Cycling day 8 Rincon to Hatillo

Ready to check out (depart) of the Coconut Palms Inn, the beautiful grounds and beach front access. 

After sharing breakfast burrito at a local popular bakery place,  we got on the Ride GPS route to Hatillo,  only to have to road workers indicate we had to  take a different route. Of course the route we found was steeper than we expected. Beautiful views as we neared the first peak  about than 3 miles into our journey! 

This was at the top  of the first peak and Tim took the opportunity to rest before lots more climbing. 

Many of our beginning roads today were quiet and rural. 

One of the first larger cities we went through was Aguada. This beautiful mural was being completed today.  It honors the Taíno people, the indigenous people of Puerto Rico. 

Our route took us on some pretty rough and abandoned roads, thankfully they didn’t last long. 

This is shortly after we started the big climb of the day. It was nice when the climb was out of neighborhoods and more in where the large trees canopied the narrow road. 

11:11 shot of the day… we were taking a break!  You can see on my app that we are  about halfway up the climb. 

Tim is rejoicing because he thinks he done with the climbing for the day…. NOT!

We had sweated so much that we were desperate for electrolytes and cold water… and Tim was excited about the Hawaiian Punch (a childhood favorite).   We found a little table in the shore near the motor oil and cleaning supplies.😆

The hills kept coming and the head wind started picking up. 

It was great to be at ocean level and see and hear the waves crashing against the shore. 

 

As we neared our destination we were surprised by the green bike lane. 

We saw this Hatillo signage and were thrilled we were almost done for the day. It had been a challenging one!

As we got closer, we plugged in our VRBO  address into Google Maps and kept peddling, just wanting to be done. Unfortunately, we followed the directions and stood on the street in front of a house that clearly was not the correct location.  A minutes later, a man came out of the house with two cold bottled waters and asked us in English if we needed help. He gave us a suggestion and we followed it to a different location 1/3 mile away. Still confused and standing in front of an another place, we see that same helpful man drive up to check on us and see if we found our destination. Fortunate for us, he translated our intent with neighbors of the possible VRBO residence and discovered it is indeed the one we were looking for. The very helpful neighbors are the cousins of the owner, Nydia.  Upon talking to NYC based Nydia, we were so grateful to be upgraded from the tiny studio on the back patio to the  3 bedroom house.  Many thanks Nadia!❤️

It felt so, so great to clean up. We were ready for a well deserved dinner and a nice drink, but due to the challenges of the day, we were not up for a 3 mile walk…. So we reluctantly settled on American fast food!