Surfing with Karla and Pamela

Besides waking up for the first time with an alarm since we have been here, the rain pouring down on us and the awful pictures we had a lot of fun surfing with Karla and Pamela on our 3rd anniversary!

Bad Banana Farm_2

Justin, Troy, Matt and I all went up to the farm for what we thought was going to be a very rainy weekend. After our Jeep slid down the hill to the house thankfully steering clear of the house and Justin's truck slid into the side of the hill (probably due to the rut we made in the mud) we all sat around one of Matt's upside down fires and listen to the rain pour. The next day the sun was shinning and we hiked down to The River that Justin was keeping a secret ;-) It was amazing I know now why Troy is bitter! Anyway we had another fabulous time and will miss it dearly. When we got back to the house Paul and John Paul came up to visit and kept us very entertained.

Matt harvested his first banana and plantain trees. Justin gave him his official plantain stain to mark the occasion. The bananas took a few days to ripen and they were delicious, the banana bread I made with them was the best I've ever tasted. Our neighbors Milton and Rebbecca took the plantains and made us the most amazing monfongo with garlic and chicken. By the time we realized we should have taken a picture it was almost all gone!

Charco Azul Camping

We had the campsite all to ourselves it was great, for the first night. The second night a church group of Father/Son campers came and set up camp. They were very friendly and invited us to join them for their spirit night later that evening. We didn't join them but we enjoyed hearing them sing their hymns. Despite being woken up at 5:45am by an person learning to play the trumpet it was nice to see Puerto Ricans out camping! The walk to the swimming holes was really nice as well.

Exploring the East Coast

The East coast was the one coast that we have not seen all of yet. It was beautiful and lot different than I was expecting, more cliff less beach. But now we have officially circumnavigated the island! On our way home through the mountains we stopped off at a park that advertised camping. It was almost dark and there was no one around (except for the tourists from NY having a drink out of the back of their trunk). We took the girls for a walk and saw how awesome this park was and that we needed to camp here then we started getting bit by the mosquito's and went back to the car.

The next day we got ready to go camping and went searching for the Department of Natural Resources to get a camping permit. We had the hardest time finding it and was going to bag it and head up to the town we saw the DNRA office near the park when a DNRA car drove up to us at a light and I got them to roll down there window to explain were the building was. We were so close when we did finally find it. It was a pretty simple process when I found the permit office. The ladies told me the park was under flood watch and that we would not be able to camp there that night. The suggested another park more on the Southwest side of the island on a lake in the mountains that would probably be a lot drier. So we went!

Landboarding at El Morro

Phil and Karla invited us to go landboarding at the El Morro Fort one evening. Phil was going all over the place when the security guards told him he couldn't do it anymore. They left about a half an hour later and the fort was closing so Phil thought he would try again. Nobody came to tell us off and we all had a go. I waited to long and it got dark but I had to try it anyway. I was pulled forward off the board and tweaked my knee. Guess I shouldn't have tried it in the first place!