playa crash boat

This is one of my favorite beaches yet!! Its is absolutely breath taking. Crystal clear water all sand and fun to snorkel at. We walk out on the pier and jump in and see 1000's of fishes. Love our under water camera

There is a wall off the pier that breaks the waves which I think makes the waves even bigger!! 

So of course we had to stand and take a picture of these giant waves crashing onto us :) 

They have some really cool wooden fishing boats on shore.

There is also a guy that has pelicans trained. Not even kidding,!! They come when he calls them, he can make the dance, give high-5's and you can pet them!!

Crash boat beach use to be a military site that would rescue downed air crews from Ramey Air Force Base.

Hatillo Festival de las Mascaras {mask festival}

On December 28th, in the middle of all the holiday celebrations, a little town about an hour from Rincon has a mask festival. This festival commemorates King Herods to kill baby Jesus by ordering the murder of all first born sons. All the men dress up in elaborate costumes and mask, and have floats to match their costume theme. These floats are SUPER noisy There are food stands all along the road and live music every where!! 

We went with our friends Nick and Ashley. Our plan was to go to the festival all day and through most of the night and stay at the local hotel Parador El Buen Café. We left around 10am and when we got to Hatillo it wasn't hard to find the festival with the loud crazy costumes and floats. The festival honestly did not live up to any of our expectations. We were hoping for the festival to be more authentic to the Puerto Rican culture. Their costumes were amazing but the themes were modern day like Sponge Bob and Dora the Explorer which was a little disappointing. We were also expecting a huge parade of all the floats but instead they only went one at a time through the busy streets that weren't blocked off. There was some amazing food stands, those have yet to disappoint us.

It was a super hot day with no shade. We only stayed a few hours once we realized what was actually happening and that it wasn't what we were expecting. We may have gone on the wrong day since its a 3 day festival but we all had fun non the less

The 4 of us were going to share the hotel room until we checked in that quickly changed. There was only 1 bed, a small bed, no room for a rollaway or even to put a suitcase. We stayed for a bit and played in the pool and drove around some more in Hatillo till we all agreed that we should just drive home so we could all get a good nights sleep.

Even though the festival was not completely what we were expecting it was still a different experience then we have had and are greatful to have gone.

~ Christmas ~ New Years ~ Three Kings Day ~

On Christmas Eve we had our friends come over for dinner and drinks. We made a bunch of Pinchos {shish kabobs} for everyone. We had a nice little BBQ with great friends.

Later in the evening Illia and her son Robert came by and gave us all a home made Puerto Rican drink it was similar to egg nog. We all had a drink with them and choked it down. It was room temperature, thick like a milk shake and had a taste that I couldn't even describe, none of us were able to drink it. I guess not everything is better in PR 

On Christmas Brad and I went out to the beach and made a snowman outta sand. It was quite the task, but we accomplished it. Everyone was stopping and taking pictures and loved the idea!!

For our Christmas dinner I made a family recipe, sweet and sour chicken with rice, Bradwell loved it!! 

We had a very simple but amazing Christmas in PR. We didn't do an exchange of gifts or any of the normal Christmas traditions. We focused on being together in an amazing place with great friends we have met.

New Year's Eve we went out with our friends Nick and Ashley. Ashley and I got all dressed up its not something we get to do that often living in PR. The boys took us out on the town. First we went to Lucky 13's a local bar and then we walked over to Villa Corfresi, its a nice hotel and bar that was throwing a huge New Year's party. They were charging $50 a couple but we were some how able to walk right in!! They had a live band playing Puerto Rican music and a great view of the ocean. Not a bad way to bring in the New Year.

                   

After we rung in the New Year we all went back home and set off fire works.

On January 6th the Puerto Rican's have another holiday called Three Kings Day. The whole island shuts down like on Christmas and celebrates. On the Eve of Three Kings Day the children will put hay under their beds for the camels that brought the 3 Wise Men; when they wake up in the morning their is some sort of gift left there for them. 

On January 5th we went to Miguel's family party. There was a live Puerto Rican band and lots of food and drinks.

It was a great 3 weeks of Holiday celebrations in Puerto Rico!!

road trip tramp style

We went on a cross island camping trip. When we were 'planning' or lack there of. We knew where we wanted to go, what we wanted to see and do was figured out; but the minor details such as where to stay, how to get to there and around and many other details were all left up in the air.
We packed up our minivan for a week long camping trip. We had a cooler filled with yummy foods, took out the middle seat so we could sleep in the car {tents are super expensive here} and headed on our way to Ponce.
Ponce is about an hour an a half drive from Rincón when you know where you are going and just outside of Ponce is Centro Ceremonial Indígena de Tibes. Which is a Native American archeological site, that wasn't discovered till 1975.  When this site was discovered they found over 130 skeletons, kids toys, kitchen utensils, weapons and so much more.

This is the court where they believed a game similar to soccer was played.

This is the sun court.

Where the tribe gathered to make life discussions and hold important ceremonies.

Inside the mesume one of the skeletons found at the burial site.

Their tools.

Petroglyph.

                   

After we left this amazing archeological site we tried to find a place to camp. We drove around and around looking for any place to set up camp. We've never been in Ponce before and thought we could just find a beach to camp for the night. After we drove around for a few hours we finally found a perfect spot, we were in the middle of the jungle right next to the beach. As we were setting up camp we had the thought of how high is high tide?? Are wie going to wake up with our car flooded?? So we packed up and drove to Fajardo and stayed at the Fajardo Inn for the night.

After a good nights sleep and hot showers we started out on day 2 of our adventure. We were wanting to take the ferry over to one of the outlining islands either Vieques or Culebra and camp out for a few nights there. As we were trying to talk to the ferry people who aren't very friendly we found out we needed a reservation at least 2 weeks in advanced and even if you have a reservation most likely you will still get kicked off. We scratched that idea off our list till we actually planned it out. On to plan B, or maybe we are on plan D by now, who knows?!? Everyone in the area told us to go camp at Seven Seas Beach, boy were they wrong!! It wasn't tent camping or beach camping; it was pay $25 to park your car overnight, it was however an absolutely beautiful beach and we spent hours wondering around. 

Pinacolada on the beach

At the end of the world.

Sea grass bed that went on forever

Before the sun started to set we took off to find a better camp site for us. We drove to Luquillo and found a beach right off the road behind the Luquillo Kiosks. 

Our campsite!!

We thought the back seat would come out but it didn't so we had 2 beds. Not very comfy but its free!!

Bradwell cooking Pinchos

No better view than that!!

The Luquillo Kiosks are awesome they are a bunch or restaurants, stores, bars whatever the owner wants. Each one is about  30X30 and there are probably about 50 or so, it looks like a flea market. Our favorite one was the Tattoo Tavern it was a bar and tattoo shop. The tattoo shop was like a fish tank and everyone could watch you get your tattoo or piercing.

The next morning we woke up and went on the FunCat, a sailing and snorkeling trip to the Spanish Virgin Islands. This boat was a million dollar costume made boat that could comfortably seat 60 people, we had 10 including the captain and deck hands. We went out to some of the bluest water and whitest sand beaches. One island was a private island and where they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean!! 

After a long day and a few long nights of camping we drove home. It was quite the adventure and now know where to camp for the next time and that the island isn't that big so we can do day trips if needed.