Day 3 cycling from Las Crosbas to Emajagua

We earned these margaritas today!

I’m writing this at 7 PM after we had our dinner and are ready to collapse … we are both exhausted! Today had its high points and it’s “what the …” moments. 

Again this morning Tim was enjoying the sunrise as I was just getting going. We each had a granola bar (saved from last night’s after paddle snack) and a coffee that Tim purchased nearby. 

 Packed ourselves up and turned on the RIDE GPS app to help guide our way. We followed the turn by turn directions that within the first mile led us up an incredibly steep road. Yes,  it was so steep that neither of us could even get close to riding up it.  2 miles later we realize that we were retracing an easy portion of the previous days route. Our takeaway is that RIDE GPS does not always provide the path of least resistance!  That being said, we decided to look into Google maps, but it seems that Google maps does not have a bike option in Puerto Rico, but they do have a walking option. So guess what we used the walking option… very successfully for the most part, more on the not so successfully later. 

It’s nice to “stop and smell the roses” once in awhile. Tim will pull out his SEEK app to identify plants or critters or MERLIN app to identify bird calls.

The weather was gorgeous, low 80s with high humidity, and beautiful skies to go along with the lush terrain.

By the time we stopped for some food it was 11:30. We found an open air beachfront food place where we enjoyed lemonade and burritos. They had a couple murals to honor these hometown (Naguabo)  brothers in big league baseball Alexis Diaz and Edwin Diaz.

While at the restaurant we had to correspond with our overnight stay since we had received a message that the room was not available due to water leak. We decided to arrange a room in a town further down the road since the conditions were so favorable. 

The wind really started picking up and we felt raindrops, which was fine until it seemed a little risky. We found a Walgreens to take cover until the rain mostly subsided.

We got back on the road with only about 6 miles to go… those 6 miles would be the most challenging and intense in our collective cycling years. 

The first 2 miles were busy and not well maintained.  We then took the “walking” route provided by Google Maps. That was great for half a mile … then the climb started. It sort of twisted and turned so we could not see what was ahead.  There was no way we could cycle it. Neither of us could have cycled it feeling fresh and on a super light bike. So… it really was a “walking” route that lasted a mile and a half of one step at a time shlepping the loaded bike onward. 

Me hoping Tim is taking a photo from the top…. But NO, not even close! 

A well needed break to get a shot of these beauties. 

If you look real close you could see the ocean down below. At this point we still had more climbing! It was a 2 mile screaming downhill when we finally got to the top . 

We found our overnight stay and shortly after getting to our room the rain and wind came with a vengeance. The generators started and we hunkered down safe and sound in our room. 

The skys opened,  we walked to dinner and enjoyed our well-deserved margaritas.