Flamboyan explosion

Flamboyan trees bloom all year, all over the island. But right now it seems to be the season for a veritable flamboyan explosion. Flamboyan in bloom can make the most dilapidated ruin look intriguing and romantic,

create a magnificent pergola over a road,

or a lacy frame for a lovely vista. (Click on any picture to see the detail)

La Pared

To come to Lake Patillas take rt 184 from rt 3 and after about 4 miles you'll see this mountain lake. It offers the passerby some tremendous vistas and a tempting place to stop and have lunch, dinner or simply a drink on the lakefront terrace of La Pared restaurant.

La Pared's fare is enjoyable as well: a nice selections of seafood and - since we are entering a lechonera country - a tremendous dish of tasty roasted pork. A single portion could feed two big eaters and satisfy three normal ones. And it costs only $8!

Enjoying your meal take a few good looks over the terrace railing,

across the lake

towards the distant shore.

Wanderwomen at Las Casas de la Selva

Eye on the Rainforest conducts – besides research in rainforest protection and sustainable forestry - also various educational and edutainment activities.
When I was there on my first visit in March, a group of "Wanderwomen" came for a weekend visit.

They arrived late morning and after choosing their respective accommodations (in tents or in a bunkhouse)

they had a buffet lunch with Las Casas staff and volunteers


After lunch, off they went for a rainforest appreciation tour lead by 3T, Eye on the Rainforest’s president, and an adventureous wanderwoman herself,
To enjoy the vistas of the mountains and valleys

Of wild rivers, waterfalls and naturals swimholes, To learn about many types of trees and a plethora of other plants living there including beautiful wild orchids
When they came back it was a time for a rainforest jewelry making class
And a salsa. merengue and bomba dance class – and practice - after dinner.
Wouldn’t you want to follow their example and enjoy a similar visit to the rainforest with a group of friends – or your family?

Adventure? or comfort? or, perhaps, a bit of both?

Sorry, this is not a good picture. You can't tell there is a sea under the sky, can you?

I love adventure. At least until it becomes more than a tad too uncomfortable. Then I tend to switch to comfort... until it becomes too boring.

And there lies a dilemma: how to make comfort more adventurous and/or adventure more comfortable.

That's what happening to me now: I thoroughly enjoyed the casita, its rustic charms, it's wild garden and even wilder surroundings. It reminded me of my vacations in Poland, when my family rented a converted railway wagon, with a living/dining/kitchen in the middle and 2 (small) bedrooms adjoining 2 (very small) bathrooms at both ends of the wagon. It was fun.

And so was the casita when I was working at a leisurely pace. But when I got into tight deadlines with a necessity to frequently touch base with other people over the phone and Internet, the reality of not having either of these conveniences AND having to climb down and up the mountain lugging my heavy and sizable laptop every time I needed to check something out, quickly became a major nuisance, making my work inefficient.

Some time ago I mentioned falling in love with a view and even considering purchasing a house in an attempt to get more comfort without sacrificing adventure.

Well, as it turned out, the house with a view is not for sale, but it is for rent - after being renovated - and I am to be the lucky renter in about two months, when I come back from a trip abroad.



The house is accessible by car, my cellphone works there, there is satellite TV reception and Internet can be had at least over the phone line - or so I am assured. And it has two tremendous terraces with panoramic views of mountains, two valleys and the Caribbean sea.


The layout is not exactly what I would call suitable for my lifestyle (after all it was built for a jibarro? PuertoRican family, not for a single expat retiree with rather different needs and expectations), but agreeable, nevertheless, and thus it could be a lucky compromise between comfort and adventure .... at least for a while ;-)


P.S. I'll post photos of the house itself when the renovation is complete.

