Mr. Friendly

3-Day Adventure Part IV

Spending a Sunday at the beach was nothing short of glorious but the clouds that had rolled in an hour earlier were blocking the sun, making the water at Boqueron Beach increasingly colder. It was our sign that it was time to head elsewhere.

We made an attempt at washing off the sand but in our haste to leave home neither of us had thought to bring a towel, so off in our wet-and-sand-filled clothes we went, waving goodbye to Cabo Rojo and its Boqueron Beach.

“Where do you wanna go?” asked Mr. B. “I don’t know, what are our options?” I asked. Out came our trusty friend, the map. B consulted the map and outlined a route  to himself and off we went. I may have asked once or twice where we were headed but the reality was that I didn’t care. I was happily along for the ride to destination unknown. Besides, someone had to pay attention to the traffic in front of us while B multi-tasked driving and consulting the map at the same time. I mean, who was gonna yell “watch out” if we came close to hitting the car in front of us.

On we drove and drove some more until we found a look out point. We parked the car and climbed the stairs and were rewarded with a beautiful view.   When we looked in one direction we got a sunlit view of the sea    when we looked towards the other side we got the beginnings of a beautiful sunset. B, whom I’ve decided to nickname Mr. Friendly, started a conversation with a guy who we found out had been doing a photoshoot.  I wasn’t paying that much attention but I believe he came from San Juan.  The ‘professional’ photographer took our picture, which will never see the light of day, and then we left.

We drove on to Rincon and stopped at another empty beach.  I, of course, immediately put my feet in the water and was surprised that it was so warm.  We continued walking along the shore as the waves to beckoned me to swim within them.  I had to resist and then became distracted when off in the distance we found some rocks that made a great backdrop for pictures.  The great backdrop was unfortunately infested with the flyes that have been eating up my legs so I declined pictures.  B climbed up, I took his picture and left him there as he continued climbing behind what seemed like someone’s home.  I went to play in the sand as he continued exploring. I wrote my name in the sand trying to capture a picture of the waves washing it away.   I finally succeeded and I turned around to find Mr. Friendly talking to an old man and then climb down from what looked like a backyard.  I figured out that he got caught trespassing so being me I started laughing at him.  The last laugh was on me as Mr. Friendly returned to the man’s house, sparked a conversation,  and somehow came back with an invitation to an all night fishing trip with the man, who has been a fisherman all his life, and the man’s brother.  Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t figure out where to leave me for the night.

By this time it was getting darker so we decided to find out where the surfers were.  Mr. Friendly struck up a conversation with an Irish guy who had been surfing for the better part of the day.  He told us that the surf beach was just up the road near the lighthouse so off we went.  We went up, found the light house, took some amazing pictures of the sunset and headed to another part of the beach still in search of the surfers.  There were no surfers to be found in the water.  Where were the diehards who surfed all day and night???  We never found them.  Unsure of what to do next, we headed out of town.

The next few hours consisted of a lot of conversation as we drove through intermittent rainstorms and enjoyed seeing how each town we passed looked like the other, yet had its own flavor.  We made a stop at a K-Mart so I could run in and buy some cheap dry clothes and meet the craziest cashier ever.  I tried to decipher what she was saying to me as she waved the customers behind me to the only other register that was open, which also happened to be having technical difficulties.  I did a quick car change, and finally in dry clothes and feeling good we were back on the road, again destination unknown.

Unknown to me that is.  Suddenly we were near San Juan, just about 20 minutes away from home and I was NOT ready to go home.  Logically it made sense if we slept in our own beds, got up refreshed and clean and headed to the next destination,  but it felt more like we were aborting the mission.   If we went home the enemy, boredom, would win.  It was time to strategize over a meal of Puerto Rican style tacos (flour tortilla, chicken or pork and almost mashed potatoes).