Guanica's Dry Forest

There are a couple ways to get to the Dry Forest - one is on the long and windy road following the signs that leads to a parking lot where there are several trails and a guy who can give you a map of where they go. They will give you a little book of drawings of plants only if you ask. Or - you can follow the signs to Copa Marina and continue on the road past the marina which will end at a parking lot which is closed right now because it is underwater and the endangered toads are emerging to mate. This is where we went since it is close to our friend's house. The scene is like this.

There was a little more rain than usual in the forest this year and cacti are showing a lot of growth. They weren't flowering but some were ready to and others were done.

There are a lot of neat cactci including some that have flower stalks 20 feet high!

This one looked to me like a cityscape with tall skyscrapers ready to bloom.

We followed a trail of sorts and then came back along the water of the old coconut plantation. I love how organized and symmetrical nature is.

The seas were calm down south (very different story from what is going on up north) and the blowhole wasn't blowing. We could walk on the beach where you usually can't. The dry forest is a really neat place that you can't appreciate the first few times you go there. I love plants and am into knowing names and such but when you walk around it doesn't look like anything special until you do some research.Not everything is a cactus or succulent, there are a lot of hard wood trees. Everything is very stunted and very old. There are skinks with fluorescent blue tails that look fake. If you go early you can see some unusual birds. It is one of only a few "dry forests" that exist. Pretty cool. Puerto Rico has got Dry Forest, Cloud Forest, Rain forest, a huge cave system, reef systems and for an island as small as it is it has amazing diversity. The only problem is trying to decide where to go and what to do!

Windsurfing the Day after Thanksgiving

After a nice thanksgiving with Toni and Gerd we headed back to their house in Guanica for an early morning hike this morning. The Dry Forest is a pretty neat place. After the hike Jeff helped Gerd fix their electric gate, I helped Toni design and thin out her Agaves and then it was windsurfing time. Jeff is pulling up the sail here.


There wasn't a whole lot of wind, but there was enough for Jeff who is getting pretty good at it. Here he is cruising along.

From the balcony this is the view looking at Gillligan's Island with Jeff on the left and Gerd on the right windsurfing away!

Gerd pulls up the sail.


Gerd looks back at Jeff who is up and away. Gerd again- he is REALLY good at this.

Dallas' Kayaking Cat

Sunday we planned on tubing down the Tanama river but after a bunch of late night phone calls and a call at 5AM the trip was cancelled. Too much rain in the mountains caused too much water in the river. The trip is postponed until next weekend. So our friend Dallas kindly offered to take us kayaking in La Parguera. His kayaks were already in La Parguera so we left ours at home. The weather was great, very little wind. Katrina wanted more sun though. The water could have been a little warmer for her but she didn't get too cold.

Dallas showed us around some mangroves. We briefly saw a manatee. Dallas also has a cat that likes to go kayaking.

Katrina with her new friend.

We stopped and did some snorkeling. The visibility wasn't very good but we could still see some nice fish. We didn't see any jellyfish. Just as Dallas was showing me what fire coral looked like we heard Katrina shouting. Looks like she found a bunch of it the hard way. Leave it to Katrina, if it bites, stings, or just plain irritates she will find it or it will find her.

Nice butt cheek. These welts looked like they hurt a lot. She even got some on her back because she was swimming on her back when she brushed into it. It's funny that Katrina get so upset when she gets bit/stung by a tiny tiny ant and she makes such a big deal about it. Then she gets all these welts and hardly says a thing about it. These looked like they hurt a great deal, much more than any ant...

Thanks again Dallas for comming up with plan B.

Plant Progress

These are mini carambolas (star fruit). I'm anxious to try a fresh one since all I know is the shriveled supermarket ones in the states.


Our grove of papayas have grown from seed to splendid trees that already have a whole lot of fruit on them (we are eating our second one). The seeds were from 3 or 4 different types of papayas so it is interesting to see the different shapes and flesh colors. We've got more than 20 trees. I figured some would die and 1/3 would be male and then I would be left with a reasonable amount. Nope. Most were female, all lived and it is a good thing we have the dehydrator!

The dragon fruit has gotten all kinds of new growth on it (light green parts). I wonder if I'll ever get fruit from it?

Our coconuts are producing way more than we can drink as coco frios! We've got probably 5 or 6 trees all full of coconuts - the kind you drink, not the meat ones. Of the meat type we have only one tree and we keep getting gifts from above. Coconut is evil though - totally saturated fat and lots of it! (that's why it tastes so good - sugar and fat hold the world together!)