Well, today is the last day in Rincon, but it was a nice relaxing 18 days in the high 80's. When I returned from my bike ride, Karen announced that the internet said it is 5 degrees below 0 at home. That is a temperature differential of around 90 degrees. Brrr.

Food

We mostly ate in as the condo has a full kitchen. Here are some of the places we ate out at.

1. Casa Islena – located in Puntas which is on the northern shoreline in Rincon. This was the best meal we had. They serve tapas which are Spanish dishes small enough that you need maybe 4-8 of them to get a good meal. All the dishes there are fantastic, but they run around $7-15 per dish, so it adds up pretty fast.
2. Aaron Restaurant at the Horned Dorsett Primavera – This restaurant is located at a fancy hotel on the water on route 429 nearer to Anasco than Rincon center. I'm not sure what it is actually called. We ended up eating under umbrellas about 20 feet away from the Caribbean Sea. We took advantage of a babysitter for the afternoon as I believe the entire hotel does not allow children. We called it our 6^th anniversary celebration a few days early. This place is even more expensive than Casa Islena.
3. El Galeon, Aguada – I've eaten here a few times. I didn't go into the main dining room this time, but in the past I remember it being so cold that I wish I had worn a jacket. The outdoor patio and bar area provides a beautiful view of the ocean just steps across the road which had more joggers and cyclists than cars. Unfortunately unlike Rincon, it faces north, so the sunset is not quite as nice. I had red snapper (chillo in Spanish) with tostones and rice and beans You don't see snapper much in New England restaurants, so I always try to get it at least once every trip. From Rincon, take 115 North towards Aguadilla. Just after a bridge, there is a "solo" (left only). Take the left and follow the road for maybe a mile. It's on the right.
4. E. C. Bakery, route 115 in Rincon. The panaderias in general in Puerto Rico are quite different than the bakeries in the states. They take their baked good very seriously. The baked bread is always fresh because it is so popular, and is worth getting. All the baked goods typically cost significantly less. E. C. bakery has all this, plus they make breakfast, like scrambled eggs.
5. Cofresi Bohio – I've eaten at the actual restaurant a couple of times, but most of my meals at the Cofresi hotel are at the bar on the beach. They have pinchos which are barbecued meat on a skewer, either pork or chicken with some bread. I don't think I've ever had a bad pincho (but in days of old, people would avoid pincho stands where no dogs are around.) Cofresi also has its own signature drink, the pirata which is coconut milk, rum and cinnamon served in a fresh coconut. It's pretty good.
6. Nativo. This is in Corcega about a 90-second walk from the condo. It's convenient, but I don't know how it stays open. It is way off the beaten path and the mediocre food is a bit overpriced. It's all open air which I do like, and close to the beach but has no water views. The big screen TV makes it a decent place to catch a game.

Here are some places where we've eaten in the past worth mentioning

1. El Bohio – Great view right on the water and even better food. Take route 2 south of Mayageuz onto route 100 and follow for several miles into Joyuda. You can eat inside, and many locals do, but I don't know why.
2. Nuevo Flamboyan – Excellent seafood and other dishes at a great price. Between 413 and the north shoreline in Puntas.
3. Rincon of the Seas – Excellent ambience in the outdoor dining room near the pool and swim up bar. Some ocean views, good food and for what you get the prices are reasonable. On route 115 in Rincon, or walk north from Cofresi along the beach 2 hotels.
4. Sancho Pansa – Great diner type restaurant for pizza and local fare off of route 2 on the way into Mayaguez plaza. Calle Vigo I think. Mostly locals, and you may need to know a little Spanish to read the menu and order food.
5. Kaplash – Known for their empanidillas. These are little turnovers deep fried with your choice of a filling. Chicken, cheese, lobster, shrimp are my favorites. There are others types too. These are great little snacks, or you can have 3-6 of them for a meal. However, it is not fast food – they take around 10 minutes to cook, and there may be other orders ahead of you. But you can climb to the top of the restaurant on the second floor and enjoy a majestic view into Mayaguez while you wait. They also take phone orders. It is on 115 at the Rincon-Anasco border.

Bicycling

I got into a decent rhythm of getting up around dawn (6:45 AM) quite a bit when it was maybe low 70's for a temperature. It really heats up fast, so having the trip done by 9 AM is a good goal. After a day or two of exploring, I settled on two main routes, neither of which was all that long.

