Noche de San Juan

One of the biggest party nights of the year is the unofficial holiday Noche de San Juan (Night of St. John). Originally the holiday was to celebrate St. John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. The tradition is that if you go to the ocean and throw yourself backwards into the water three times, you will have good luck in the coming year.

We celebrated early. Elaine took a sunset ride on Chocolate and then we had dinner with friends on the deck at Villa Tropical.

We headed home early because in the current reality this is a night for camping (illegally) and all-night partying on the beaches. Beaches such as Jobos are as busy overnight as they are during the day. That's all well and good. The sad part is most of these beaches have few or no sanitary facilities and too many people simply disrespect the beauty of la isla.

And the next morning...

We just hate to see our beautiful beaches like this so we tend to avoid these big summer party weekends and celebrate quietly our own way.

Scuba diving at Shacks

Shacks Beach - the beach right in front of Villa Tropical and just down from us - is one of the best dive sites on this side of the island. It's a shore dive which means we just walk in to the ocean, swim out a little way across Blue Hole, and then drop into a beautiful reef.

The "outside reef" - outside Blue Hole - is a "finger-and-groove" reef. The reef forms canyons that we swim through. It reminds me of films of fly-bys through canyons in the American Southwest: swimming along 30'-40' underwater with these walls of coral soaring above us.

The entire reef is like Swiss cheese, riddled with holes and ledges, some you can swim through, some you can swim under. There are three tunnels through the outer reef that we use to back into Blue Hole. In fact there are tours of the tunnels and swim-throughs in and around Blue Hole.

A KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) shot of the reef at Shacks Beach. Blue Hole is at the top left. The inner shallow reef takes up most of the photo. The deeper outer reef is to the right.

Lately, Darryl has been taking a new route out of Blue Hole back to the inner reef. The "old" route was more direct but came through a kinda tight space. The new route, part of which is pictured above, is up and over and through several different passages before coming out on top of the inner reef.

I love diving out there. We wait all winter for the calmer flatter waters of summer so we can dive Shacks. During the winter - surf season - Shacks is usually to rough to dive. That's when we dive "around the corner" on the west side at Natural and Crashboat.

But now it's summer and time to dive Shacks!

It's my birthday - it's my birthday

Well, it was my birthday Thursday. What a great day! I've had some wonderful birthday celebrations over the years, but this absolutely one of the best whole birthday days I've ever had.

We - Elaine, Darryl and I - started the day with a beautiful, relaxed dive at Shacks - flat seas, no surge, very little current. One odd thing on this dive: what current there was was running "backwards," from west to east, instead of the usual east to west. Not a big deal for us diving but noteworthy for its strangeness.


Elaine and I had brunch at a new little place up on Carr. 110 call "My Sweet Place." They specialize in waffles, pancakes and cakes, but they don't open until 11:00 am. That struck us as a little odd but it was perfect timing for us. And I have to say, they served the best cup of coffee I've had in Puerto Rico. The beans are from a small coffee plantation called Hacienda San Pedro. We bought a can of beans to try at home.

At sunset we went down the road to the Eclipse restaurant at Villa Montaña for an oceanside dinner at the invitation of the owner. They set up a table for us right on the beach. We've always said that Eclipse had the best setting and ambiance of any restaurant around. And our dinner - tuna tar-tar and tempura shrimp for starters, then grilled kangaroo medium rare and fresh bass, topped off with key lime pie and chocolate mousse for desert - was unbelievable. We'd never tasted kangaroo before. It's a mild red meat, similar to but markedly different from beef. The service, which at times over the years has been suspect at Eclipse, we're very please to say was excellent. Thank you, Alain, Yosset, Maria, Giovanni, and of course Chef Jeremy for a wonderful wonderful birthday dinner.
I got to talk to, or at least had birthday messages from all of the kids at sometime during the day. Just as we sat down to dinner Amy and Miguel and Kennedy (who are visiting family on the mainland) called and sang "Happy Birthday." Then Kennedy got on by herself and sang the Spanish version of "happy birthday." I cannot begin to tell you how touching that was.

For the record, I am not 29 or 25 or celebrating "the 35th anniversary of my 25th birthday." I just turned 60 and I'm damned proud of it! There are those (me included sometimes) that never thought I'd still be here. But I am and I'm glad and I'm lovin' my life!

Thanks to everyone for all the amazing birthday wishes! It was a great start to my 61st year.

Squid sex

The reef squid are always among our favorite sea creatures. Their constantly changing iridescent colors, their graceful dance-like movements in the water, their curiosity and their beauty are endlessly fascinating.

On Saturday we got to watch part of their mating display while snorkeling at Shacks Beach. First, two males separated themselves from the shoal (pod) and fought each other in a spiral display of dominance. The the victorious male went to court a female (the photo above). She was having none of it, indicated by her white translucent color. The whole encounter was amazing!

