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

Back

Since I last wrote, I feel a distinct change. I feel like “I’m back.” Back to my normal self. I obviously have been having a great time in Puerto Rico but the transition from home to here for what I initially thought was going to be a 3-month stay was a bit jarring. The best way I can describe it is like being disconnected from my power source. Back home, my power source was doing and teaching lots of Bikram yoga, the yoga community, and my amazing network of friends. I really fed off of these things more than I realized. Coming down here without those things felt like being “unplugged.”

Throughout this whole process, I’ve constantly told myself the key is in my hand—it’s all in your mental outlook. During the first couple of weeks, I gave a lot of focus towards being joyful no matter if I was alone or in an unfamiliar place, etc. While I did at most times feel joyful (especially when surfing!), I am just now finally feeling like I used to—essentially in a constant state of joy and comfort. I guess to put a long story short, I’ve finally “settled in.”

It also helps so much that I have more people to hang out with now. I’ve met more people out surfing. In the small community of northwest PR surfing, meeting one person automatically connects you to many more. Sort of like playing MineSweeper, you know? You click on one box and it opens several… haha that is your random computer game tangent for the day…

Anyway, yesterday was the best PR day ever! I woke up just before 7am to go surf at Secret Spot, so I could avoid the afternoon wind that diminishes the wave quality. Still half-way asleep, I made my way out to Secret Spot and ended up getting my car stuck driving down a sand road I shouldn’t have. It rained the night before, rendering the sand too soft and deep for the Beach Bomb.

I know this doesn’t sound like the start to a great day, but the key is in my hand, remember? Worrying would solve nothing…so I did my best not to fret. I simply grabbed my board, locked up the car, and headed to the beach. This could be dealt with after surfing.

The conditions at Secret Spot were ok this morning… it was still a bit disorganized so the wave quality was about a 5 out of 10. But, when a wave would finally take form, it would be intense! These waves were really peaking up and getting very steep and hollow. I missed on a lot of waves by taking off too deep—too close to the peak and not making the drop. Can I blame some of it on being half-asleep still? I did wake up enough to have a few good rides before I felt like I should really go and deal with my car.

I called a couple friends and luckily, my buddy Tom knew a tow truck driver. Rafy made it out in about 30 minutes and easily got the Beach Bomb back on solid footing. It was nice having to wait on him actually, because I hiked back to the paved road through the beautiful surrounding nature—palms, pines, and sand against the backdrop of dense green foothills.

Where dirt road meets paved--the turn-off for Secret Spot where I waited on Rafy

Rafy got the Beach Bomb out no problem.

Problem solved. Headed home to do some work. Had such a fun and productive day working mostly on the business startup side of things. Since I discarded the initial name and concept I had for my business, I am now reworking my concept, which includes name, logo, building my own site, etc.

Around 5pm Ray and Tony called me up to ask if I was going to surf at sunset. I was in such a productive mode with work stuff I almost said, “No.” But I thought, wait, I’M IN PUERTO RICO, of course I want to go surf again. It was rainy, but as the surfers know, when the rain clears is often the best time, condition-wise, to go surf.

Beach Bomb was very cranky about me getting her stuck earlier and refused to start. So I let her be--luckily the guys live close and were able to pick me up.

We went to nearby Surfer’s Beach, my 2^nd-favorite spot here in PR. It's so beautiful to see the huge rocky cliffs covered in thick jungle and towering palms on the shore when you're out there. As one friend put it, "you expect to see King Kong pop out at any moment."

Sure enough, the rain stopped as we got there and the conditions were super nice and glassy. At first, the waves looked very small from the shore, which was a little bit of a bummer. Since all I had was my short board, I wondered if I would even be able to catch these waves that looked more suited for a longboard. But it was incredibly beautiful out and I couldn’t wait to get in the water, so we all paddled out anyway.

Thank God we did! Once we were out there for a bit, some bigger waves started coming through and they were FUN FUN FUN! Very nice 3- and even some 4-foot waves. There were about 8 of us out there. Even though that is a small number of people for Surfer’s Beach, there were still barely enough rideable waves to go around. So, we all kind of adopted the mutual agreement to Party Wave. If you don’t surf, this simply means that more than one person rides the same wave. Normally, you don’t do that surfing because the person in front as you go down the line of the wave can get in the way of the person in the back, who has the right-of-way in this situation. Also, it can be dangerous if the two people run into each other. But with friends and people who know what they are doing, it can be fun. So, we all had a blast doing the party wave thing. We were out there so long that by the time I caught my last wave to go back to shore, it was because it was too dark to judge the waves anymore! Here I’d like to point out that there has never been a shark attack reported in Puerto Rico… so sharks really aren’t a concern at dusk and night.

