Off the beaten path, and into the woods
- The Parachuting Beavers
- 12 hours ago
- 9 min read
Feliz Año Nuevo! The first day of the year has never been one of my favorite holidays. Mostly because people generally get together, say up too late and drink too much. I will say this is going to go down in my memory as one of the best ever. Mike and I spent it on the beach watching the Puerto Ricans shoot off fireworks. My goodness, do they like their fireworks!!!
I've seen lots of fireworks and lots of places, but I have to say seeing them on the beach through a palm tree is special. I don't know what my problem is with blogging this time. It just seems impossible for me to go and chronological order! So i'm sorry this next part... there's going to seem like there are days missing but mike and I had the most relaxing vacation we've ever had, and some days we just stayed home.
Faro Los Morrillos de Cabo Rojo, is a historic lighthouse located on the capes of Los Morrillos de Cabo Rojo. Like so many lighthouses it was built to guide ships through the southeast entrance from the Caribbean Sea through the treacherous Mona Passage into the Atlantic Ocean. If you look at the photographs you can see the gorgeous limestone cliffs that the lighthouse sits atop. I wish I take a more aggressive photograph, but mike was so nervous because the cliffs surrounding the lighthouse drop over 200 feet into the ocean. I wish we could have gone inside, but it was unfortunately closed. Going to a hispanic country between christmas and new year's is magical, but it also means that you don't get to see everything. Originally, the lighthouse was staffed by two keepers and an engineer, who lived on the grounds with their families. I cannot imagine how magical it would be to raise children in this area. Okay, yes, dangerous with the cliffs, but absolutely gorgeous with everything else.
I was out in the backyard when this gentleman walked up. He was carrying a machete and clearly did not speak any english. In my very bad spanish, I asked him if he wanted the coconuts from our tree. He nodded that he did, and we got to witness him taking some of them down. I ran into the house to get him a christmas present for his family. He was kind enough to give us two coconuts cut open as a return gift. As you can see in the photographs, there are green coconuts and yellow coconuts. For my money, the yellow ones are better for straight drinking. They are sweet and magical different from anything else I've bought in the grocery store. The problem is that the inside flesh is very astringent. When you get the green ones, there is more liquid, but it is slightly less sweet. The total upside is, if you run your hand around the inside of the coconut, you can get this slimy inner layer that tastes exactly like coconut milk. I know I didn't sell that very well, but it's very delicious. Mike and I used this in so many drinks that we had over the next couple of days.
I told you that my brain was a little bit scattered, and that, I'm going to jump around a bit. This one is part of the place with the lighthouse, and I can't believe I completely forgot about my magical hermitcrab video.
I'm wildly passionate about them, because even what I said in the video isn't right. Some varietals of hermit crab can live more than forty years. Think about it like a land tortoise, a really really tiny one. Their biggest threat is being taken from the wild, or having shells collected so they can't find a new home after they malt. If you ever get the opportunity to see them where they live, leave them there. I promise seeing them live there best hermit crab lives is better than ever owning one.
Again, those of you who know me know that I'm a little bit unobservant. I was making this video, and a couple came up to mike and asked, how does she know all of this stuff. He was very kind to tell them that I teach high school and I make these videos all over the world. They said to him that if they were lucky enough to have a teacher like me, they would have their children in public school. I'm not sure that I could receive a higher compliment from someone who just saw me make one video.
Okay, back to our house, because Mike and I were sitting on the back blue deck when we suddenly saw this gentleman fishing. When he hooked one in, I took it upon myself to go running down and see what he had caught. Please remember that many people on this island don't speak english, so my entire conversation with him was in spanish. I'm just grateful that I know how to behave around fishermen, and that he allowed me to have some photographs and videos of him, bringing in this beautiful crevalle jack (Caranx hippos). Like with so many fish, people dispute, whether it is or is not delicious. This one supposedly has a bloodline and needs to be cleaned immediately to make it perfect. I don't know how much I agree with this, because i've eaten lots of fish that people say are not ideal because they taste like mud or other things. The gentleman who caught it seemed extremely excited to keep it and bring it home for his family.
Mike and I spent a lot of time in the interior of Puerto Rico. Remember, we essentially split the island into two pieces right down the center kind of through the city of Ponse on the southern section. So some of this stuff may look like it's part of the tropical rainforest area that is closer to San Juan but it's not.
Like all of the Americas, Puerto Rico had/has a diverde native population. Unfortunately, this particular location did not give a ton of information on the people who made this lovely rock art but we did find out more about the native population of Puerto Rico later on.
If you know anything about Mike, you know he is obsessed with going to the high points of each state/country/ territory. So here he is on the top of the high point in Puerto Rico. You can see the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, really, you can see a large portion of the country from this beautiful summit. Just remember the rule of summitting. Always get up as early in the morning as possible so you get the best view, have the least thunderstorms and the least crouds.