You can see more of the squids' mating behavior in this video:

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/29078-the-ultimate-guide-octopus-reef-squid-courtship-video.htm

By the way, after the first video finishes, just wait and let the series continue to play. It's a fascinating series about squid and octopuses.

Huge thanks to our good friend Tracy Abney for turning us on to this series of videos.

Comings and goings, to-ings and fro-ings

Sunday night we said adios to another great friend, Colin Dow. Colin has been here for three months (can it really be that long already?). He came from Montana(!) to work at Villa Montaña. Talk about a change! A former NFL player, Colin fully embraced the island life while he was here. Among other things he became a certified SCUBA diver. Not quite sure where he's going to dive in Montana. Guess he'll just have to come back and dive with us.

Colin, thank you! It has been a too-short pleasure. Come back soon 'cause we're gonna miss ya.

Happy birthday, Rosa! (redux)

Last night we had a surprise extra birthday celebration for a friend and co-worker, Rosa. The celebration last week at OneTenThai was great but something was missing - one of Elane's special birthday songs!!!

Last night Rosa got the full Ola Lola's birthday treatment, complete with an Elaine song - in Spanish! Too much fun!

Happy birthday another time, Rosa!

Mucha lluvia! (lots of rain!)

So far, it has rained every day in June. It rained just about every day in May. It's pretty common have a nice morning and then have a cloudy afternoon, sometimes with rain, sometimes without. But this! It seems like the sun hasn't been out for more than a few minutes for weeks! This is a really really strange weather pattern.

We tried to have a Thursday adventure. We started out for Rincon with our friends Pat and Bill. The plan was to check out some art shops and studios in Rincon and then drive down to Boqueron for the evening, watch the sunset, drink some beer, and check out someplace different.

It started raining just as we drove into Rincon. Okay. Don't really want to walk around in the rain looking for art studios. So we headed out of Rincon for the highway south toward Mayaguez and Boqueron beyond. By the time we got to the highway, PR 2, it was raining so hard we could hardly see. Mission abandoned, our new adventure was just to get back to Isabela safely. It rained all the way home. Elaine and I both kept thinking "Oh, what a mess it's going to be when we get back!"

Fortunately, as frequently happens, it rained harder south of us (Aguadilla, Aguada, Rincon, Mayaquez) than it did here. Not that we didn't get a lot of rain. We did. But we didn't flood - except for the corral which as been wet for a month.

There has been no diving: the ocean is a mess from all the muddy water pouring down the rivers from the mountains. Elaine hasn't done much riding: the trails she usually rides, the ones that aren't totally flooded, are muddy and slippery and mosquito-infested.

This pattern is supposed to break by the middle of the week. As long as it's not replaced by a hurricane, I can't wait!

Adios, Leigh!

There is a dark downside to the friendliness and the sense of community we develop here: It's hard when someone you care for and consider part of "the family" leaves.

Our magical little corner of the island is, by it's nature, has a large transient population. Tourists come for a week or two; surfers come for a weekend or for the winter; people come from the States on two-week or two-year work assignments; Coast Guard postings change every couple of years. In the time they are here, we get close to many of these people. They become regulars at Ola Lola's. They become part of our extended family.

And then they leave. Everyone who leaves us leaves a little tiny (or sometimes HUGE) hole in the fabric that is our lives.

Last night we said good-by to Leigh. Leigh has been working here for about three months. She and her co-workers at ATI have set up a service that flies once-a-week nonstop flights from "our" airport in Aguadilla to Madrid, Spain. (Next week they are going to start flights to Barcelona as well.)

We surprised her with a full Ola Lola send-off complete with cake and one of Elaine's famous songs, customized just for her. I'm not sure Leigh realized until then just how much a part of the Ola Lola family she had become.

Although she's been many places in the world, Leigh had never tried SCUBA diving. She had her first discover dive with our friend Darryl. The dive didn't start out well when Leigh had a panic attack. As he has done so many times with so many first-time divers, Darryl worked her through it and she was hooked. Just this week she finished her certification; she's now a diver!

When Leigh first got here, she didn't quite "get" Ola Lola's. Now she does. Welcome to the family, Leigh! Come back and visit soon. At least put a little patch on that hole in the fabric.

Adios, Tim

Last week we said good-by to a good friend. Tim Dutton left the island for a new gig in the States. We wish him the best of luck with his new life up north. We'll see Tim back again though - he still has family here on the island.

Happy birthday, Rosa!

Last night we celebrated our friend and Ola Lola's co-worker Rosa's birthday. Thanks to everyone who turned out at 110 Thai to help us celebrate.

Happy birthday, Rosa!

