Puerto Rico Day 3 - Yoga, Surfing and More in Rincon

On Wednesday we headed to Rincon, one of the best places for surfing in the world. The first stop was a park at Steps Beach, part of Tres Palmas Marine Reserve. The girls wanted to do a morning beachside yoga class, which turned out to be not only sublimely scenic and peaceful, but also felt great - and since it happened to be the Winter Solstice, I'm sure we got all kinds of good karma to boot.

Meanwhile, the boys were having an epic battle on the beach.

And Luke found this great hat when they went looking for gas and a bathroom.

We walked along the beach for a bit.

We drove to a little park to see the lighthouse (El Faro de Rincon), which had a covered area where we ate our peanut butter sandwich picnic lunch. Then we walked around a bit and enjoyed beautiful views.

It was so fun to see iguanas in the trees. That little island is Desecheo,
a place where we want to snorkel or dive next time we're in the area.

This was at a little bar/cafe at the far end of the park.

The tables overlooked Domes Beach.

Any guesses why it's called Domes Beach?
(It's a retired power plant.)

El Faro de Rincon

We asked Joy, the yoga instructor, where to go for snorkeling and she recommended the Marina. We headed that way after the lighthouse. It was the most crowded beach we saw during the entire trip, but definitely not crowded by Hawaii and Florida standards. We didn't see any public bathrooms during this trip, and at the Marina there were only two single bathrooms available to customers at a little beachside bar. So we waited to buy some drinks, then waited to use the bathrooms, and finally ended up on the beach with less than an hour before we needed to go to the surf lesson. Cat and Ben rested on the beach, and we rented gear so that Liza could paddleboard and I could snorkel with the boys. Luke was a little nervous about getting into the water from the shore but finally made it to open water and really enjoyed seeing some fish. Unfortunately, he kept getting water in his mask so he didn't stay out too long. Jack and I explored a little more, even following around a sea turtle for a few minutes, before turning in our gear.

We drove to a tiny little surf shop on a precariously narrow road up a hill about a mile from the beach. There, we met the instructors, Jimmy and Fernando, and followed them to a little corner on the side of the main road, where we parked near some donkeys, Liza helped an injured bird, and Cat promptly took her BeReal. After confirming that we didn't have any hand sanitizer in the car, Liza wiped her hands with flushable wipes, promised to give them a good swish with saltwater when she got into the ocean, and hoped for the best. The surfers (instructors and students) walked the surfboards down to the beach for their lesson. (When I asked Jimmy which beach we were on he said it didn't have a name, but it was near Dogman's and mostly known as "China House" for the big beach house at the end of the road.)

This lesson was only 2 hours (including meeting up, driving, getting contaminated
with salmonella and bird flu, and walking down to the beach) but it was still a little
too long for Luke and Jack. Luke was ready to be done with about 30 minutes left,
and Jack lasted about 15 more minutes. This was much longer than they surfed at
their lesson in Hawaii, and better than we expected when they both proclaimed not
to be interested in surfing that day at all. Here, Luke is looking for a ghost crab he's seen.

Everyone enjoyed the surfing experience and got up a little bit! They were pretty far out so I couldn't see much or get pictures/videos of actual surfing. I enjoyed taking it easy on the beach for a while, and hanging out with Luke and Jack when they came back.

We drove around looking for a bathroom and ATM for a bit, then went to a great restaurant called The Beach House, where we enjoyed a yummy (and appropriately timed) dinner with a view of the beautiful sunset.

A little R&R back at the house before bedtime:

Bonus Scenic Pics: