The Scurvy Dog's Puerto Rican Blog

Forest Park, Birds and Butterflies of Guaynabo

Formally known as ‘Parque Forestal La Marquesa’, we were recently there, twice in the last 2 weeks. The first pass was with our Photo MeetUp Group to tour the grounds and then the second time was with family visiting from the mainland to do the Zip-line thing.

That’s right.

I finally got to do a Zip-line run through the jungle canopy. More about that, a little later in.

The Forest Park is a relatively new venue, funded and operated by Guaynabo City. So new, it is not featured on Guaynabo’s Official Spanish language website or on Wikipedia’s listing for Guaynabo City. Nor does it show up on GoogleMaps.

Most of Guaynabo sets in the valley below, but part of it extends into the mountains to the south. [Read more…] about Forest Park, Birds and Butterflies of Guaynabo

The Old Ruins of Coamo, a Historical Tribute

I took off on a Saturday with a friend and we drove around Coamo, shooting a few ruins. I’ve been wanting to do this since I got here. Alex is featured in a couple shots.

As anyone who has read many of my posts knows, I love shooting the old ruins of Puerto Rico.

Coamo boasts being the 3rd oldest town in PR, dating to 1579 (after San Juan and San German) so there are remnants of that past, still standing. It’s hard to drive anywhere on the island and not see the sun bleached, red brick chimneys dotting the countryside. They all stand several stories tall. Most are square, a few are round.

Coamo has two and we see them every time we go check the mail.

These are typical of the period, square with walls about 2 feet thick. They actually have very small fireboxes considering how big they are. It’s also amazing that they show so little evidence of cracks and fissures considering the number of earthquakes they have endured.

I don’t have an exact date for the chimneys, but sugar, along with cattle, dairy farming, coffee and tobacco were started sometime after 1824. Coffee eventually replaced cattle ranching until the handoff of PR to the US. [Read more…] about The Old Ruins of Coamo, a Historical Tribute

Surfing on the South Side, Punta Pozuelo Beach

We were visiting friends a couple weeks back, in an area we
had been to before so I wanted to check out the local beach.

OK, the south side of the island is not known for it’s surfing, but it does happen. This particular beach is shaped like a bowl facing the Caribbean Sea. This helps concentrate incoming waves like you only see on the west or north coast of PR. Especially when the weather gets rough.

Punta Pozuélo sits in Jobos Bay (Bahai de Jobos) with the Bosque Estatal De Aguirre reserve next door. In fact, the old ‘Aguirre Central’ sugar mill is directly across the bay from the point, though it is technically part of Salinas, as is the Estuanna National Bahia Jobos Reserve. [Read more…] about Surfing on the South Side, Punta Pozuelo Beach

Figuras Point Lighthouse of Arroyo, PR

On my first pass of Arroyo, I did not make it out to the lighthouse.

Our Photo MeetUp group wanted to check out the Tren Del Sur ‘Train of the South’ so this was a good opportunity to try a few new photo ideas.

I have covered both the town of Arroyo and the ‘defunct’ Tren Del Sur in two previous posts. I love this part of the island, especially since we don’t live too far away.

The weather was perfect… we had a good breeze for the day.

I can say they have kept the grounds around the Tren Del Sur in nice shape. The small yellow building that was in such bad shape has been demolished and only the tiled foundation remains. The old passenger cars were also pretty spotless too.

The black and white shot was from the field behind the old train.

We did make a couple of other stops… An old abandoned sugar processing plant that we could see from the old train, but did not go in. We also stopped at an old red brick sugar mill about half way down a Camino Vecinal on the way to the beach. A classic example of ruins from the early period, before steam engines came into use. The MeetUp group stopped briefly on the public beach for a group shot. From there, we could see the top of the lighthouse. [Read more…] about Figuras Point Lighthouse of Arroyo, PR

Good News, Bad News Update

ALL the news is good!

In my rant of a post on December 4th, I carried on at great length about our poor Internet service out where we live. Well, I have no clue if they saw my post or not, but within a few days we had our first service call to the house, ever! We explained the issues we had been having over the last year and mentioned the busted pole down the road from us. The service Rep did a little testing and inspecting and made a couple of phone calls. A very polite man. Fortunately for me, me First Mate could chat with him in Spanish. After about 20 minutes he left.

The guy said he thought the pole might be part of the problem, but admitted they had to get ‘permission’ from the appropriate office before it could be fixed. Per the bureaucracy, if the busted pole did not affect anyone’s service, it should not be replaced. Never mind the potential issue of public safety this mess might create. The lines hung down to where I could touch them. It sat like that for several months. Infrastructure issues?

Changes in the Wind-

The day of my last post, December 28th, there were no less than 3 crews in 5 PRT/Claro trucks working our little stretch of Highway 150. They even took care of the busted telephone pole. WOO HOO! [Read more…] about Good News, Bad News Update