New camera's maiden dive

My self-imposed sort of exile from the computer continues but I didn't intend my absence from here to be this long.

The dive camera issue is totally resolved. The new camera and new housing arrived and are together. This photo of our friend and dive buddy Robin is from the rig's second dive. The first dive was in such terribly murky water - visibility about four feet - that I didn't bother even trying to take pictures. I'm still adjusting to the new rig but so far I like it. Mostly, I'm glad the whole episode is now closed and behind us.

The good news is there should be lots more dive pictures in the near future!

Adventure Tuesday

Mail boxes along the side of the road near Dorado.

This week's Adventure Tuesday was on Wednesday, a roadtrip to San Juan. It was not all fun and games: We had to deliver some documents to a government office for Elaine's SLP license here and to - ARRRRGH! - go to Plaza Las Americas, the biggest mall in the Caribbean. We had a specific goal for Plaza Las Americas but of course got sidetracked and took longer than we'd planned.

From there we drove along the coast to Dorado. We stopped to check out the Agrotourism Park near Dorado. Elaine went to a rodeo in this park last weekend. She wanted me to see it and to check it out as a possible site for a kite festival, possibly even the American Kitefliers Association's National Convention and Grand Nationals competition. So we flew our kites there for a little while.

It is a very cool site and would work great for a kite festival. Hmmm....

We checked out a couple of beaches along the way and were reminded (once again, as if we needed to be reminded) of how lucky we are on this side of the island. There were a few open beaches along the roadway but nothing like our beaches. There is a lot of money in Dorado (that's where the Donald's golf course, home of the Puerto Rico Open, is located). There may be some very nice beaches in Dorado, but mostly they are sealed off from the public behind heavily secured gated housing communities. There is a pretty nice balenario (public swimming beach) in Dorado; we stopped there for a beer.

The nicest beach we saw on this trip was the balenario at Cerro Gordo a little west of Dorado. It was getting late by the time we got Cerro Gordo and we didn't have much time to spend there. We will go back again, I'm sure.

The balenarios are essentially public beach parks. You can walk in for free but there fees to park inside. The ones we've visited have (mostly) pretty nice facilities. The one in Dorado had a bar and pool tables. Facilities, such as restrooms and trash pick up, are one of the advantages of these beaches. But unlike our beaches, these balenarios are behind fences and gates. They are nice but not open.

From the cliff at Dunas, past Sardinera and Villa Pesquera, Shore Island, Middles, Golandrina, Jobos, Bajura, Shacks, and Martinique to the rocks at Survival, we have more than eight miles of open and accessible beaches. Then there is Surfers, Wishing Well, Natural, Crashboat and the beaches along downtown Aguadilla. And those are just the ones nearby.

We are so lucky here on our side of the island!

Stolen camera update

The stolen camera saga is nearly complete.

On Friday, we met in the District Attorney's office and the perp - or rather the perp's father - paid the replacement cost of the camera and housing. By making restitution he avoided a trial and probable jail time.

So with cash in hand, I have ordered the new camera and new housing. Hopefully, by the time it all gets here, the ocean will clean up and there will be some great new dive photos.

For now this chapter is closed.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

To everyone who is a mother, soon will be a mother or has a mother, Happy Mother's Day from all of us at Ola Lola's. We hope you have a wonderful day!

We have a special Mother's Day wish for our daughter Amy, mother of two of our beautiful grandchildren. (It's still a little weird wishing our own daughter Happy Mother's Day and meaning it!) And from both of us to our mothers - we miss you, every minute, every day.

Happy Mother's Day, everyone.

KAP update

If you've been checking back here looking for new KAP photos, you've been pretty disappointed. So have I. Thus far, for me at least, WWKW has been a total bust.

Until today, every day this week has been grey and overcast with either strong gusty winds or no wind at all. It has either rained hard or at least spit rain just about every day as well.

To add to the weather woes, my primary KAP camera was also my dive camera, the one that was stolen. My older "back up" camera is acting up.

All in all the one day I did get out to KAP I came back with not one single usable shot.

Whine whine whine! Ya want some cheese with that whine?

Today looks like a much better day. I think I've figured out work-arounds for the camera's issues so I can use it until the new camera gets here later this week.

In the mean time, you can see some great KAP photos from KAPpers around the world on the WWKW group on Flickr or on the main Flickr KAP group. They just aren't my photos - yet.

World Wide KAP Week starts

NOW!

The goal of WWKW (World Wide KAP Week) is:

"Everyone gets out wherever they are, as much as they can, during WWKW, and does KAP or something related to KAP (public speaking, gallery showing of KAP photos, etc.) Pictures are posted to the WWKW Flickr group for folks to share. If we're doing a book again this year, unmodified photos are submitted to the person coordinating the book along with captions and a block of text describing yourself, your experience during WWKW, etc. " (Credits: Tom Benedict).