We all hung out a bit longer on shore and had an after-surf beer (the time when beer tastes its best, to be sure). A bunch of us went to dinner and then I crashed! It was a great day.

Today has been essentially a repeat. I made it up early for a fun session at Surfer’s Beach (very similar to last night), working the rest of the day, and will catch a sunset session shortly. I love this way of life… tomorrow though I will modify the schedule to make sure I get in a home-practice of Bikram yoga. A home practice isn't quite the same as being at a real studio, but it still is so beneficial. Yoga keeps me limber, injury-free and soreness-free so I am able to surf as much as possible.

We have a small swell coming for the weekend, so the waves will be a bit bigger than they are now. Can’t wait!

Thanks for reading! Few more pics below. Randy, if you are reading this I haven't forgotten your request for more people shots and shots of town. Look for them in one of the next few blogs :)

Beach Bomb in a pickle

Cool hermit crab I found on my hike

Hilarious! This is how I got my bathroom a little hotter for yoga the other day!

Smooth Sailing

Smooth sailing... settling in to a routine, the slower pace compared to home. Not too shabby :) Side note, it's surprising how little $ I'm spending by not going out as much and not drinking, hahaha.

It was the weekend, but I’m backwards. After putting in a lot of work at the beginning of the week, I took Thursday and Friday off and worked Saturday and Sunday instead. Don’t get me wrong; there was still plenty of play too!

Saturday morning, I checked a bunch of spots to go surf but Wilderness was literally flat, as were all the neighboring breaks. I also checked Jobos to the north. There were some waves, but it was seriously PACKED due to a charity event there (and due to the fact it was one of the only spots that actually was surfable that day). At Jobos, there’s just really one main peak anyway that you have to share with a bunch of people, and also the conditions were pretty choppy, so I passed it up. I took another day off surfing, just my second in 2 weeks. Instead, I went to Crashboat beach to bask in the sun.

CRASHBOAT BEACH

Crashboat is a BEAUTIFUL beach where a lot of people go to hang out. I must have spent the first 45 minutes there just floating on my back and swimming around in the amazing water. If you’ve ever been to Waikiki in Hawaii, it is almost exactly the same. Same pretty golden-colored sand, same CLEAR turquoise water, same lush green backdrop. It reminded me of being at the 2007 Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Waikiki for 9 weeks. We’d have pretty much one day-off a week, which had to be used for studying. I would study all day at the beach and take study breaks by swimming and floating around on my back just marveling at how beautiful it all was. Same deal at Crashboat.

Took pics of Crashboat with my iPhone and made a panorama out of them

Rest of the day and night, I spent working, downloading lots and lots of music, and watching LOST on my computer. Stayed in for the night so I could wake up early to surf.

Sunday morning, I accidentally missed dawn patrol with Tom because I set my alarm improperly (yep, that old story). Luckily, I woke up on my own just before 7am anyway and headed out right away to Secret Spot.

This was my first time surfing Secret Spot. When I got there, Tom was just finishing up his surf and told me all about the break—the current, where to paddle out, etc, so I knew what to expect. It’s kind of a point-break off of a huge rock. For anyone who’s been to PR before, it reminds me exactly of a mini-Jobos in that respect. Mini, because it’s just a little bitty cove and one peak. The wave is very different though—Jobos is usually a mellow wave, while at Secret Spot the wave really peaks up and gets much more hollow (non-surfers think: steeper and more challenging). Today was a bit choppy and disorganized, but everyone told me that on a typical day, the wave is awesome. Today was still fun, just not every wave that came through was good so you had to pick and choose carefully.

The spot is very beautiful, tucked away, big rocks, sand dunes, palms, cypress trees. Green cliffs in the background. There were only about 5 of us out there, which was nice.

After surfing Secret Spot, I went to my friend Diana’s café El Carey for some breakfast and coffee. It was really fun because everyone I had just surfed with ended up going there afterwards. I met all of them and we all hung out for a long time just talking. Turns out we all travel to surf, and we were talking about our favorite trips. I picked up a lot of good info on places I want to go. A couple of the guys got me really interested in going to Panama after hearing them talk about how much they love it.

Tomorrow looks like surfing Secret Spot again, and on through the week until the next swell shows up on Friday. Can’t wait to see what this next swell brings; hopefully I can go back to my favorite spot Wilderness if this swell "wraps around" the island to reach the more southern breaks like the last one did.

Hope everyone has a GREAT week, and thanks again for reading! Pics from today at Secret Spot below. Will post surf pics when/if I can locate a photographer before I go!

Walking up to the beach at Secret Spot

"Parking lot"

West end of Secret Spot

Looking East, big dunes

Looking north out over the Atlantic

Dawn patrollers

Facing south; backdrop of green

466 leaving Secret Spot