Surfing at Rincon
It didn’t take us very long to scope out a bakery near the marina. I’m talkin’ real bakery here. This is the kind of shop where you walk in and the smell of fresh baking bread hits you hard and makes you want to stuff everything you can get your hands on into your mouth. Real bakeries are a weakness of mine. I love them. This should come as no surprise to you when you consider the name of our boat. If I had Bill Gate’s money, I’d hire a team (not just one – a whole team) of the world’s best pastry chefs to create everyday a single 2 inch by 2 inch sweet treat that goes perfectly with a cold glass of milk. This place is dangerously close to the marina. It’s a darn good job we don’t plan to stay here very long. We are loving fresh bread each day and doughnuts, still warm, that melt in our mouths. OMG sooooo goooood.
Mercado’s Bakery
Yum!
We rented a car. The marina in Puerto Real has 3 rental cars available from a local company called Target. This is an ingenious business idea. If you are a budding entrepreneur looking for an idea to start a business in the USA, pay attention. The cars are kept on the marina property and checked out by one of the staff. We don’t speak Spanish so this always makes completing a transaction like this interesting. The staff member had us fill out the paperwork and faxed the information to Targets central booking office. The central office runs the credit card and was able to tell me the rates and policy options over the phone. Having access to a car for just $30 a day is a cruiser’s dream. If more places in the USA offered this service, their transient dockage (the most profitable part of their business model) would drastically increase. There are several places I can think of on the eastern coast of the USA where this service would have been awesome. Instead, we had to depend on a rental car company to come and get us killing about 2 hours of the day. In one city, we had to take a bus to the next town to rent a car. When we are done with the car, we bring it back to the marina and they check it in. Brilliant! We notice cruisers often rented a car with another cruiser or couple, thus splitting the cost.
Taking the coastal road
Black sand beach of Mayaguez
The Mark Show – audience is lacking a little bit in attendance numbers
Our destination was Rincón. Rincón was made famous by a mention in the lyrics of the Beach Boys 1962 hit song, Surfin’ Safari. If you are a surfer, you know about Rincón, Puerto Rico. We had some fun taking in the sites and watching the surfer dudes.
Catching the wave
Wipe out
Spectacular wipe out
Watching the show
Surfer dude
Surf on the north beach
Souvenir shopping
Rincon Lighthouse
Rincon Mural
Every hour is happy in Rincon
Gifts – Cindy shops while Mark finds a place to sit
The Friendly Cafe
Downtown – “I Love Rincon”
During our walk about town, Cindy noticed a sign that really got our attention. We like sangria. We also like prosecco sparkling wine. On a hot afternoon, it is nice to take a break from our stressful life and sip on a cold refreshing glass on either sangria or prosecco. Often we can’t decide on which to have. I know, this is the ultimate first-world problem, right? We’ll, we don’t have to decide anymore. We have found bubbly sangria. It was advertised on a sign outside of the Mr. Super grocery store. And as an added bonus, it was on sale. We just had to try it. As we approached the display of product, we notice there were two types. One has 8% alcohol by volume and the other has 14% giving it a little more bang for the buck. We wondered why anyone would buy the 8%. Isn’t this like drinking non-alcoholic beer? Then it dawned on us. This is like cold/flu medicine. It’s day-time and night-time sangria. One makes you sleepy, the other doesn’t. Brilliant! Guess which one we drank first.
Bubbly Sangria
