Category Archives: Pets and Animals

Beautiful Rincón: Tres Palmas Peace

Cow sunset
A classic shot I took from Facebook. I wish I knew who the photographer was to give credit.

Our favorite drive in Rincón is around the point and down through Tres Palmas. Often there are cows and donkeys peacefully enjoying the field with tall coconut palm trees swaying in the distance. And when the waves are up, it’s a great place to scope them out as they crash and send salt spray to aromatize the air. Every time we drive past there or stop to go to Steps Beach I remind myself what a magically gorgeous place this is and how fortunate we are to live here. I think nearly all of us here in Rincón hope that this piece of land stays just as it is. For cows – not condos!

Britton view Cassie 3 palmas
Checking out Tres Palmas from the road

Sunset 3
Ripples and fronds

Cow
The cows are pretty friendly and docile

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Lizard Internet / Mango Wireless

Our normal morning routine is to wake up, make some coffee and zone out on the internet for a bit until we start our daily do-ings.  Lately however our internet setup hasn’t been working!!  So my routine started to include walking over to the other side of the property and checking out our wireless bridge.

I can usually check segments of our network from the cabin, but lately the cabin has been completely cut off!
britton-ladder
Climbing the Pole
The higher the wireless router inside this little box on the utility pole, the better signal we get from our neighbor’s router that we share with.

chewed-wires
The Problem

Pretty much every day there is rat poop on top of the box, with some leftover parcha or starfruit.  So I know the rats have been hanging out on top of the box.  But these wires are inside of the cage I built!  They can’t be getting inside?!

iguana-on-the-internet
Another Possible Hacker

I saw this one on top of the goods one day too.  But again, it is waayyyy too large to get into the box and be able to chew the wires up!  So probably not the one I am looking for.

It wasn’t until the other day I finally saw the culprit!

lizard
Ah Ha!!! (click to enlarge)

There has been a small lizard living inside the box and eating the cables every night!  The power cables are pretty chewed up but power cables shock them once they eat all the insulation, so he stops.  With the Ethernet cables however, he just chews right thru them.

I’ve mended the Ethernet cable probably 5 or 6 times now.  I covered it in some really thick waterproofing tape and that seems to be working for the moment.  I also will be hunting this little pest.  He is fast and I found myself chasing him with a stick the other day!  It was really quite humorous.

The other idea I had was to electrify the wire cage so that it isn’t such a nice spot for critters to sit and hang out.  I don’t think it will take much to do, but something I’ll have to figure out!  Maybe in the next revision?!

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Festival Yunta de Bueyes 2016

We went down to the Yunta de Bueyes Festival again this year. This was one of the very first festivals we attended when we moved to Puerto Rico in 2013. While Rincón may be thought of as a gringo haven, you wouldn’t know it by this festival as we saw probably only about 3 other gringos the whole time.

parade
Festival with the parade of bueyes (oxen)

We had planned on just going to the park but we must have picked the right time as the parade was just starting. So we were able to watch a lot of the parade and then walk to Plaza Amistad. There were a few oxen, lots of horses and even more cars and tractors. We even saw a Lamborghini…which seemed quite odd in this rural traditional scene.

lamborghini
Lamborghini

We took a little side shoot down to Playa Lala on our way to the festival because in Rincón you are never far from the beach.

cassie-beach
At Playa Lala Rincón

pulled-along
Getting pulled along during the parade

At the festival we saw more oxen, ate some pasteles, arroz con gandules, drank some Medallas, listened to music and wandered around looking at all the booths and people.

mustache
Check out this guy’s mustache!!

pasteles
Mmm pasteles, arroz con gandules y ensalada

time-travel-jibara
Like stepping back in time!

holding-back-the-bueyes
When these oxen pushed against me I wasn’t so sure the stick would hold them there!

new-christmas-bike
And check out this decked out bicycle!

The party never ends here in Puerto Rico! Especially at Christmastime.

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Sea Turtles and a Beer

We generally don’t do a whole lot of tourist activities around Rincón for a few reasons. One, we are pretty frugal and two, since we live here we don’t really feel like tourists. However, there is a lot of cool stuff that happens when you are out and about in Rincón. Recently, we have been going out and seeing thing with fresh eyes again and focusing on the moment.

sandy-beach
Beautiful stretch of Sandy Beach 

One day we decided to go out to Tamboo Restaurant on Sandy Beach in Puntas which is probably one of the most quintessential tourist locations for food and drink directly on the beach. We were enjoying our meal and Blue Moon beer when we heard a bit of commotion and many people rushing to the edge of the deck and then jumping down to the sand. People from the beach looked up at the growing group of people. And then the bubbling excitement. The sea turtles hatched and were working their way to the sea! We had brought our camera, but the battery was unfortunately dead, so we just enjoyed the scene together in full awe that we had serendipitously come across.

sea-turtle-baby
After finishing our meal we ran back home for the camera and caught the VERY LAST ONE

We watched these moment old “Careys” AKA Hawksbill sea turles struggle and dart in a straight line for the water. It was interesting to think of them with an innate drive to their destination that would hold so many challenges. So fragile and so strong at the same time. The people all around cheering them on, placing bamboo poles as a border and removing any rubbish in their way but also letting them do what they needed to do without too much interference. Could that be a metaphor for life and our role for others? I look forward to seeing them soon when we are out snorkeling at Steps.

group-at-beach-1
The last of the group after the final turtle merged with the sea

There are so many magical moments to being alive that I don’t think we always fully recognize them until much later. Living in a world that is so different from the one in which we left is full of struggles that we never fully anticipated but it is also full of wonder and marvel. We all seem to be just like these turtles just working our way to the next adventure beyond.

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