Puerto Rico 66! - Beaches

We thought going to beaches would be a major part of our stay, but public beaches were officially closed on the main days we planned to spend on beaches. Something about Three Kings.

We were on the north side of the island the whole time, where huge waves constantly attack the shore. Beaches are generally sighted where off-coast rocks break the waves. Near old-town San Juan, you get beach and fort walls combined. Here are our beach pictures:

The beach closest to San Juan finally opened for parking after Three Kings Day. Pretty good social distancing. Not many people swimming. I guess for them this is the coldest part of winter, so who needs to cool off? For us, it was perfect water temperature.

It being San Juan, there were still sections of city walls right next to the beach area. Behind walls were lawns like this:

This wall section made a great frame for Eleni:

And the ubiquitous iguanas were lurking in the rocks

Two more pictures of the area just east of the beach

This is not so much a picture of John swimming, as it is of nobody else in sight. This was a random beach along the north coast where you just pull off the tiny road anywhere you can find space that doesn't look like it belongs to someone. We had to go here because Three Kings Day had shut down all the beaches that had public parking. By the time we left, all the spaces were full and someone was waiting for us to pull out of our space. Eleni collected a bunch of shells - all small. The private lands between the road and the beaches seemed to be a bunch of mini-resorts and open-air grills. 

Yes, we did go in the water. Here's the proof. We were happier than the expressions on our faces indicate.

Puerto Rico 66! - Cerro Gordo

It wasn't one of the "big" plans, but it turned out to be the most photogenic. We wanted to go west, since we seemed to always going east (Kayaking, El Yunque, beaches). John found an interesting looking "mountain bike trail" in a place called Cerro Gordo. We never actually found anything resembling a "cerro," but we did find a beautiful trail.

The first excuse for tapping the camera icon was this not-so-welcome greeter. It basically said go away and leave me alone, or I will pinch Eleni. Some kind of crab that was living in an old snail shell.

Originally posted as "If Iguanas designed the rocks." These formations were found where the waves particularly pounded the land. If there were iguanas here (the forest behind was teeming with them), you'd never see the in this perfect camouflage. 

Two views of the same rock. One showing more sea, one showing more land. Both scenic in their own way.

A giant wave or a panoramic shot using a phone with very buggy software (Pixel 6 Pro)?

Who says the earth is not round? Certainly not my Pixel 6 Pro! I guess Google expects people to carry a pivoting phone mount to keep panorama shots straight.

Just another stunning view:

And the final stunning view on the walk. This photo came from my phone just like this. I think it looks a little fake because the software picked out Eleni and turned her pixels into a portrait and then pasted it back into the landscape. Maybe a lot of processing I didn't ask for, but this picture does look great.

Puerto Rico 66! - San Juan

 We went to Puerto Rico for John's 66th birthday. It was pretty nice, we saw a lot of cool things, and we met a lot of nice people. John was greatly disappointed that, contrary to the PR tourism web site, it was NOT very COVID-19 safe. Almost nobody was wearing masks by the time we left. This caused some negative impact on our overall experience. That said, here is the first installment of our travel-blog!

We stayed at a very posh B&B. We rated it 4 stars on Google. You can ask us for the name if you are interested. Here is a view from their rooftop lounge:

Here are views from our balcony:

Our room:

The exterior (blue paint)

And the next-door neighbor

We passed by this very popular fountain. John was impressed by the overall craziness and the very nude centerpiece:

Our tour of the city was dominated by the two immense forts - San Cristobal and El Morro.

This is one of the very many garitas - guard houses. Soldiers would watch for invaders and be able to shoot through the slits. 

This is the same Eleni and same garita, but looking east along the coast over the cemetery. Following are just a bunch of the different garitas:

 

And the two forts, San Cristobal and El Morro:

Recreation of the soldiers' bunks

Looking down from the final wall height to the first wall 

WWII blockhouse on 18th century walls

Your view if you were a WWII sentry

Eleni and cemetery, looking west along the coast towards El Morro fort.

This is just a selfie to prove we were both there and having a good time.

The iguanas now patrol the walls. ¡Detener! ¿Quien va alla?

This one is keeping a close watch for ships trying to sneak into the bay.

And here is what made my birthday happy - Eleni, beer (in a garden), and anchovy pizza. Eleni is not happy that her tongue is sticking our, but I think it's cute.

Making do when the grid is off

January 1, 2022

We don't have electricity to the house, and there is over a foot of snow so far, but we have coffee and internet thanks to lots of UPS power.

Edible Yule Log?

Ana says it's a thing:

A Visit to McCauley Springs on the winter equinox

I went in. Eleni and Chewie did not. 

Visiting Brooklyn with Carol, Rebecca's family, David

 Well, Rebecca took the picture, so she's not in the picture. Here are 3 of 5 siblings on the Brooklyn Bridge: