On to Salinas, Cayey and Caguas

For this stretch of the trip the weather was real hit or miss. It did make for some dramatic cloud shots. I attempted to shoot more ‘Road Trip Videos’, but I had to stop every time it started to rain.  I’ll try to back track to the best spots later.

Salinas.. In the old days, they used to grow sugar cane, but that ended decades ago. It has a nice sheltered harbor the locals use to go fishing or out to the Mangrove islets to swim and picnic.. The bar and restaurant at the Salinas harbor tosses their kitchen scraps into the water for the sharks. There were several of them milling around right next to the pier, but the light was too flat and the water too murky to photograph them.

The city plaza was small and cozy. It featured contemporary sculpture relating to the period when sea salt was produced here. Traffic was like any other place, very crowded. Lots of one-way streets.

Cayey.. Also has a small central plaza. I stopped there and had a shaved ice to cool off. The old man working the ice block spoke in broken English. He said he had used his ‘Piragua’ cart in Chicago, New York and California, moving from place to place. But he eventually came home to Cayey. He had to be in is 80’s. Cayey is a very beautiful spot with a big University that’s popular island wide. A very relaxed environment.

Caguas.. Is a large town with its own urban sprawl. A lot of heavy industry is located here. It will not be long before it merges into the Greater San Juan Metroplex. The Tren Urbano transit system is scheduled to be extended here. They have a very large central plaza with several unique features. Among them is a giant parrot cage, a Venetian style Merry-Go-Round and a huge water fountain. I would love to come back and shoot the Merry-Go-Round at night when its all lit up. As has been the case, it was overcast  so the light was flat.. hard to get good images under those conditions. I did not go into the Museum of Tobacco, I was running short on time.

I’ll be heading off to the north and west sides of the island next.