2018 Life Logs, Day 72—Gozalandia (Las Cataratas) Waterfalls
Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Weather: Most Sunny; High 85, Low 70 degrees F
Location: At Home with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco in Rincon, PR
In last night’s log I stated that now that I am in Puerto Rico, I would be posting my logs using my AT&T phone hotspot. But that did not end up to be the case. I have a signal here at Justin’s, but for some reason, I cannot get online. My phone says I am connected, but I am not. So sending logs will be a spotty affair. If Justin is around with his phone, I can use his hotspot, but otherwise I have to wait until I go into town. But that is a small inconvenience in comparison to what I would be going through at home with the latest storm. I didn’t know about it until today when I started receiving messages from Eversource (electric service) giving me numbers to call if I had wind or snow damage. I thought the storm this weekend was the last of the winter storms, but I was most definitely wrong about that. I got a text from Heather telling me that Falmouth got walloped with this winter storm. There was no school today and none tomorrow and that the top of one of the pine trees in the front yard fell down, as well as other large branches.
The Keefe’s next door have a tree that fell on their house. And the other next door neighbor also has a tree down. So, I am supposing the combination of wind and heavy snow was the cause of the damage. I feel guilty being here in sunny Puerto Rico with daytime temperatures in the 80’s F. So I’ll gladly deal with the internet and no water issues here as a trade-off.
Sam, Dawn, Ziggy, Coco, and I headed to the Gozalandia Waterfalls this morning.
Justin got up at 5:30 am to head to Mayaguez to get an air conditioner for the office he is renting starting today. He had that installed, had arranged for someone to put a new tire on the van with the flat tire, and was back home by 7:30. Then Jo took him to work and then dealt with the flat tire issue. So she didn’t get to come with us to the waterfalls. It takes about an hour to get to waterfalls, but it took us a little longer as we stopped at The Fresh Mart to get sandwiches made for our lunch. Usually they have gluten-free bread for the sandwiches, but today they did not. But I found a package of frozen gluten-free English muffins in the freezer and they used those to make the sandwiches for Ziggy, Coco, and myself. I choose not to eat gluten products, but Ziggy and Coco really can’t. Once we reached the waterfalls, we ate our picnic lunch and then did the hike up the mountain to the highest fall. Ziggy loves climbing high and jumping into the water, so today without his mom or dad, Sam did a great job of doing everything with him. They dove off cliffs, dove off rope swings, and swam into the underwater cave together while Dawn and I hung out with Coco and Piper.
Ziggy did lure me into the water to swim over to the falls and back and Coco and I found sunny spots and sat on the rocks.
We were not nearly as adventuresome as the guys, but we all enjoyed the day.
After numerous rope swing jumps, we walked back down the trail to the lower falls. Here there is a rope to help you climb to the lower ledge, an underwater cave to explore, and a big climb to the top ledge if you want to jump in from there.
Sam took that challenge, but even Ziggy agrees he is not quite ready for that. Sam was doing the driving today and he got Ziggy, Coco, and I home by 3:30. Then he and Dawn drove the rental car back to Mayaguez and got an Uber ride back to Boqueron. They are planning to leave Boqueron at 3:30 am to sail around the southwest point of Puerto Rico before the winds pipe up. On Thursday, all of us here are planning on driving down to meet up with them for a day of snorkeling and water adventures. Then they will continue their trek eastward along the southern coast.
I hoping to spend tomorrow morning with Ziggy and Coco writing about some of the adventures we have had this week. Then tomorrow afternoon while they have a school activity and Jo has a teaching session here at Finca Maravilla, I am going to head into town to the café with internet and catch up on what is happening in the world. And I’m hoping to be able to post some photos.
