The Scurvy Dog's Puerto Rican Blog

Puerto Rico Video “From the Road #2″…

Road Video: A Scenic Drive in Barrio Collores

You get a look at the typical homes and people, the gardens and colors along the road. I love this kind of relaxing drive through the countryside because it teaches me more in an afternoon than reading what’s written in any guides. This casual life is what convinced me that Puerto Rico is where I wanted to be.

I was able to assemble one more “From the Road” video before my departure next week. This one was shot in the mountains west of Coamo, in the Barrio Collores area of Juana Diaz. Very different from the first video, but very typical of Puerto Rico’s interior. No Palm trees to speak of. Again, this is most of 10 minutes. Its hard to edit it down when there is so much to see. My VadoHD video camera mounted in a custom bracket and clamped to the roof rack of my ride did all the work.

The music was courtesy of the Free Music Archive a great resource for me!

Puerto Rico Video “From the Road”…

Monkey Isle & Points South Along Highways 3 and 53

My afternoon drive runs down the east coast of Puerto Rico via highways 3 and 153. You’ll see that there are several places where the Atlantic Ocean is washing the beaches. Shops and small town intersections show typical coastal lifestyle with plenty of places to pull over for refreshment. I love this fresh air living!

My “muvee” is 3 seconds short of YouTube’s 10 minute limit

My East Coast HD Video was shot literally “From the Road” as the little Vado HD vidcam was mounted in a bracket and clamped to the roof rack of my Isuzu Rodeo. I like the wide angle view this vidcam delivers. Unfortunately, it’s not a waterproof solution so I had to shut it down once it started to rain.

The original clip was 25 minutes, 21 seconds. The edited video was 874.7MBs and took over 10 hours to up-load. Fortunately, YouTube does some clever compression on their end so its a whole lot smaller to stream and view.

Background music was courtesy of the Free Music Archive off the Net. The first and last songs were by Kevin MacLeod. I love his stuff. It was fun shooting and editing it… Enjoy it as much as I did!

Puerto Rico Version 2.0

A New Chapter Begins!

If I had not stated so previously, part of my motive for going to Puerto Rico was to see if I might like living there. Hence the need to see the place during its worst.. Hurricane Season. The answer to that is most definitely! In fact, I plan to move to the island in late November. No, Really, I have my ticket! I’ve already shipped a bunch of things that way and will be selling off or giving away what I don’t keep. As ‘LaLa’ put it- “Puerto Rico is truly, America’s Best Kept Secret”.. I could not agree more. [Read more…] about Puerto Rico Version 2.0

Coamo… Last Stop of a New Adventure

I spent a lot of time in and around Coamo checking out the local situation, scoring a “cheap” ride and getting a sense of what Puerto Rico was really like. Sure, I got stuck while trying to buy a car. I’ve already explained all that.

However, I never “felt” like I was stuck anywhere. [Read more…] about Coamo… Last Stop of a New Adventure

Ponce.. Pearl of the South!

If you have a week or more to spend in Puerto Rico, then you must spend a couple days of it here. I promise you will not regret it. I will be back to Ponce myself, to shoot more of the local color.

Before I arrived in PR, I had this “vision” of what I thought Puerto Rico would look like and I found it here in Ponce.

As the locals say- “Ponce is Ponce”

Why they say that is open to debate. Ponce has its own attitude about things and goes its own way. A magnet for real characters… artists, thinkers, the independent types.. my kind of place.

It is the largest city on the south coast of Puerto Rico, but without the sprawl of greater San Juan. It has a very busy commercial port, a large marina and boasts many tourist attractions. Among those are a world class Art Museum, a large central plaza with grand Cathedral, the Serralles museum and the “Cross”. There are many other attractions besides these.. I’ll get around to them at another time.

My first stop was at the giant letters of PONCE, announcing your arrival. Ya can’t miss ’em. As can be seen in the letter “O”, they attract a lot of attention. [Read more…] about Ponce.. Pearl of the South!