A Local Event with Variety..

Weather was going to be an issue so we got an early start. The morn­ing was nice with only a few fluffy clouds to break up the blue.

I will not cover the specifics of the trip up to Jayuya since I did that in my last Jayuya post. We got there early enough that I wanted to get shots of the two old sugar mill chim­neys I missed on our last trip. Unfor­tu­nately, a neigh­bor­hood has devel­oped around them so they now stand in folks back­yards. The shorter red brick chim­ney is behind a child day-care biz, the much taller one is located behind sev­eral homes. Liv­ing there under them seems kind of risky to me. I’m sur­prised the ‘pow­ers that be’, would have allowed it. The island is prone to the occa­sional earth­quake and these chim­neys are very old.

Jayuya rests in a large bowl shaped val­ley, behind Cerro La Punta, the high­est moun­tain peak in Puerto Rico. It is very lush and green up here. We passed many gar­dens, large and small along the way.

Of the local events I’ve cov­ered to date, this one and the one in Corozal had a very local vibe. Unlike the Fes­ti­val de Pla­tano in Corozal, this one WAS about the Toma­toes of Jayuya.

The Main Event..

We got to the sta­dium grounds just before noon. It is only a few blocks off the main Plaza. It was obvi­ous that most ven­dors were only start­ing to set up shop. About a third were still not here.  There were very few folks milling around at this point. That was good for us, since I wanted to score some shots with­out ‘elbows’ in them. The fes­ti­val was staged in the park­ing lot directly behind the main sta­dium which also pro­vided restrooms for the pub­lic. Next to the sta­dium was a fenced-in game court. This area was also ded­i­cated to ven­dors. Beside the main park­ing lot was a large enclosed stage where I’m sure they were going to present live music later on. It became obvi­ous that the day’s events were not intended to start until later in the evening.

The prob­lem with that was, the weather was sup­posed to go bad before then..

It did.

There was also a cou­ple of cute amuse­ment park rides to the right of the main park­ing lot.  They make great ‘photo-ops’ for par­ents with kids.

We spent a cou­ple hours check­ing out the var­i­ous vendors.

I’ve car­ried on before about the Arte­sanos and they were out in force sell­ing some very beau­ti­ful work. There was also an assort­ment of cheap cos­tume jew­elry and
t-shirts for sale too.

All very colorful.

There was one ven­dor sell­ing para­keets, finches and rare birds. Some­thing that is very pop­u­lar with the locals.

Most of the food and drink ven­dors
were already set up so I had to try
some­thing new.

What looks like a lit­tle pan­cake is actu­ally a thick slice of cheese with a slab of Guava jelly on it. The cheese was very mild and very smooth, but firm. ‘Queso Blanco con Pasta Guayaba’ was most deli­cious. At a buck and a quar­ter, it was also rea­son­ably priced. I give it 5 skulls. We scored some of the Queso Blanco (white cheese) on our way out. They were also sell­ing home made jams, jel­lies, salsa and ‘pique’ sauce which is made from pep­pers. A kind of local hot sauce.

Some­thing I have not seen at any fes­ti­vals other than in Aibonito- there were lots of flower and plant ven­dors with what I thought were very fair prices. Tomato plants were the most pop­u­lar with many of them already bear­ing fruit. Exotic flow­ers were every­where. Though they are very beau­ti­ful, my inter­ests lean towards fruit bear­ing things. I was not disappointed.

I scored an Avo­cado tree for $7 and a Brazil­ian Guava tree for $7.50.

Each in small pots, but very healthy. They’re both in the ground now and doing quite well.

Another ven­dor was sell­ing fresh, locally grown fruits and veg­eta­bles. We had to buy some toma­toes and a few other essen­tials. I regret that we did not pick up any of the hybrid Man­gos.. they looked great.

Cafe del Alba, a cof­fee hacienda had a booth which is some­thing else you don’t see very often. I wished I had picked up some of their gourmet cof­fee. They have a web­site, but it badly needs some work. I wish the cof­fee hacien­das would come together as a group and sell their Puerto Rican cof­fee on-line. I know they would do well. As an arti­san cof­fee coop­er­a­tiva maybe?

By 3PM, the sky had turned to a pale gray

As we headed towards the car with our booty, I felt the first faint drops of rain. The main stage was only now get­ting set up for the evening’s enter­tain­ment. The place was start­ing to attract more folks too, but I won­der about how wet it even­tu­ally got.

It was a good trip and one I would do again, weather permitting.

Jayuya is a ‘Must-See’, if you ven­ture into the moun­tains of Puerto Rico.

My last post about Jayuya is much more extensive.

We took the same route home we did last time via Hwy 143, but stopped for a few shots along the way. I have spo­ken before of dri­ving along the ridge-line when in the mountains.

The views at the top are spec­tac­u­lar… espe­cially since you can often see down both sides at once.

While stopped to shoot the crest-line image and a few giant tree ferns, I stum­bled on to a patch of wild Rasp­berry. They were grow­ing along the guardrail and down the steep slope. I was able to score a few of the large ripe berries and will try to sprout some of the seeds. The seeds were very small, unlike the Rasp­ber­ries I’m used to in Alaska.

We were in and out of the rain at this point so there is not much to say about the rest of the trip home.  It has been pretty wet, ever since.

My next post will be about the ‘Par­adise Tax’ we put up with to live here.  Some­thing I have also spo­ken about before. Don’t worry, it’s worth it!  the Scurvy Dog, Arrg!

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