La Parguera
Where to begin? I’ll start with my girl Joanne. She’s my new friend/role model I met while playing pool after the cool fenced off ocean thing. She is retired at 48 and all she does now is go to the beach and eat at her favorite restaurant, Moon’s. She basically forced us to go there and not only did this place have delicious food, but our server/chef was vegan and I most definitely crept him out by how awestruck I was to meet him (potentially the only other vegan in PR). Needless to say, I ranted about the food and eagerly tipped him way too high. I don’t know if you can tell, but this is a picture of me SO HAPPY to have a full meal!! =)
Lajas!
My favorite day thus far was spent at my friend Julian’s houses in Lajas. Early Sunday morning four of us set out on his adorable rickety little orange and purple motorboat to go see Caracoles. Caracoles is straight up exotic; I had no idea places that beautiful were even real. The water is as clear as crystal and as we walked through the mangroves in the water, I have ever felt more serene in my entire life. This excludes the part early in our excursion when we were climbing through the trees (completely and dry and clothed), and I intelligently decided that climbing higher would increase the fun. My branch obviously ended up snapping and I went tumbling into the water… entirely spoiling our peaceful moment. My back is now decorated with a lovely scab and bruise to remind us of how funny it was.
Then it was time for a nap so we went down the road to Julian’s mom’s house. This house was way fun to explore I was not too surprised to hear that the tidy and highly air-conditioned room where Kasondra and I slept was actually part of the bed and breakfast that she runs out of her house for her yoga students. Sounds like a cool lady right? Well I have only just begun! Not only is she a yoga instructor with the absolute most beautiful and welcoming home, she is a fabulous vegetarian chef with an exotic fruit garden in her huge backyard! Wait, it gets even better! Since the hurricane was coming, she gave Kasondra and I plastic bags and told us to pick as much as we wanted from the trees! This is what I proudly skipped home with!
· Star fruit (My new obsession, I think I ate about 6 in the span of two days.)· Canepas (Strange slimy texture, but very sweet and fun to eat)
· Breadfruit (They look like bumpy green oranges but she said they were similar to plantains….and yes you can make mofongo with them!)
· Plantains and pomegranates
· Chironja (a cross between an orange and grapefruit)
· Neem (A “magical pharmacy tree” of India, its apparently a natural insect repellent and you can also eat it to improve skin disorders and your immune system)
· Lemongrass (Yup, I get to make my own tea!)
· And then some grapes, coconuts, and herbs
Oh and there was also a litter of newborn puppies in the basement because her dog had just given birth a few days earlier. As if this place needed any more perks… go ahead and throw in four little puppies!
*** Disclaimer: I’m 99% sure that this day actually occurred, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I dreamt this entire place up.
Cabo Rojo
As I considered quitting school to live in this fantasy world forever, I was told we had to go to the dorms to hurricane-proof our room. We took everything off of the floor, locked it in our closets and pushed our beds up against the doors so that they wouldn’t open. (My windows are really weird, so whenever the wind blows my closet doors will creepily open… so naturally my things would be doomed in an actual hurricane.) We packed up some food and a clothes and moved out to our friend Andy’s house. We anxiously awaited the arrival of hurricane Irene to her party, but she never showed up! Just a little rain, I guess I really should be thankful.
Isabela
Irene apparently got lost on the way to Andy’s and ended up in San Juan so the next morning we piled in the car and drove north to Isabela to see the damage/play in the ocean. The boys brought their surf boards and caught some HUGE waves while we sat on the sand and watched like proud mothers at little league…except in our suits…and in the rain. Yes, we were very much aware of how idiotic we looked. However, it was really funny and very cool to see intense surfing in real life. When our friend would catch a wave, Kasondra would yell “Gnarly!!” and we would jump up and down with that little surfer hand-signal of fists with thumbs and pinky fingers sticking out. We got some real dirty looks from the tattooed surfer dudes.
Then we went to another area to swim/get assaulted by waves…
I realize it sounds extremely stupid to swim in a tropical storm, but everyone else was doing it and I didn’t want to be left out! That’s always been a valid excuse, right? The rest of the story is kind of funny and really painful, but not appropriate for my mom (who is about 33% of my readers) so it shall not be shared here. But it’s not a big deal, I’m alive and my fat lip is almost good as new! ;)
The ten of us ended the weekend back in Cabo Rojo at Andy’s, where we cooked dinner together and finally relaxed. By cooking dinner together, I mean that Julian made some really fancy fish entrée (he watches food network), I chopped veggies for the salad, and Andy dumped some canned pears into a bowl. I am exhausted and wounded but it was 100% worth it.
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