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