Okay, that's what WWKW is but what is KAP?

KAP is the acronym for Kite Aerial Photography. Basically it's aerial photography done with a camera suspended from a kite line. The rigs for holding and triggering the camera range from a simple pendulum with a single-use camera and a rubber band to trigger the shutter to complex multichannel radio-controlled rigs with gyroscopes to steady the camera and video downlinks so the photographer can actually see what the camera above sees. My rig falls somewhere in between.

I built my first KAP rig just before I moved to Puerto Rico but didn't actually use it until I got here. I certainly didn't invent KAP. That honor is usually given to Arthur Batut, a Frenchman who took the first know KAP photos in the late 1880s in Labruguiere, France. Right now, there are some 1,872 members of the Flickr KAP group world-wide. The Flickr group is a great showcase of the best KAP work.

Few people know that one of the most famous KAP photos is in fact a KAP photo. In the days after the 1906 earthquake that leveled San Francisco, a photographer named George Lawrence made this photo of the devastated city:

It was not taken from an airplane or a hot air balloon. Rather, Mr. Lawrence "took this remarkable kite aerial photograph in 1906 as San Francisco lay devastated by the '06 earthquake. Less than 20 years after Batut's first efforts Lawrence used a train of up to nine large Conyne kites to loft a moving-slit panoramic camera. The camera weighed 49 pounds and was lifted to a height of approximately 2,000 feet anchored by a wire tether. The shutter was released via an electric wire to produce a negative measuring 18" x 48". (credit: Chris Benton, Kite Aerial Photography)

My goal for WWKW is to KAP a different, new location each day. My plan is to post the best photo each day here, on the blog, and the best of the series on Flickr. Stay tuned. And check out the two Flickr pages to see what's new in the world of KAP.

Camera update

The PR police found my diver camera! Or at least they found out what happened to it. The person who stole it sold in on Clasificados Online (which is just what it sounds like, an online classified ads website). He/she sold it for $60!!!!!!!

Since the police have the "perp," he/she has until Friday to pay me $800 to replace the camera and UW housing. If he/she pays, the case is closed and the thief goes free. If not, it becomes a criminal case and goes to trial. If it goes to trial, we probably get nothing in restitution. As much as I'd like to see the bastard go to jail, it probably wouldn't happen anyway. As one cop told me, the system doesn't always work the way we want it to, but this is the way the system works.

At least I won't have to pay to replace the camera/housing.

I've taken a mostly voluntary hiatus from the computer. Mostly voluntary. Circumstances have also conspired to keep me away as well. We've been BUSY!

It's been an eventful couple of weeks.

Elaine took a few well-deserved days away. That left the care and feeding of all critters to me, and of the Ola Lola's crowd to Rosa, Pichi, Miguel and me. We had quite a weekend last week but we came through it, amazingly well if you ask me. Thank you so much to our wonderful help. You guys are awesome! That said, we are all glad Elaine was back with us this weekend.

KTJ, Elaine's Thoroughbred, celebrated her fourth birthday. In horsedom, that means she is now a mare and no longer a filly.

Last Saturday, just as we were closing, someone stole my camera and underwater housing from a table in the kitchen. Don't know who or how, but we have our suspicions. Our little point-n-shoot camera that we used to take pictures around the bar was stolen from the bar earlier, probably by the same person.

I wonder if thieves ever think of the impact of their actions on their victims. They obviously must think they need "the thing," whatever it is, money a camera, whatever, more than their victim does. But do they ever think "gee, this person is going to have to replace this thing I'm stealing and that's going to cost them." Or "gee, this thing might be important to somebody." Probably not.

The actual cost to us and our friends when two cars were broken into and another car stolen was over $8,000. The punk that did it paid "restitution" of $1,100. It will cost nearly $1,000 to replace my cameras. I could have used that $1,000 to upgrade to a new camera to shoot suf photos. Now I'll just be replacing what I already have.

These actions can have an impact far beyond just the victims. When I posted on Facebook about the camera theft and later about a dive without the camera, I got these comments back:

"Since we don't get to see your pictures, in a way, he stole from us too. I enjoyed seeing your pictures."

"i want to "like" this statement - but I don't like whoever stole your camera, and I don't like that I can't see the pictures as well."

" I agree as well. I LOVE seeing the pics of the time you spend exploring underwater! It is a loss to everyone that viewed them."

"I was imagining what you saw as you described it, but it's not the same as seeing it!"

"I agree too... I enjoy your underwater pictures a lot, since I snorkle, but I don't dive, that was my way of living the under water and showing my friends... in fact I even showed the pics to one of my students that wants to be a marine biologist."

I will get another camera and I will take pictures underwater again. It's just too much a part of who and what I am. Still, mean people suck.