Unfortunately, the pictures don't do justice to how steep the climb was. Let's just say I watched a normal truck try to come up the road that you're looking at. They stopped and backed down. This was a Ford F150, by the way, so not a piddly little truck. I watched a jeep attempt the same ascent with the same result. The bottom line is you just walk. Clearly it's worth it, though, because you can see almost the entire island. Well, at least you can see the Atlantic, the Caribbean and almost as far as San Juan.
I wanted to give you a better idea of exactly where Mike was when he took these photos. Currently we are at the blue dot in the top middle left of the island. The point marker that is between the o and the R in Puerto Rico is the high point. If you ever go to Puerto Rico I cannot recommend the interior enough. I will say that driving here is not for the faint of heart, but if you can get through that, you will see unbelievable sights.
This is a shout out to all my environmental science homies. I wanted you to see how many biomes there are in Puerto Rico. This might help you understand why we have photographs that are geographically very close together but ecologically so different. It will also help you understand why I don't have any photographs of traditional tropical rainforests. Those unfortunately are on the western side of the island south of San Juan. Mike and I decided to divide the island in half and really concentrate on the eastern half this time. People say you can do the whole island in two weeks but I call BS.
Within easy walking distance of our house in Aguada there is Panaderia Eileen. They did the most wonderful to go sandwiches as well as a buffet of cooked me. Mike and I had a few dinners where I bought the meat here. Obviously they also do confections, and these were the ones that they had to celebrate Feliz Nuevo Año. When we leave, this is going to be a spot that I really miss.
Welcome to Caguana Ceremonial Ball Courts Site. This is an underrated stop in Puerto Rico. It is an archaeological site located in Caguana, Utuado in Puerto Rico. It is not the best preserved on the island bur it is the largest, and considered to be the most important Pre-Columbian sites in the West Indies. One of the first things that you will notice are the well-preserved ceremonial ball courts and petroglyph-carved monoliths. Archeologists estimate the in-situ courts to be over 700 years old, built by indigionous Puerto Ricans called the Taíno around 1270 AD.
I could spend all day telling you about this site, but if you're interested, you can watch the video, which will walk you through the museum and the main areas.
Welcome to El Cañón Blanco! Mike and I skipped this the first time we were in the area because I didn't think we had enough time to spend, and I was right. Once we got in the water two hours flew by like it was twenty minutes. We walked down between gorgeous intrusive igneous rock formations. We listen to the water as it crashed against the rocks. I put my feet in to test the flow, and it was very significant.
We finally got to this crystal clear pool, and no one was around. When Mike and I went swimming, I popped my head up and said, I" swear there are cichlids in here". I was fairly certain that there were no native cichlid species in Puerto Rico. Again I was correct. Everywhere else in the world, these are released animals from the aquarium trade. This can mean that people can't sell them, and they release them or that people have them and they get too big, and they release them. Suppose that there's also a big pleco problem but we didn't see it. Please.If you can't rehome your animal responsibly, then it is your responsibility to euthanize it. I know you think that releasing it to the wild could not hurt.
You think they'll have a bit of a life and then die, but often they don't. All of these species are out competing native species that should be there. Please only buy animals you can handle and if you can't be a responsible owner and euthanize them.
I have tried to restrict my bugs or insects or other creepy crawlies to a reasonable minimum in this blog. This one can't be ignored. Dragonflies have vision, unlike anything I can imagine. If you want to really understand what it's like, there's an incredible Radiolab, on NPR, that demonstrates how other organisms see color spectrums by using sound. You can find this online if you're interested. Needless to say, the dragonflies have an incredibly broad visual range. They are one of the most accurate hunters in the insect kingdom, and they rarely miss an organism, once they've actually decided to attack. Please don't mistake them for hunting.When they're simply sitting around resting. You have to watch them and watch them, because when they actually attack, it's in a nanosecond.
On our way out, we spotted these beautiful sand nesting wasps. I caught a video and I'd love to tell you what they are,but I only got down to the genius. Evidently, there are quite a few varieties of sand digging wasp in Puerto Rico.
On our way out, Mike decided to fulfill his vacation wish and pick an actual banana from the tree.
His is the green one on the left. This is often used in Puerto Rican cuisine to make a mashed item like mashed potato in america. This is a staple in many Puerto Rican dinners. The one on the bottom right is a tiny, sweet banana that I find much more pleasant than the cavendish, which is on the top and the one that we can buy in all american grocery stores. They are all seedless, sadly. If you've ever had a seeded banana, it's slightly annoying to have to chew around the seeds, but it's kind of like meat on the bone. The banana closest to the seeds has an even more intense taste than the rest of the flesh.
Well, we've come full circle from the beginning of this blog, and it's time for Mike and I to go home. Spoiler alert were not home!!! See, donald Trump, Venezuela, and anything else you'd like to blame for why we're not in PA. Tune in for the bonus vacation that we're currently on. Xoxoxoxo
