Because life is short & the world is big
La Pared Beach is a year-round popular surfing spot a block from Luquillo’s main town square. We never swam there because the waves were too high, but we did enjoy watching the surfers, including kids’ classes and competitions, while enjoying munchies and libations at Boardrider’s Restaurant.
Enjoy the mini-tour!
From 85 degrees to 45. From ocean to lake. Big adjustments! Good to be home, though. Stick season has a couple of big advantages: we can see Lake Rescue from our house for a few weeks. And we can see the birds nests.
We took a tour of Hacienda Muñoz in San Lorenzo, half an hour up the mountains from San Juan. Its coffee has won the Best Coffee People’s Choice Award at the Puerto Rico Coffee and Chocolate Expo for three years running. Is it really that good?
The tour focused on the coffee-growing industry and its history, as well as the methods used to grow, process, and roast coffee. The detail was sometimes excruciating, as we stood on the hillside in the hot sun listening to our impassioned guide go on and on and on.
While small, it’s a much larger operation than Hacienda Iluminada, the small hacienda we toured last fall which focused its tour on sustainable practices and integration into the forest. Here, we saw neat rows of coffee plants planted in full sun. In addition to its coffee fields, Hacienda Muñoz operates a small café, where we enjoyed fresh turkey sandwiches on baguettes, and a larger restaurant.
Lisa bought a bag of medium-roast coffee, and it was indeed exemplary.
The cost for the tour was $20, or $10 for kids and those over 60. It included a tasting.
We are spending the day enjoying Playa Almendros in Rincón after yesterday’s house closing.
That’s right, we now own a house in Cabo Rojo!
There’s a sea turtle swimming around out there, poking his head up now and then. A sea turtle greeted us at a different beach, Playa Ostiones, the day our offer was accepted a month and a half ago! Do you think it’s the same turtle, welcoming us to the island?
I feel a new sense of belonging here now that I own a home, even though I don’t live in it yet!
While trying to enter Ocean Lab Brewing Company from the beach at Carolina, Puerto Rico, we were stopped by a burly security guard. He told us we couldn’t walk through this private club named Vivo, and pointed us around the building to the street side to enter the restaurant from the parking lot with the rest of the lowly non-members.
Well, exc-u-u-u-u-se me! (Fellow Boomers will recognize that reference.)
Our table on the third-floor balcony at Ocean Lab gave us a bird’s eye view of the Vivo Beach Club, so we googled it. It calls itself “the hottest private beach club in town.” You can join, or pay $40 for a day pass. This video shows you what you get.
After lunch, Bob tried to sneak through the club again to get out to the beach. Despite putting on his very best I-belong-here-don’t-mess-with-me act, he was stopped by the alert security guards and rerouted to the pedestrian exit. Foiled again!
We’re starting to explore beaches on Puerto Rico’s southeast coast, beginning with Playa de Guayanés in Yabucoa. The warmest water my tootsies have ever been dipped in! It’s a popular local beach, but still very quiet. The sand offered up magnificent seashells in various shades of brown.
But watch out for the red ants that sting in the grassy sand under the palm trees!
Our family visited Arecibo Observatory to see the 1,000-foot radio-telescope constructed in a sinkhole in the karst region of western Puerto Rico during a vacation in April 2008. The radio-telescope and its visitors center offered a fascinating exploration of space for my two science-minded kids. Naturally, they don’t remember it all today. But Bob and I do! That’s why, when we heard that the colossal radio-telescope had collapsed last year, we booked tickets as soon as the facility reopened to see how it looks now.
Here are some photos from our 2008 visit with our kids, Aryk and Gavin, who were 10 and 7.
And here is what it looks like, almost exactly 14 years later.
The first three cables snapped in November 2019, and the rest a month later. A couple of years earlier, Puerto Rico experienced a number of earthquakes, which may have compromised the structure’s integrity. But there really is no definitive answer as to why it collapsed.
The Arecibo facility has asked the National Science Foundation for funds to build back better, but has received no answer.
Watch a spectacular YouTube video of the crash here.
Despite the collapse of the giant radio-telescope, scientists continue their work at the Arecibo Observatory (AO) to study the huge amount of data collected over 50 years. It is still recognized as a world-leading radio astronomy, solar system radar, and atmospheric physics facility. It contributes highly relevant data to support discovery, innovation, and the advancement of science for the well-being of humankind.
The state-of-the-art Science and Visitors Center holds a lively interactive museum where kids can watch a film, build a spaceship, play games, and see a model of the original telescope. It’s definitely worth the trip!
The Arecibo Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under a cooperative agreement by the University of Central Florida.
Watch for Bob’s YouTube video, coming soon!
LINKS
Kaylee has claimed a new spot.
No trip to Puerto Rico is complete without going deep underground to explore Camuy Caverns, officially known as Rio Camuy Cave Park. It’s located in the karst mountains of northwestern Puerto Rico, where the towns of Camuy, Hatillo, and Lares come together. It was fascinating to see what nature wrought over millions of years, as well as the huge impact of Hurricane Maria.
