Aguadilla soul surfers
The same low pressure system that closed the ATL airport hours after our plane hit the skies proceeded to bombard the coast of Puerto Rico with decent/good surf for the first 10 days of our adventure. While we would rather have seen blue skies and calm, green Caribbean waters, it was nice to witness a fever comparable to 6" of rainfall in WNC. The surfers were going nuts. As part of the cultural detoxification process, we soaked in some ocean vibes and acclimatized to 3 weeks of living out of a Suzuki Aero.
First off, Puerto Rico is not third-world, monopoly money cheap. Prices are comparable to mainland US and some things are more expensive. If you're on a scumbag budget there are a couple of key tips for the essentials :
FOOD
- RESTAURANTS: stay out of sit down restaurants- any restaurant with a waitstaff is generally outside the range of a scumbag budget -
- LOOK FOR HEAT LAMPS: road food and street meat is the way to go, though be wary of any crusty looking fried items filled with hotdogs or seafood -
- PANADERIA: if you don't know this word learn it, and eat at them -
- GET A COOLER: eat groceries, buy fruit from vendors on the road, its cheaper, fresher, and local -
- BEER: warm Medalla from the grocery store is usually about half the price of cold beer from a bar, bag ice is about a buck -
- RUM: have your heard of Puerto Rican rum? yeah, they make it there - and its good and cheap
SHELTER
Hotels will drain your moneybelt faster than you can chug ice cold 10 oz. Medallas on an empty stomach. And the island isn't necessarily 'camping friendly.' This is where you need to be creative. Bring a small tent and be prepared to spend at least a few nights sleeping in your car.
I'm not gonna divulge too many secrets here, but lemme just say that when your illegally poaching some beachfront camping, safety is definitely a concern. Keep your wits about you and carry a big knife.
When your too sunburned to surf anymore, head to the center of the island. Most people think Puerto Rico is all about the beaches, but 40% of the island is covered in mountains and rainforest. We sampled Toro Negro with Acampa and, thanks to early Spanish settlers' scurvy concerns, plucked fresh oranges and grapefruit sagging from the litany of citrus trees scattered throughout the Cordillera Central. You can mindsurf the steep flashfood creeks that drop off both sides of the hills, but whitewater kayaking isn't really a practical endeavor here. However, if you skip every other tour on the island, at least sea kayak into the bioluminescent bay at Fajardo. On a dark night you will feel like you have slipped into a bizarre psychedelic trance as clicking crustaceans and laser beam fish leave you feeling a bit unsure as to the true nature of perceptual reality. It's trippy as hell.
Toro Negro
So we dropped into ATL and hit I-75 literally 1 hour before they closed the interstates and proceeded to cancel thousands of flights, shutting down most of the southeast for a few days, again. Sometimes you need to decompress from vacation mode, so being snowed in ATL was a welcomed extension. Now we're back in WNC and working on teamscum 2011. We've got a few tricks up our sleeve this year, so stay tuned for new Tshirt designs, some ridiculously sick custom headwear, as well as a revamped site and Homegrown 7 preparations. 2011 is gonna rock!