Meet Oz

This is Oz, our Buddhist Temple Lion dog. Oz adopted us by plopping down in the yard some time in November and he's been hanging out ever since. Our relationship with Oz started slowly. First we tried to shoo him away. Then, secretly at first and then openly, Elaine began to feed him as did our friend Mary and a few other dog-loving people who come by.

We think someone dumped him on the side of the road here, but he seems to have made a home for himself. Mostly he lays around in front of the bar. For a while, when we're open, he would hang out on the edges. If it got too busy for his comfort zone, he made himself a little den around on the side and he'd go there.

He's really sweet, especially for a chow. Chow's aren't known for their kind gentle dispositions. We think he was probably abused as a puppy because for a long time he wouldn't let anyone approach him or touch him. He got comfortable enough with us to take food from our hands but if we made any move to pet him, he moved away. The good news is he is very timid but not passive-aggressive. He didn't move away and growl; he just moved away.

Elaine, with the help of a couple of friends, finally caught him him and put him on a rope so we could get him to the vet. Good thing! In addition to needing shots and grooming, we found out he has heartworm. The good news is it's still in the early stages and hasn't yet damaged any organs. So he's getting treated for that. As most satos (street dogs) do, he has other parasites that he's being treated for. And, after an initial 3-day stay at the vet, he had to return 2 days later for another 24 hours for some sort of infection that he's now getting antibiotics for. (Once again proving that adopting an animal is NOT - contrary to many preconceived notions - an inexpensive way to acquire a pet.)


He's become very comfortable with us. He let's us approach and sometimes even comes to us. He'll let us pet him and Elaine now brushes him every day. He even stood quietly while Elaine gave him a bath! He stays on the rope, mostly so we know we can catch him. He's still on medications and next week goes back to the vet for another treatment for heartworm and to get neutered. When we're open we move him around back as a precaution. He's still pretty docile but as he feels better there is always the possibility he'll start acting more like a chow.

Ziplining redux

Our Tuesday Adventure was a return (for me at least) to Batey Ziplining up in the center of the island. Our friend Kelda's brother was visiting and she wanted to take him and friends Cassie and Alfredo on the tour. This time Elaine went along. I think she liked it.

As always, getting there was part of the adventure. Those of you who have been to Puerto Rico know the roads are not always well marked. Okay, we got a little lost. Because of the way the roads twist and turn up in the middle of the island, there are three intersections of routes 129 and 111. The directions said to turn at the second intersection but the one you want is really the third intersection. We took the second. It didn't go where we wanted to go. You'd think that eventually you'd wind up in the same place anyway but apparently not. For a few minutes it was like being in the Twilight Zone.

And then there are the roads back to the zipline. They are an adventure all by themselves. But we made it and had a great time. Thanks for sharing it with us.

The horses

Elaine back from a ride on KTJ...
























and Chocolate horsing around.

Old friends, new friends

Our friend Susan (on the left in pink) came back for a short visit. She used to live at the other end of the beach road but she traded in sun and sand and warm for a cottage in the far northwest of Minnesota(!). To be fair Susan was originally from Minnesota and moving was a kind of going home for her. It was great to see her back on the island, even if only for a couple of days.

We also have a new friend in the 'hood, Maura. Maura is a flight attendant (and SCUBA diver and fledgling surfer) and just moved into Bajuras. Welcome to the party, Maura!

100th Dive

Today did I did my 100th SCUBA dive! I led the dive and that completed my stuff for Advanced certification. How cool is that? SCUBA diving is something I've wanted to do since I was a kid watching Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges (father of actors Jeff and Beau Bridges) on TV. It took me a while but here I am, living on a tropical island and diving as often as possible. I LOVE IT!

Thanks to our great friends Darryl (my teacher and dive mentor), John D. (one of my idols), Patti and our new-ish friend and dive buddy Robin for sharing my 100th dive with me.

Waitng to catch a plane

Spontaneous Combustion came back to Ola Lola's for a late jam session while they were waiting for their even-later flight out of Aguadilla. What a great way to spend some of your last few hours on the island- having a couple of beers and jammin' with friends. Thanks, guys. It was great fun. Hopefully, we'll see you back in the fall.

Happy 1st birthday, Kaiden!

Saturday we helped celebrate our grandson Kaiden's first birthday at the local splash park. We all had a great time. Kai and big sister Kennedy love water and especially this splash park. The park itself is very cool - very kid and family friendly. Amy and Miguel take the kids there almost every week. I'm sure this isn't the last time we'll be there with them either.

Happy birthday, Kaiden!

Happy birthday, Steve

Today is our son Steve's birthday. Happy birthday, Steve. We love you! Wish you were here to celebrate but we'll have one (or two) in your honor. I'd find a bottle of Jamison's somewhere! (BTW, he's the one with hair.)