Falling in love

I am a no-nonsense type of a person (or so I think) and actually pride myself on my inability to fall in love, that is, to accept someone or something with "warts and all", to suffer the feeling I can't live without this thing or this person. Perhaps because of it I am so flexible and always so ready and willing to explore new pastures at the spur of the moment and have been so resistant to "fence myself in", to choose a permanent (aaaaah, what a dreadfull word "permanent" - sounds like a lifetime prison sentence to me, lol) place to live, a permanent companion (my late spouse was the last one I have been willing to accept on a permanent basis and he died 15 years ago), a job, that would bind me to one place, to a routine or routines.

But now driving daily up and down route 184, I admire the tremendous vistas from many places on it. There are places where you have a vista of the rainforest slopes, then pittoresque Lake Patillas under them, a village (city?) of Patillas under it and finally the Caribbean sea.

Views to die for!

And there is a house, old, ugly (too few windows, too much cement - why, on earth, people here build so haevy, so "substantial" so "closed in" houses in a climate where neither heating nor ac is needed and surrounded by fabulous nature and views, is beyond me. I love open architecture - French colonial style with every room having an access to the outdoors, but with a modern twist: lots of glass, local materials: bambu, wood, stone, airy, translucent, blurring the boundaries of in and out...), in need of serious repair, perching over a steep slope, in the hurricane zone, so it might slide or be blown away ...but with this view.... and this property seems to be coming up for sale... while I seem to have fallen in love with the view!

And with the location: the Caribbean sea within a few miles distance, yet the house high enough to be in a temperate climate, needing no - unsustainable - air conditioning, when it is steamy down at the coast... reasonable distance (about an hour's drive) to San Juan and its urban pleasures , including Borders (and good bookstores are one of the things I am addicted to) ... so I am awfully tempted to make an exception to my "living light and being easily movable" rule and buy that view ... with an ugly, unfunctional for me house, which would require a total remodeling..,. if not demolishing.

Totally nonsensical .... so if this is not falling in love, I don't know what is.... ;-)

I broke my New Year's resolution :-((

I resolved to not move for a year and less than 3 month later I am moving again. From the beach to the mountains, to the rainforest. But since I am remaining on the island, I guess I can still play Robinson Crusoe, just a tad more inland :-).

I am planning to move myself - and the cats - during the weekend. But I found out yesterday afternoon that two new friends of mine from Eye on the Rainforest, Javier and Steve, managed to rent a truck and will come today to move all my stuff, that won't fit into my car with me and the cats, to Ursula's casita, located in the middle of route 184 between Patillas and Guavate, that I'll be renting from her, while she is back to London after her winter visit to PR. So I am in a hurry packing today, could use some help... and see how helpful these two are?

Saturday night at la lechonera

This is the star of la lechonera: roasted suckling pig

When you take Guavate exit from highway 52 and follow road 184 down towards Patillas, after a few miles you'll come to a place where several lechoneras are operating side by side serving whole roasted pig, like at the picture above.

All those places are - as the locals tell me - most crowded on sunday afternoons, when carloads and busloads of hungry people descent on them.

We = some of the people from Eye on the Rainforest, 3T , Andres, Ursula, Steven and I went there on Suaturday evening. There was a crowd, blaring music and plenty of food, though ordering had to be done by pointing, due to the noise.

I forgot the name of the one my local friends unanimously declared the best of them all, but it is easy to find, as it is located on the right hand side of a structure with humongous Tres Reyes Magos columns gracing its front.

Andres, Ursula, Steven

I was planning on ordering some of this famous Puerto Rican specialty, lechon asado, so lovingly described by a fellow blogger, Speaking Boricua, just with salad, but there was no salad to be had. Instead there were all those starches I was walking around at the grocery stores: batatas, yautia, malanga, name, yuca, and some others, and I was persuaded to try at least a bit of each. Not sure if any of them is actually healthy, but I liked yautia (not particularly caring about any of the others - perhaps they are an acquired taste), and when compared to roasted pig, yautia should win hands down a healthiness contest - I presume.

Andres, 3T and Steven

The food was good and inexpensive - a dinner for five with drinks came to under $40 - an incredible bargain in pricy Puerto Rico. The company was superb and I finally - after almost 5 months in Puerto Rico - managed to try this local specialty.