1. South – Take 429. Going south from the center of Rincon, take a right at the baseball field onto 429. Midway up the first hill take a sharp right off of 429. At the bottom of the hill take a left and follow a spectacular ride with the beach inches from the road. Careful, there are no guard rails and some speed bumps. There some pesky dogs around here which sometimes give chase but never bite. The road curves back left and up the hill to 429. Despite having to go down and up a hill from and to 429, it is much less hilly than 429 itself. Believe me, I did it this morning and rued that decision. The bumpy beach road is much nicer.
   
   Take a right on 429 which is a little narrow and windy. There are some nice rolling hills and not much traffic. You will see the Horned Dorsett on the right. Eventually, the road makes a sharp right where there is a short hill to 115. There is a road a little bigger than an alley that follows the beach. At the end of that, there is no more road except to go left and up the hill to 115. I never went up it, but it think it comes out near the tower just south of Kaplash.
   
2. North – Follow 413 to the lighthouse. Just before the parking lot, you can enter the field where there is a network of dirt roads and some really fun single track mountain bike paths. Some of them were too steep or bumpy or windy for me. Plus, I was wearing only sandals which didn't allow as much aggressiveness. I went maybe four times, and didn't explore the whole thing. There is a path that hugs the ocean and is quite nice, but it dead ends at a walking path where you'd have to climb maybe four feet with the bike to continue through. I didn't bother. This route also passes Steps Beach on 413 where you can check out the surf for snorkeling conditions.
   
3. In past years, I took other trips with proper bike gear, and you do see a lot of cyclists while driving around Rincon. The terrain in general is very hilly, but the two rides described above are relatively flat.

I have been using Google maps for planning bike routes for the past few years. In Greater Boston, they are usually quite accurate. In Rincon, not so much for back roads. There are a number of ghost roads all over the place. Perhaps there are on the town maps. Beware.

1. There is no road between 413 and the beach beyond the public beach (Jose Perez road or something like that).
2. You cannot go from the light house past the dome of the defunct nuclear reactor (yep, Rincon has a reactor which was never put into everyday use) over to Casa Islena and that area of Puntas.
3. When taking the south route above, Google maps says there is a road from 429 into Anasco much of which is very, very flat, but this road ends and you have to go up a tough hill to get back to 115.
4. There are three roads going west (away from the ocean) shown on Google on 115 south of the ballpark. I found two of them, and both were gated, one with several dump truck loads of dirt in front of it. Never saw the first one. Beyond the gates were vestiges of roads.

Snorkeling

Steps Beach in Rincon is the place to go: Elk Horn, Fan, Brain and other corals which I don't know the names of. There are also lots of individual and schools of fish. I've even seen a couple of sea turtles gliding around. I haven't seen any other place in Rincon with coral or the rich variety of fish.

Unfortunately, it's a bit rocky all up and down the coast making getting in and out tricky. Also, this is Rincon where they hold international surfing competitions for a reason. Sometimes you risk some scrapes and bruises because of the surf, so you have to pick your days. If it is cloudy and there are 2+ foot waves, you might want to come back another day. And on this trip, we saw the shattered glass of two broken car windows. That day and every time after that, the policia where always there while I was snorkeling, either hanging out or rolling in and out. One of them spoke to me, and in my limited Spanish comprehension I learned that someone had lost a Rolex. On the solo trips sans family, I avoided bringing my phone or wallet if I could.

I used to snorkel at the very southwest-most corner of the island in Cabo Rojo. It started out great, but then after a storm or hurricane, it wasn't so good anymore. It was still a great place to spend the day as you could drive a Toyota Corolla pretty far down the network of dirt roads through the fauna, but they since closed it off, so we don't even bother any more.

Kayak

We rented a tandem kayak during the afternoon we had the baby sitter – thanks Grandpapi! One hour was listed $16 at the rental place next to the Cofresi Bohio, and they charged us just $8 for a half hour. I've done a full hour of kayaking before, and it gets a little old after 30 minutes. That place also rents jet skis which are fun, but hard to get to speed on most days because of all the chop. You can get some really good (and dangerous) air.

Baseball

Mayaguez made the playoffs by tying for 4^th place in a 6-team league. The won the 1-game playoff, and got swept by Ponce in 4 games while we were here. I saw game 2, and it was a lot of fun watching major league and AAA baseball players in January. Ivan "Pudge" Rodriquez caught for Ponce. They are rebuilding the Mayaguez ballpark for a big tournament in 2010, so we had to go to Aguadilla.

There are many other fun activities and destinations in PR.