Where Columbus Landed, Rincon Puerto Rico

Columbus, on his second voyage touched somewhere on Puerto Rico's western coast in 1493. The exact location, perhaps, will never be known. The fun part is that towns along the coast all vie for the honor of being "discovered" first by Columbus.

I made this photograph this morning looking down Corcega Beach at the makeshift Columbus Monument which is Rincon's claim to being first. The beaches are largely empty this time of year and the town breaths a collective sigh, recovers from the waves of winter visitors and looks ahead to July for our summer visitors.

Dia de Logros, Rincon, Puerto Rico

As those of you reading this blog over the past few months know, we (Ted and Bella Jane) have been taking Puerto Rican music classes for the past year...Bella Jane playing the cuatro and tiple and Ted playing the bongo. In the photo is Bongocera Ted...he played with a group playing En Mi Viejo San Juan at our Dia de Logros (graduation day recital) at the Ballaja. He is dressed in the appropriate attire with his white shirt, hat and Puerto Rican pin on his left lapel. He was just perfect! As a percussion instrument, the bongo is critical to a song. The bongo beats tell the other players the tempo. Mi Viejo San Juan is a cuatro por cuatro or 4/4 piece. The cuatro players played a short five note introduction and then Ted came in with the beat. His hands hit the bongo heads and the low notes (hembra) and the sharp staccoto notes (seco) were just right for the song. He played a martillo beat (the clip shows a man playing that beat). We had a great day! Ted's entry into Puerto Rican music was a grand success. Below you can see Ted's hands as they move from one bongo drum head to the other....

Tropicals Are Outside, Rincon, Puerto Rico

As it is now officially the "wet season"...means we have rain for a little while each afternoon...I have started to trim back on the garden to let the rains bring out the lush new growth. As I was trimming, I was struck by how what mainlanders think of as "house" plants are actually "outside" garden plants here in Puerto Rico. This peace plant is a great example. When on the mainland, this was one of my favorite plants with which to gift as it has such lush green foliage and the flowers are magnificent. Here at the Lemontree, we have peace plants in abundance and their strong white flowers tower over the other greenery. Here in the photograph, it is nestled in the asparagus fern...yes, another tropical that typically one thinks of as growing indoors!

Festival de Cuatro

This past weekend saw Bella Jane and I in San Juan for our music class. It was a day of rehearsal for the graduation concerts. The big news, however is that the Tiple Workshop that Bella belongs to was invited to perform at the 39th annual Festival de Cuatro. It was a great venue, with at least 500 spectators jamming the large auditorium. Groups from around the Island participated. Her group played two songs and was backed by Guitar and Bordonua, a kind of bass guitar.

Of course, and understandably, there were pre-performance jitters but the moment the music started they fell away or were carried away with the melody. She played strongly and with confidence, hitting the right notes without fault.



We have begun to think seriously about our local parranda for the upcoming Christmas season... playing aguinaldos, the Puerto Rican Christmas songs, and mainland Christmas carols from house to house.

You never know were things lead.

Down the beach, Rincon Puerto Rico

I must have walked down this beach hundreds of times over the past five years. You would think that after that time I would have seen everything that was to be seen. It would seem that the little creek, the old pilings on the abandoned pier, the houses and fences, the trees, the moods of the sky and the sea would all have yielded up their mystery.

So today I went out just to stretch my legs and feel some sand grit in between my toes... and the cool warm of the salt water. Down the very strand of beach that I have walked so many times.

I think now that if I had the opportunity to walk this beach thousands of times... perhaps an infinity of times to the end of the world it would not be enough to see with understanding all that was on my small strand.



I stopped by the little creek... now running with fresh/brackish water as it is almost the wet season now and we do have our afternoon showers. I saw this tangle of bleached branches. Caught up in the creek. Bleached by the sun and by the sea coming up into the mouth of the creek. I liked the shape and the jumble of the branches. I liked the bleached bones of these tree parts. I saw this very image that you see now even before the camera was up and working. I have never seen such an assembly exactly as this was... in all the time I have walked this beach... and there it was.



Coming back, turning about to come back to the Lemontree... on my way I saw these footprints. Not mine. Some of those in the line of prints made by another beachcomber were already wiped out by the rising tide. But not these. These prints were there for me to see. A trace of another. I will leave my own traces... some may see them, some not, most not, perhaps only will someone walking with me, close, see the impressions there for only the briefest of moments before the inexorable tide washes them clean, except for there memory in the mind of another.



Last, this ramp, likely a boat ramp, the wood beginning to splinter and the paint chip away. it leads up to a yard, a hidden yard behind a concrete fence that you would need to walk up to and peer over. Of course, I wonder what happens on the other side of the ramp. This was closed to me as the gate is securely locked. Perhaps one day it will be open. I wonder if I will be there at the foot of the ramp, waiting and ready on the beach for the gate to open? Or... will I be up the beach somewhere... unwilling to leave my small patch of sand to see what is on the other side of the gate?

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.