We also missed the chance to say "Happy birthday" to our good good friend Darryl - although we had a great party for him on his birthday last Saturday at Ola Lola's. That's Darryl, in the middle singing with the band. Hey, Darryl - the whole "no photos, no video, no DNA , never happened" thing is now history. We have photographic proof of you singing with the band.

And one more party to acknowledge: On Thursday we went to a St Patrick's Day party at the Thai restaurant here in Puerto Rico. The band lives in Hopi Indian country in the Four Corners area of Arizona/New Mexico/Colorado and has a fiddle player from Bali. The hosts, Andy and Nasstasia, are of German/Scottish/Irish and Mexican descent. We LOVE multiculturalism!

Sincerest flattery

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We received this photo in an email from some friends in Bethany Beach, Delaware. They said,

"...we decided last to start having "Ola Lola" parties under our home at Bethany. We try to replicate the same casualness and your inviting spirit.

Attached is a picture we took...I hope we are not violating any trademark's you have registered :)"

Thank you, Ted. We are flattered and honored. Hope your Ola Lola parties capture some of the Ola Lola vibe.

Nothing like a bout of the flu...

I spent most of last week crashed out with a strain of the flu. We even closed Ola Lola's one night because of it. This a weird strain. It moved back and forth between my chest and my head. the worst part about it was the constant headache that nothing would ease. Imagine your worst hangover. Multiply by 5 to 10 (depending on how much ibuprophin you've had). Stretch out over 6 days. Welcome to my world.

But all is better now.

Sunset view from the deck at Llave del Mar.

We - Elaine, our friend Kelda and I - had a Tuesday adventure for dinner. Of course, so many restaurants around here are closed on Tuesday that Tuesday dinner is always an adventure. We went to Quebradillas and found a seafood restaurant right on the cliff overlooking the sunset and ocean. It wasn't the restaurant Elaine and Kelda planned, the one where they had dinner last Tuesday (while I was home nursing my non-hangover headache). That one was closed this week. But we found another one we enjoyed, Llave del Mar. The seafood was really fresh and delicious and the service was great. The only thing that was a bit strange were the three mounted hunting trophies - two stuffed deer heads and a bear head, not the sort of thing one thinks of at an oceanview restaurant on this island.

On Wednesday, Elaine and I had another adventure, this time off to San Juan. Not for fun or pleasure, but so Elaine could file all the paperwork needed to get her Speech-Language Pathologist's license her in PR. The first part of the adventure was finding the place. Elaine did a great job of navigating us there. We landed just a block short of where we needed to be. Most of the paperwork went quickly. The only hickup was finding an attorney (!) to notarize the documents. Normally, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an attorney's office but we walked five blocks before we found one. All in all, this was a very smooth encounter with a government agency. We got there, got our business done and got out with very little hassle, delay or waiting in line. Rebecca, the woman in the licensing office, was very helpful. And, we - that is, mostly Elaine - did the whole encounter in Spanish!

We had one more adventure on our San Juan trip. We were very close to Plaza Las Americas, the largest shopping mall in the Caribbean. We had to stop. Now I can (finally) say I've been to Plaza Las Americas. I can also say if I don't go back for another four years (or more) I will be just fine with it. It's actually very difficult to shop there. As our friend Tito said, your head just spins. There is so much stuff competing for your attention and so much sparkle and just so MUCH, it's hard to concentrate on anything. Even the bookstore, my favorite store in any mall, was overwhelming. Guess I'm just an out-island beach bum who can't take the big city.

And I'm okay with that.

Dunja and José

We are very fortunate to have met so many wonderful people in our four short years here. In our world fill with great people, some stand out because in they touched our hearts and lives in a special unexpected way.

It is the nature of this area and our lives that many of these people are here for just a short time and then move on, either to return to their homes or on to some other adventure.

One such couple is Dunja and José. Originally from Switzerland, they came to our little corner of the world as part of an extended around-the-world vacation. José is a windsurfer and came to play in the tradewinds at Shacks Beach. Dunja LOVES and works with horses in Switzerland and in Spain. Wherever she goes in their travels, she finds horses and horse people. We are so lucky that on this trip, she found Elaine. They bonded in a very special way, caring for Chocolate and KTJ, riding together, and just spending time "talking horse." Dunja's leaving has left a totally unexpected hole in Elaine's life. (And BTW, José created the "no te vayas" ["don't go"] dip special on this week's menu.) We wish them well and safe, wonderful travels. And Elaine is counting the days until her horse buddy comes back in February, 2012.

