Tag Archives: boat

Coconut Harvest and Other Island Scenes

Climbing Coconut tree
Climbing a coconut palm

When we are out and about we often see things that we call “Island Scenes,” you know, scenes that you would never see if you didn’t live on a tropical island. Palm trees, especially coconut palms, to me are one of the quintessentially tropical markers. And as we were walking down a beach one day we came upon two men who were harvesting coconuts from tall 50 foot swaying palm trees.  One of them climbed up using his spikes and the other one caught the heavy bundle of coconuts that descended from a rope.

Man in the trees
Hola from on high!

These coconuts are mainly used for their coconut water, but of course can be used for any number of preparations from coconut oil, toasted coconut, coconut milk, even piña coladas! This is a great service for the beaches because a coconut that falls from that height could easily kill an unwitting person below. Win/win! Here’s a video of them at their work:

We hung out for a while nearby with a friend and enjoyed the sunset. I tried my monkey best to climb a coconut palm, but without the spikes I couldn’t get too far 🙂

Cassie in Coconut Tree
My coconut tree climb is not nearly as impressive!

Dogs and Horse on Beach
Horse riding and a pack of dogs on the beach

Cassie and Britton at Sunset Nice
Classic sunset shot

We also watched another traditional method of living off the land and water when we saw a man setting up the fishing net at the edge of the sea as the tiny ripples lapped softly against the sand. I’m not exactly sure what he was fishing for, perhaps sardines as we often see them when we enter the water. This is the kind of economic activity that has been going on for hundreds of years and that you probably won’t hear much about on the news or through the government: a direct connection to nature and your livelihood.

Boat and Beach
Boat at sunset

Island Time literally
A ceiling fan and a clock on a bamboo pole. Is this where island time came from? haha

Cassie and Britton Monkey and Horse
Yeehaw!

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A Day in the Life: Music, International Surfing Day and Boliche

Our life is so fun. While we get a lot of work done, mostly we act like kids. Here’s an example of a 24 or so hour day in our life.

About 6pm we show up to band practice. In the area where we park there is a random old dilapidated boat sitting in the yard. So I climb in and Britton takes some pictures.

Cassie boat

We have a fun Friday night jam. Lots of laughs, groovy music and beer.

Chris Markus and Britton
Chris, Markus and Britton getting goofy in the jam space

Around 11pm we arrive home and quickly fall asleep to the sounds of the coquis, bugs and thunder in the distance.

About 8am we wake up, have some coffee, a cookie, fruit and some eggs and check on the birds. We walk around the property a bit. The power goes out for a couple of hours, but no big deal; we’re leaving anyway. We put on our swimsuits and stop by Mark’s to borrow a tool on our way to the beach. It’s time to celebrate International Surfing Day and the Surfrider Association is having a small bbq fundraiser/gathering at Dome’s Beach! Surfrider is a great organization and has done a lot for Rincón particularly and Puerto Rico as a whole.

International Day of SurfingNice and sunny to start

Steve Tamar and Britton
Our friend Steve and Britton along with others enjoying the bbq

The clouds roll in and it starts to rain. Time to go home and take a siesta. Around 3pm our friend Papo calls and says he’s nearby. Would we like to hang out? Sure. We drive to Aguada and meet him for a beer. What should we do? How about bowling? ¡Boliche! I haven’t been bowling in 5 years probably, but Papo had NEVER been. Wow!

So we head out to the bolera on Highway 2. What a funny sight. At least 80% of the lanes have the rubber gutters in use and people just drop the balls loudly with a thud and let the balls zig zag bouncing against the gutters. It seems pretty obvious that bowling is not a very serious sport for most Puerto Ricans! The Dude would not approve. -Haha!

Bowling with Papo
Aguadilla Bolera

Manosa Comelon Perito Cassie and Papo Bowling
At the bowling alley we used our funny nicknames

We had to teach Papo the very basics of bowling. He didn’t quite get the form, and it was actually pretty comical but he is super strong and still managed to get a couple of strikes. I learned new vocabulary here as well. Chuza is strike and pins are pinos! Still not quite sure of the Spanish word for “spare.”

At one point a pino got knocked into the lane. Well it seemed that nothing was standard bowling protocol here…so why not take a walk on the wild side! I had never “crossed the line” so this was my chance. It was a weird feeling to walk down the bowling lane (pista I think it was called).

Cassie down the lane

I had to walk carefully not to slip, but it was kind of cool to do. So, Papo had his first time ever going bowling and I had my first time ever beyond the foul line. Ha!

Later that evening we grabbed a bite to eat. We had plantain pizza, a burrito and mofongo. Where? It’s a bird! It’s a banana! No, it’s Platano Supreme!

Platano supreme strange sightsDoes this look a little weird to you? haha

Life’s ever the adventure. We are still often surprised at the places it takes us. And we’re loving all of it.

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