i'm thirsty, give me my coconut

day 3 puerto rico: luquillo beach and el yunque rain forest

things started with a bang once we got the rental car, literally, i crashed into a guardrail.

okay i am exaggerating, but that would have been a far more respectable way to scratch the paint off of the front bumper.

what actually happened is that i was pulling into a parking spot at the "kioskos" at luquillo beach so zach could get his food fix and i wasn't accustomed to the length of the car yet, so i slowly but surely rammed into a wall in front of the spot. this confounded wall spanned all of 5 parking spots; at least 100 spots were wall-free. WHY

luquillo beach

i was so mad at myself. i started obsessing about how the people at the rental car company were going to be big jerks about it when we returned the car and ruin the end of our trip. they had a $500 hold on my credit card...and they seemed kind of disorganized and shady. i was prepared to have the battle of my life with them, the same way i have been battling speeding and parking tickets with the DC government that i am equally as guilty for. if i'm going to go down, i'm at least going to go down with a fight. why is life so hard?

but the crystal blue water at luquillo beach and delicious ceviche we had at the kioskos soon made me forget my troubles. the kioskos were cool--imagine a long row of 60+ small restaurants that line the beach, all attached together but have no front or back walls. my guess is that the kioskos started with some little shacks with snacks and then caught on and expanded. well, it's a good concept, and i'm always looking for good concepts (more fodder for my "get rich quick" schemes. i need the money to fund my driving mishaps).

do not trust me with the ceviche, i will eat it

we had to walk by every kiosko before making a decision

after we were rested on the beach and had our fill, it was on to el yunque national rainforest, the only tropical rainforest in the US park system. 

with the steep ascent up the mountain and all the esses we had to make, driving into the jungle was hard work. luckily we found a place to stop and refresh ourselves with some coco frio. 

zach couldn't be happier about his coconut

i am proud of my coconut

we also got a chance to take a dip in the pool of a waterfall. being very high up in the mountain and under the shade of many trees, the water was freezing. i figured i hadn't come all this way to just look at it and nod though, so i made my way in. there was another guy in the pool and he showed me the trick for getting under the waterfall. using the best peer pressure we could, we coaxed zach into getting into the water too. zach is much more sensitive to water temperature than i am, but he also made his way under the waterfall, and came swimming out like a little doglet, which is captured very vividly in my head but unfortunately not on camera :)

me under the waterfall

so after a few minutes zach was happy to get out and take my picture under the waterfall. the pool was deep but there was a little rock sticking out that you could stand on. ahhh it was loud! and the water was spraying all over my eyes. 

so after that i apparently chilled on a rock for a while and basked in the radiance of the waterfall, which is proved by this photo which was taken by a much better camera than i have. when we were getting our stuff to go a guy approached zach and showed him the picture and asked if he wanted him to email it to him. how nice! this might easily be the coolest picture i have of myself.

when this photo goes up in art exhibit it can be called "content with the world"

then the sun started getting low in the sky, and it was time to go. 

there were many things waiting for us in fajardo--

the secret of the lizard

(my temptation to rhyme that line with wizard)
an encounter with what "island time" is really all about
and seeing how our stay with mr. robinson would play out :)