An update from Dunja

When Dunja and Jose left us in PR, they headed for Maui where they are staying in a friend's beachhouse. In the aftermath of the horribly devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Dunja sent us this first-hand account of the tsunami n Hawaii:

"We are fine on Maui, but yesterday it was kind of adventure. At 10 the siren started to haul and all the people living by the beach (we're living very very close) had to move upcountry, because the tsunami was expected to hit hawaii around 3 o'clock in the night. Not a lot of sleep and watching tv all night long in a friends house, we finally returned in the morning to our house to have a look what happened.

The tsunami took everything around our beachhouse away. Washingmachine, dryer, outside-shower, hotpot, tables everything floated away or was damaged. But we had a lot of luck that the house is still here. The sea level was arising 6 feet higher then hightide and our place was one of the worst on the whole island. So today we spent the whole day with cleaning and we carried all the rubish together.But finally no people, no animals are hurt, and everybody is happy. All people here helped and I cooked a big pot of spaghetti.

Today we will sleep again in the beachhouse. But I'm not very relaxed. Right now, the water is just 10 feet away from our veranda and the wind is blowin! But all the people around us told this is fine; no pasa nada....

aloha"

Watching the videos of the tsunami in Japan give us pause. We are 330 yards (measured by a golfer friend's rangefinder) from the ocean. We live in a fault zone. There are small (2.3-3.5 magnitude) earthquakes around us every day. They are so small and usually far enough away we don't even feel them. In the last year local officials have put up signs about the tsunami danger zones along the coast. When officials came by a year or so ago passing out information literature, their advice to us was "if you see a tsunami, run very fast up the hill."



Which kind of point outs how pointless such advice is. How would we know if there was a tsunami approaching? I don't know how we would get the kind of warning time our friends in Maui got. I have not seen or heard warning sirens here. By the time we saw a tsunami it would be pretty late to "run very fast up the hill."

In October, 1918, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake rocked the ocean floor about 15 kilometers (less than 10 miles) west of Puerto Rico in the Mona Passage. The quake destroyed buildings in Mayaguez. Just moments after the quake, a 12-foot high wall of water devastated Aguadilla, killing 40 people. The greatest wave height, 20 feet, hit Punta Boriquen, the beach area just below the cliff where the golf course is today. That tsunami destroyed the Spanish lighthouse whose ruins can still be seen along the road back to Wilderness Beach.

From Ola Lola's Garden Bar

Punta Borinquen was the hardest hit area in the 1918 tsunami.



Like many things in Nature, the possibility of a tsunami is something we are aware of but don't live in fear of. We just hope those little shocks keep releasing enough pressure between the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates so there isn't a big quake and a tsunami.

Back to The Wall

Seven of us - Darryl, John D., Patti, Suzanne, Jen, Charlie and I - went back to The Wall at La Parguera Sunday, diving with West Divers. West Divers have been around for a number of years but recently reopened with new owners.

We had a little boat trouble on the ride out (water in the fuel) and ended up abandoning the second dive but the first dive was amazing.

I love diving The Wall. The Wall is actually a 28-mile-long cliff in the seafloor about four to five miles off shore. Yesterday we dove a site called Efra's Wall, one of more than a dozen recognized dive sites along The Wall. The drop off the boat is to about 60-65 feet. You swim down a gentle decline to about 75 feet and then the bottom falls out. You swim out over the edge of the cliff. the bottom is another 65 to 80 feet below you at 130 to 160 feet. (A little further out is another vertical drop to over 1,000 feet deep.)

As I swam over the edge of The Wall and looked toward the bottom below, there was no sense of fear, no sense I might fall. My friend Darryl and I talked about the feeling as you move a little away from The Wall, separating yourself from "land." It is as close as we will ever get to being in space. I was suspended, weightless, motionless, unconnected, peaceful. Then the beauty of The Wall drew me back and I swam on.

Most of the dive along The Wall is between 80 and 100 feet, depending on the divers. You then come back up The Wall and swim back to the boat at 55-65 feet along the edge of the cliff.

Colors are naturally filtered out as you get deeper, starting with reds and yellow so many underwater photos appear more blue and green than normal. The deeper you go the more pronounced this filtering effect is. But the reverse is also true: As you come up, there is less filtering. So as you ascend from 85 to 55 feet there is more apparent color in the corals and fish. It's interesting to watch the colors "reappear" as you ascend.

You can see more pictures from the dive on our Flickr page.

Promises, promises

So much for a new picture every day. Sheesh! So here's a whole bunch at once:

"Someone to watch over me" It's very unusual to see both horses lying down asleep at the same time. Usually, one will stand guard while the other lies down. Must have been a tough day for Chocolate because he's "laying" guard over KTJ. But he is sleeping-alert and watching over her.




We did a little "hometown tourist" stuff this week. Tuesday evening we had drinks and appetizers at the Eclipse at Villa Montana and had a wonderful time. Great mojitos by the way - almost as good as the mojitos at Ola Lola's. (The photo of the Eclipse and the beach in front of Villa Montana is from a recent KAP session.)