Make sure you stay till the end: There is surprise bonus material you won’t want to miss!
We travel with a very sweet cat, Kaylee. She’s a petite Maine Coon, very affectionate but also very nervous.
She technically belongs to our oldest child, Aryk, but as Aryk is still finishing grad school in England, Kaylee travels with us.
And she doesn’t like it.
It’s not easy for us, either. But we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Flying with a cat companion is a logistical challenge. Here are the many steps:
In addition, to bring Kaylee to Puerto Rico, we had to get an international health certificate, which entailed finding a specific kind of vet and paying $240 for the paperwork, an extra exam, and extra shots. And then the authorities in PR didn’t even ask to see any of it! We have done this twice. I spoke to a dog owner here who did it for three dogs, at much greater expense because of their large size, and no one asked to see their paperwork, either. I know if we skip this step, though, the authorities will ask for it and send her back to the States.
Kaylee can always tell when we are about to move. When our suitcases come out, she starts looking for hiding places — and we start looking for ways to keep her out of those hiding places. We once had to practically disassemble a bed in a motel when she climbed up inside the box frame.
Alleviating Kaylee’s anxiety about flying is crucial, so we got gabapentin, an anti-anxiety medicine, from the vet, which has helped Kaylee endure the terrifying airport screenings and long periods stuck in the carrier. Usually. It does wear out, though. You can tell because she starts thrashing and meowing. A friend who operates a doggie daycare suggested I play a calming playlist from Amazon music. This works miracles! I just place the phone on her carrier to act as her private concert hall, and she is calmed instantly. Thank you, Cesca Ferrante Segalas!
Cats like routine, and life is always changing when you travel. We manage Kaylee’s stress as best we can, but there’s a limit to what we can do. Sometimes local cats meow outside the windows at night, or come up to the door during the day. Humans shove her into carriers with no warning, and sometimes leave her there for hours while we travel in cars or planes. Food on the road is inconsistent, depending on what’s available where we are loving at the time. The environment changes monthly, when we move to a new condo. (This is part of the reason we bought the house in Cabo Rojo.)
Kaylee’s buddy Ellie, our Russian Blue who lives at college with Gavin, may be in the house for months (over summer break), and then, just when they have finally adjusted to each other (again), will abruptly disappear with no explanation.
Once, while living in Mexico City, we put Kaylee in boarding while we took a short jaunt to Acapulco. We had to return early due to COVID, but the vet was calling anyway, saying our kitty was freaked out by another cat who wouldn’t stop yowling. We arrived to find her hiding in the kitty playroom, her body tucked deeply into the bottom tire in a stack.
Kaylee was recently diagnosed with alopecia, after she licked all the hair off one of her furry legs. The vet said this could be caused by fleas – and told us all cats in PR should be regularly treated for fleas and heartworm – by food allergies, or by stress. We are treating her for fleas, and we’ll test for food allergies this summer if her symptoms persist. But in all likelihood, it’s anxiety. So, we make her life as easy as possible, give her tons of attention, staying home some days just to provide a lap for her to nap in, and keeping up her routines as much as we can (within limits).
Finding vets to care for cats in a place where you don’t speak the language well is a constant challenge. Their front claws must be trimmed regularly, they must be treated to prevent fleas and heartworm, and sometimes they get sick. The upside is that it’s usually less expensive anywhere else than in the States.
Our cat Equinox took ill a week into our Mexico City stay in early 2020. We found a vet within walking distance whose convenient office we had noted while exploring the city, and rushed him there. Fortunately, one vet spoke English, and he got the city’s best kitty cardiologist involved when it turned out our cat had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In humans, this condition is called “the widow maker” because often it’s often undetected until the patient, usually a man, has a sudden fatal heart attack. Alas, the same was true for our dear Noxy. He was hospitalized but only lived through a weekend, and had to be put to sleep in the middle of the night when he became agitated and had trouble breathing.
But he got excellent care. We were called in, we brought Kaylee to say goodbye to her friend, the children were called, and it was as good a pt death experience as is possible, And the cost for that care and his subsequent cremation was a fraction of the cost for the same in the States.
However, the stress of traveling and then moving to a mile-high city probably contributed to his demise, and this is why I am vigilant about managing Kaylee’s stress. The vet gave us this resource for helping keep kitty stress down: https://indoorpet.osu.edu/cats/feline-life-stressors
I hope the move to Cabo Rojo in winters will give her a more settled life. Alternating between two households should be much easier than adjusting to a new home every month! And when she finally moves in with her owner, our oldest child Aryk, we will probably stick to healing aid organizations care for all the stray cats in Puerto Rico.
Meanwhile, whenever I sit down to use the computer, read a book, or watch TV, I lay Kaylee’s favorite towel across my lap and call her name. She is here in an instant, ready to cuddle while I work. In fact, she is in my lap right now!
Because despite all the stress, the most important thing I can do for my traveling cat is to give her love.
