Beach has a beautiful backdrop of tropical cliffs... and like everywhere in PR, amazing clear blue-green water with the reef visible below.

SURFER'S BEACH

After, grabbed some lunch—rice and beans, turkey, and plantains—at an open-air bar/restaurant close to my apartment, $5. Being the only gringa in there, I was reminded that one of the things I may look into is going to Spanish school while I’m here so I can get more competent in my conversational Spanish. Put that on the To-Do list…

After lunch, I actually did do a little work and napped, then headed out for a sunset session at Wilderness. It was really hard to do work when all I could think about was surfing! I had an amazing session at Wilderness, with lots of good rides, and one incredible left which lasted forever and ever... you know, the kind of wave that takes you so far down the beach that when you paddle back out, you find you are now part of an entirely different line-up on a different peak. Haha. Puerto Rico is "the land of rights," but there are still some great lefts to be had.

I was having a blast and it's so true that when you are happy, the people around you respond to it. I had so many nice people in the line-up tonight just smiling back at me and saying "nice one!" etc, and on the beach when I was done. This plays right into a way of thinking I developed on my last trip to Puerto Rico:

See, most of the spots in PR are crowded. On my last trip, I was at Maria's in Rincon in a crowd, and found myself in competition with the other surfers to catch waves. I wasn't surfing well that day and I stopped myself to think about my mindset. Instead of thinking as the other surfers as my competition, I pretended I was in a line-up full of my best friends. I imagined we were cheering each other on for good rides and were happy for each other when we caught waves instead of competing. It really changed my attitude and instantly, I was surfing better. I used the same mindset tonight in the crowd and everyone was really super friendly!

Not to mention the sun was setting and the angle of the light made the water appear that much more beautiful, if that is even possible. Almost made the water luminescent against the backdrop of pink/light blue/light purple sky... it was pretty incredible.

I got out of the water fully satisfied and, yes, a bit dazed, and just thinking "thank you."

Tomorrow, more surf and more business stuff, if I can resist staying out of the water long enough! Buenas Noches :)

Day 1 part 2

A day of firsts...

Today I am the proud owner of my first beater!! I bought the "Beach

Bomb" for just a few hundred dollars... and it's worth every dime. I can't believe I own 2 cars, and that one of them is in PR. I aim to hang on to the Beach Bomb--a 1986 Mitsubishi SPACE WAGON--for as long as it's ticking, to have a vehicle when I travel to PR in the years to come.

This morning, I met up with friends Kathy and Terry Hall, who sold me the wagon. They have a super cool property on top of the cliff that overlooks Jobos Beach. Their property is cool because they have almost every tropical fruit tree you can imagine, along with several other vegetables, herbs, flowers, etc.

Left, picking tangerines, mmm. Right, papaya tree.

Side note: there's a huge mango tree outside my place...just about another few weeks and they should be ripe!

I was expecting the Beach Bomb to be a beater, and fully prepared to handle not having AC, but could not tolerate it when at first it

seemed as if the Bomb had no music source whatsoever. I started asking Terry all about what it would take to get a radio/new speakers/etc put in, and we started tinkering with the wagon. Terry happened to have a couple speakers on hand, so we replaced them. It was fun to help him, I love electronics stuff and taking things apart! We also got the radio to work so that now I can use my FM transmitter to play MP3s. Pretty rudimentary soundsystem, but it works and I'm fully stoked!

Next I talked to my buddy Tom Luker about the surf that day. Tom is a really cool dude that Sheena and I met on our December trip to PR. He's in his 60s and surfs every day. He moved to PR from New Jersey 20 years ago--just picked up his life and went for it, and hasn't left since. He was a big inspiration to me when I was thinking about coming down here for an extended stay. Every day, he wakes up before the sun and checks all the spots, so he is the best source for "where to go."

He tells me Wilderness or Wishing Wells is the call, and I'm all too happy with that call. Wildo is my favorite! To get there, you have to drive through a golf course which is up on the cliffs, and down to the water below, via some treacherous dirt roads. It's a very beautiful, wild-looking spot (hence the name), and the break is terrific. It's known for its "gentle giants."

Well, today, they were giant alright, but I'm not sure if I would call them "gentle." The surf reports were calling for 5-7 foot, but I've gotta tell ya that was not the reality! It's funny how in Cocoa Beach, it seems the reports always OVERestimate wave size, while in Aguadilla, the reports seem to always UNDERestimate size. I guess a lot of the waves were 7ft, but there were plenty of plus sets. I saw a few that had to be getting close to double overhead.