Then on Wednesday, we went to Sonya Rican on Playa Jobos and sat watching the beach and eating marlin bites and drinking cold Coronas.

On Thursday night, our friend Darryl and I did a night dive at Natural. (No pictures - it was a night dive!) We were within touching distance of one of the largest green turtles I've ever seen and heard whales singing somewhere off in the night. Awesome!


I did get in a KAP session at Shacks this week, trying to do something fun with kitesurfers. This is my favorite of the set.




I also managed a couple of surf photography sessions this week at Wilderness. You can see more from these sessions on our website, www.puertoricosurfphoto.com.

More to come!

How did I miss Valentine's Day?

I missed Valentine's Day?!?!?!?! How did THAT happen? We had a pretty busy week at Ola Lola's - lots of prep and set up but there is no excused for missing Valentine's Day!

So - somewhat belatedly - Happy Valentine's Day!

This week's adventures: my Tuesday Adventure was spending most of my morning back in Puerto Rican court while the lawyer for the guy we believe stole the Pathfinder (and broke into our friend's rental car and stole her laptop, camera and clothes) cut a deal to drop the charge from felony possession of a stolen car to a misdemeanor. He does have to pay us restitution but only for the actual damage to the car. Since there is not enough proof he actually stole the car and broke into the other cars, all that has nothing to do with the charges. ARRRGH! But at least he has to pay something and will now have something on his record. Of course, he's probably going to pay restitution with the proceeds from selling the other stuff he stole from us.


My Wednesday Adventure was much better. Darryl and I and two new dive buddys dove a new (to me at least) site in downtown Aguadilla in front of Rompiola's. This is a very cool site, like a combination of Natural (one of our favorite dive sites) and Wishing Well (a favorite snorkeling and sometime dive site). Natural is a beautiful reef and so is Rompiola's. But like Wishing Well, Rompiola's is a shallow dive, bottoming at 20' or so. For a diver that means you can stay down and explore for a long time. (A tank of air lasts longer at shallow depths than at deeper depths.) So this is a very cool new site, one that Elaine and I can dive together. It's her kind of dive - not too deep, lots to see, easy to get to, easy entry, very little current, short swim out. Wow! What more can you want?

Kite surfers are happy

The kite surfers are happy - the winds have been howling. The surfers on the other hand are crying. This is the longest no-surf stretch in February that anyone can remember. A friend who has lived and surfed here for more than 30 years has never seen anything like this flat stretch. I haven't even gone out to look for surfers in almost a month.

I have done some KAPping though. This is from a late-afternoon session this week KAPping the beach at Bajura and the kite surfers at Shacks. There are some really nice images. The best are posted on Flickr.

There is supposed to be a little bump in the surf today and tomorrow so I'm headed out to see if there is anyone out. I'll let you know.

Happy birhtday, Marti

Today would have been my mother's 84th birthday. Happy birthday, Marti! We miss you.

Where did the week go?

Sometimes it's easy to get lost in the day-to-day.

We had two parties at Ola Lola's last week. The first was a birthday party for our friend Kelda, her first birthday party since she was like 10. Happy birthday, Kelda.

The second was a going away party for our good friends Steve and Tracy. Steve's job has been moved from PR to Las Vegas, a move that seems to make no sense but there it is. Good luck and safe travels to you guys. We know you're giving up diving in warm waters for hiking through sand, but we know you'll always find something fun to do.

Let's see...I haven't been diving, although it's not for lack of trying. We had a trip planned to go to Coffin Island off the south coast of the island, but that fell through. Then a couple of us were going to dive the wall off La Parguera with a new dive operator and that got canceled. We had two night dives planned for this week but neither of those worked out. A group headed to Rincon to dive at Desecheo Island on Saturday. By the time I called to get a seat, the boat was full.

No surf to speak of so I haven't been shooting pictures of surfers.

So what have I been doing? I've been riding Chocolate almost every day. KTJ spooked and threw Elaine last week and she (Elaine) has a badly bruised, very sore backside. So I've been riding Chocolate to give him some exercise. One we went all the way to Survival Beach (where the trail rides go) all by ourselves. I was pretty proud of that. Yesterday I worked him hard enough to make him sweat. We're actually getting much better together. I can't wait for Elaine to heal so we can ride together.

I did manage to get in two KAP (Kite Aerial Photography sessions this week, one at Shacks and an early morning session at Montones. That's a site I've wanted to KAP for a long time. As always, it was a learning experience. I'll have to take what I learned and go back again. The timing is difficult: for all the wind we have, we don't usually have good wind early in the morning, near sunrise, which is when I want to shoot this particular beach. Another adventure for another day. You can see the best from these two sessions on Flickr.