Avocados in Puerto Rico

This is an avocado that Marilyn, Lemontree's assistant manager and housekeeper, brought to me from a tree in her backyard! She knows I love avocado and I was thrilled when I saw this one. I photographed it on the dinner plate to give you a good idea of its size. We have avocados here in Rincon, PR from mid July through November and there are so many different varieties, we have had great fun trying them all. They each seem to ripen a little differently and the size of the seeds varies greatly too.


I decided to try and cut this avocado as close to the seed as I could and from the photograph below you can see I rather succeeded. The seed is just poking through the left side. The seed was actually small, only about 2 1/2 inches and narrow in diameter so there was a lot of avocado to eat!


Now, I bet you never thought of avocado slices quite like this. The smaller half at the bottom of the photograph was all solid avocado "meat." The larger half had about four inches of solid meat. You can see the seed poking out of the larger half of the avocado (look in the middle of the plate).

The slices fit just perfectly on a sandwich and were easy to cut up for salad. I did some research on avocados and found that they are very, very healthy for us. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado...the health benefits section. Hooray...we can eat lots of them! Our favorite way to eat them is either in salad and sandwiches or just mashed up with a squeeze of limon and spread on crackers or as a dip. You might like to see this recipe site though if you are more active in the kitchen, http://www.avocadorecipes.net/..................Yum, yum.

Moonlight on Anasco Bay Puerto Rico

Two nights ago the moon was full and rose early and low over Anasco Bay. It was cloudy, dense dark clouds and the moon initially was a dark amber color and as it rose became more yellow and then silver white. I'm not sure what it is about the moon, the water, the night but it does provoke reflection.

There are quite a few poems about the moon on water... many deal with topics of love, love lost, loneliness, solitude and quiet. I found this one in a wonderful collection about Puerto Rico from 1941 entitled Puerto Rico in Pictures and Poetry.

Tropical moon, how you glow tonight,
High o'er the mountains, luminous, bright.
Telling earth's children, from near and afar,
God watches o'er them like yon evening star.

On Lemontree Reef in Rincon Puerto Rico

Yesterday, was magnificent. The water was calm, almost lake-like which is pretty typical at this time of year. The water has remained quite calm for at least several days and so the visibility in the water is, for so close ito shore, spectacular. I decided to grab my mask, fins and snorkel... and of course my trusty Oly 350, in its housing and see what I could do photographically as a snorkeler on Lemontree Reef. As one guest remarked to me yesterday... it was her dream to walk out of her door and snorkel on a reef. Here we can do that. As you might tell from the above picture it was flat calm. The water was warm and refreshing. I swam out to the rocky reef just to the right of the Lemontree and then swam to the left to a secondary rocky outcropping.



We do have sea fans on Lemontree Reef. This image converted to B/W makes it look like an abyss is below. However the depth was no greater than 10 feet. Its just that when you shoot with a wide angle lens distance is somewhat distorted. At any rate I thought that my outing needed a bit of deep sea drama... so here it is. Several guests reported yesterday that they saw octopi moving about on the bottom... which I did not see but the habitat is just right for them.



This is what mostly one can readily see. We were well stocked with reef fish... large schools, as a matter of fact. I was out for about an hour. Just enough time to enjoy myself without getting tired. I kept the pace very moderate and enjoyed the photography and just being on the water. Being able to do this is really a gift.

Turtle at Desecheo Island, Puerto Rico

Last night we were having drinks with some friends when the topic turned to our adventures underwater... especially at Desecheo Island. I was reminded of this photograph I made at the Island. Usually we see underwater photographs made in wonderful color. This image was made when I was working a bit with BW underwater photography using a dark red/orange filter and no strobe light. I was leading a tour and this Hawksbill turtle came by to check us out. It swam with us for several minutes and as long as we kept our distance the turtle was quiet comfortable.

You never know what you will see out at the Island. Its a great destination for divers, of course and also for snorkelers. The water is so clear that even from the surface you can see everything on the bottom 40 feet more and less below. Taino Divers is the best ticket out to the island. Be sure to book early as they do sometimes fill up. Its a great day out and can be a wonderful, memorable part of a trip to Puerto Rico.

Ferry del Caribe viewed from Lemontree, Rincon, PR

I had nice treat when I went out this morning...the Ferry was coming into Mayaguez. Looking southeasterly, we can see the Port of Mayaguez from the Lemontree.

Ferries del Caribe offer ferries three times a week between Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. The journey takes about 12 hours. From Santo Domingo they leave Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 PM, and arrive in Mayagüez at 8 AM the following morning. From Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, they leave on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8 PM, and arrive in Santo Domingo at 8 AM the following morning. The ferries have a casino on board open during the whole trip.

At the Lemontree, we can see the Ferry coming in from the west. It seems to emerge up etherally out of the sea and then slowly navigates across the ocean towards Magaguez. As it comes closer and closer, it gets bigger and more distinct. I closely cropped the photograph so you could better see the Ferry. Tonight, we will see the Ferry leave Mayaguez for Santo Domingo. The ferry will be strung with ferry lights and if the atmospherics cooperate, we sometimes hear the party music as it passes us in the distance.