West coast and North coast

At the southernmost point in P.R., on the southwest corner, is a lighthouse, and unending views of water. This is Cabo Rojo.

This natural bridge had such an allure for adventuresome souls, that they literally barricaded the path through the vegetation, to stop people from walking over it.

The variations of blue in contrast to the cliffs kept me snapping away…

We settled in Rincon for several days…

…and checked out a few beaches.

I enjoyed trying to capture the elusive “tube” -

…like the surfers.

I was so focused on capturing the wave curling over, that I didn’t realize I also got the surfers and body boarders in the wave behind -

After Rincon, we headed up around the northwest corner of the island to land in Isabella for another few days.

The wave action was definitely stronger up here, so we didn’t do much swimming. However, on our first afternoon, as we walked along the beach near our lodgings, I thought I saw a big splash much farther out than the breaking waves close to us. I did! I did! I did see a whale!

Sorry for the graininess, but that was shot from the beach with my 400mm lens, and then I cropped the picture even more. That was probably a better catch of a breaching humpback than I got from the boat in Tonga!

Most of the coast along the north side of the island is very sharp limestone, and the ceaseless waves work their magic.

This is Jacinto’s Well -

And I liked this still of the aftermath:

One day we drove into the interior of the island a ways to check out the Gozalandia Cascades.

The upper fall had a small secluded pool deep enough to swim in, but you had to crawl over big rocks to get in, so I passed on this one. However, I did indulge in a very cool swim in the pool of the lower falls:

Even at this stream, I caught a reflection -

One evening, as we had dinner at a beachside cafe, the waves were really putting on a show -

On our way back towards San Juan, we stopped at a natural attraction named Cueva del Indio (Indian Cave). Down in a cave along the coast are petroglyphs left by Taino Indians well over 500 years ago. The old wooden ladder that visitors used to descend into the cave was removed several years ago by the government, and the only way in now is scrambling down (which we deemed best suited to those a few decades younger than us!).

We opted instead to walk along the jagged limestone coast to see the numerous arches and windows carved by the sea.

As we were leaving, this guardian of the parking lot sauntered out to say goodbye -

Well, another adventure comes to a close. Our next one is in quite a bit of a different climate. Until then…