This shot taken with my iPhone from very far away, then cropped. I need to invest in a good camera that can take surf pics, stat!

I was a little intimidated, but I ran into a friend who had just gotten done surfing and encouraged me to go paddle out. So I did. The paddle out was not hard in the right spot. I had some friends of friends in the line up too, which made it so I wasn't really surfing alone, which was very good.

Anyway, long story short, it was super fun but I did pass up a few waves due to intimidation factor. There was even this one enormous set that came through, almost catching a lot of us on the inside. For those of you who don't surf, just think, huge wave crashing directly on top of you because you're not far enough out in the ocean. I managed to duck dive these just in time and escape but I tell you I have never felt adrenaline like that from almost getting caught. After that set passed, everyone was kind of looking around to make sure everyone else made it through. Some of the guys were looking over at me and I acted like I was completely calm and cool, even though I could hardly breathe and my heart felt like it was about to shoot through my chest! Hahaha

I did however, catch the biggest wave I think I've ever caught in my life!! It was one of those waves where you make the drop into it and you go airborne--not once, but twice--on the way down. There was some automatic voice in my head that had to pipe up and tell me "don't freak out" as I was making this crazy drop. So I didn't, and I rode this crazy wave...I was so astonished that I couldn't even turn, I just shot straight down the line, hauling ass. This wave was WELL over my head, by at least four feet. Talk about adrenaline. After that wave I said to myself, "OK I'm done!!" It was awesome but it was about all I could take at that point!

I took a while to chill on the beach at Wilderness watching everyone surf before taking off. As I looked around, I was taken with the beauty of my surroundings and the awesomeness of the surf. I remembered why it was I wanted to come here in the first place: it's simply a slice of heaven.

Left, surfer paddling out at Wildo, and lots of spectators on beach today.

Right, happy Wildo lab!

Anyway, time to sleep so I can surf in the morning bright and early with good ol' Tom Luker. Goodnight!

It's Tuesday, 4am. I am too amped to sleep. So I blog.

Well, I spent a couple days being a little down about leaving everyone I love in Cocoa Beach, including my DOG. Being down is not in my nature but I couldn't help myself it seemed. So thankful for the amazing people in my life back home--they are hard to leave for even a small period of time.

But, as soon as I stepped to the ticket counter tonight, a switch flipped. No more sad feeling. As I told BFFs Sharon and Sheena,who were on-hand to send me off, "I put my big girl pants on." Let's do this adventure. I mean, I have to be honest there were times I was thinking, what the hell am I doing traveling to Puerto Rico ALONE in the middle of the night? But I was down to business. Besides, I walk in faith that I am being taken care of, always.

S&S hung out with me as long as possible before I had to go to my gate. I am so thankful for such amazing friends.

Plane. I usually sleep on the red eye flights, but not this time, I was so amped. Uneventful flight spent playing with Mac toys and watching Sheer Genius. I love landing in Aguadilla...how everyone claps, yeah that's how I feel too. The warm and humid tropical air that hits you when you deplane, and this night, perfectly clear under the full moon. After the full moon, the first thing I see is this:

I've flown JetBlue a fair amount and never noticed this on their planes before now. Probably only a few people out there would even know why this is a badass omen for me. Quick side-story... BLUE was my pen-name for poetry and "shutter name" for photography about 3 years ago... named after my baby niece, Lucy Blue, who died 8 months in utero. So Blue is here... Blue just means a powerful positive force especially present when creative energy is in full swing. Alright.

Anyway, a very comical cab ride later--the cabbie speaking no English and my limited Spanish, me trying to find my place just on memory in the pitch black dark--I arrive at my PR place. It's just a few minutes from the airport, and a few minutes from some of the best surf breaks in Aguadilla.

I am renting my place from Ray Scot, who is a friend of a friend I met on my last trip down. Everyone who knows him cannot say enough good things about Ray, and it is evident in the care he takes to prepare the apartments for tenants' arrivals. The place simply has a good vibe. Now I am chilling with the rooster sounds and tropical birds just waking for the new day which will begin soon...

I plan to shift to a sleep schedule more conducive to dawn patrols, but for tonight, I am simply too excited!!! Tomorrow, I go to pick up my station wagon, affectionately nicknamed "the Beach Bomb." Can't wait to see her. The next order of business will be to locate a surfing buddy out of the handful of people I know down here already so I can go surf the amazing waves that are forecasted for today! 1-2 feet overhead for the afternoon/evening, and clean!!