Tag Archives: Tres Palmas Marine Reserve

Snorkeling in Rincón

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Hanging out at Steps Beach before snorkeling

One of our very favorite water activities here in Puerto Rico and Rincón specifically is snorkeling. It is inexpensive -all you need is a snorkeling mask and some fins. I often go out without fins because it is less of a hassle, but if I were to go out for a long session I would wear them as they help tremendously in propulsion underwater. It’s fairly easy to learn how to do too. Pretty much as long as you can swim in the ocean, you can snorkel. It takes a little bit to get your bearings, but once you’ve done it a few times it’s super simple. And it’s also something you can do basically all year round. It is sort of like the  yin to the yang of surfing. They are both an ode to the sea, but in different ways.

Surfing needs waves. Snorkeling needs flat waters. Surfing is floating just above the waterline, snorkeling is just below it. Surfing needs plenty of space to move, snorkeling can be done just floating in one area if desired. Surfing is about focused power and snorkeling is about focused gentleness. Surfing is mainly about the action, snorkeling is mainly about the observation. Surfing is fast and snorkeling is slow. To me, that we have both world class surfing and snorkeling in Rincón is a perfect expression of these two complementary sides of life.

Our favorite place to snorkel is at the Tres Palmas Reserve that is right off Steps Beach. It’s a little of a challenge for some people to enter because it doesn’t have a sandy bottom, but once in, a magical underwater world opens up. It has one of the best Elkhorn coral formations in the world! And with that comes lots of fish and sea turtles too! This has been a long process of conservation and it has really paid off. It is just bustling with life as you can see in the above video. We float around completely immersed in this other world almost like spacemen with minimal gravity on another planet. And then we enjoy learning about and identifying the various strange life forms we see.

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Close up of an Elkhorn coral

We have snorkeled some other places in Rincón, but Tres Palmas is by far the best. Over in Corcega or Almendros the waters are super clear with long sandy beaches, but there’s not nearly as many fish. The Marina can have some good snorkeling as it’s directly connected to Tres, but there are too many boats going in and out and that scares the fish away. At the balneario, there are sandy bottoms so it’s easy to enter, but pretty much only little fish like sardines.

On the other side of the point at Sandy Beach we have seen sea snakes (or maybe eels?) and a few other cool things, but it often has too many waves to have good clarity for regular snorkeling. Overall, though I always enjoy snorkeling pretty much anywhere because by simply putting on a small piece of transparent plastic we suddenly have a little window into a part of the world that is rarely visible. It’s pretty incredible and I am so grateful to live in a place with this wondrous space just under our noses.

 

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Tide Pool Fun at Steps Beach

Steps Beach
Steps Beach is named after these concrete steps that have been there for many, many years

One thing that is great about Rincón is that there are so many different beaches for different types of activities. There are long stretches of sand to walk or run or search for shells and sea glass, there are great surf beaches, swimming beaches and snorkeling beaches and even a beach to launch boats (the Marina). Steps Beach, also known as Playa Escalera in Spanish, is part of the 3 Palmas Marine Reserve and is probably most famous for its snorkeling. Here you can often spot sea turtles and it has one of the best elk horn coral formations in the entire Caribbean. Now that we have a waterproof camera (thanks Sean!) we need to go out and take more underwater pictures.

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Playing in the tide pools

But on this particular day, we got to enjoy another special part of Steps Beach: the tide pools! Especially for folks with young children or people with limited swimming skills, the tide pools are awesome. The sun warms the water up and they are just deep enough to sort of float on top. There are little hermit crabs and snails and small fish in there with you so it’s a lot of fun to search for creatures as you laze about in the warm water.

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Floating and playing around in the tide pools

It was a great place to spend time with our friend Missy and her munchkins. We had a nice picnic lunch and watched the parasailors, snorkelers and boats as they floated past. And Britton and I each took a turn swimming in the deep area as well. But mostly we just hung out under the shade trees and in the pools. There were a few people out, but since it was a weekday it wasn’t too crowded. Just a really nice way to relax!

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Cultivating a love of nature and the beach early! Missy and the newest member of the family

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Cool finds!

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Pretty palm trees and sexy beasts 😉

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