Day 40, Year 11: La Parguera
Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Weather: Partly Sunny with Late Afternoon Rain, High in the 80’s F
Location: At Home with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco, Aguada, Puerto Rico
Today we drove to the southern coast of Puerto Rico to the town of La Parguera. To get there we drove through Mayaguez and San Germán. San Germán was founded in the 1500’s and as you drive through it you can’t help but be impressed by its beauty. Every building was freshly painted. We’d love to return there someday and explore. But today we needed to travel on. After San Germán, we climbed into and out of the mountains, through an agricultural area with what looked like rice fields, and then into an area with very large farms. When we reached La Parguera it was not evident that we were on the waterfront. It’s almost as if the town was built to hide the water. If you looked really hard you could see some boats, but thankfully Jo had been here before and knew just where we should go to rent a boat. But first things first. The town looked almost deserted with most shops and restaurants not open, but we found a delightful little place for lunch. The food was delicious and just want we needed before heading out for our snorkeling adventure. After lunch we went to the place Jo suggested for renting a small motor boat and away we went. This area is mangrove country, so no little islets with white sand beaches. Rather it is a shallow bay with many mangrove islets. We stopped at two different locations for snorkeling. The water was not crystal clear but it was warm and clear enough for us to enjoy the afternoon. Ziggy and I found one place in the mangroves where there were hundreds of baby French Grunts and one lone baby One Spot Butterflyfish. We saw Damselfish, Doctorfish, Bar Jacks, lots of French Grunts, baby Barracuda, and Granddad even spotted a small reef shark. But Mark’s special find of the day was a flounder that he followed and photographed with his GoPro. Justin, Jo, and Ziggy found a sea star that we all enjoyed observing and then Justin, Ziggy, and I snorkeled among the mangroves and found a small group of birds I had never seen before. They were small black, brown, and white birds with very orange legs. They looked a bit like very fat Sandpipers. But when I looked them up this evening, I think we were observing Ruddy Turnstones. These birds breed in the Arctic and winter in the south. The water was warm, the sun was shining, making for a great afternoon. It did rain on the way home, but it stopped just before we got here. All in all, it was a lovely afternoon.
Jo had put a buffalo roast in the slow cooker before we left this morning, so we had a yummy dinner waiting for us. Justin and Granddad went out to get a breadfruit to add to the dinner. You just peel the bread fruit and cut it into small pieces to boil. It is just like eating boiled potatoes. We had a great dinner to end a great day. Tomorrow is our last day here and we will spend time here at home playing with Ziggy and Coco.
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| 151201 Day 40 Puerto Rico–La Parguera |
