It was great knowing today our mileage and the amount of climbing would be easy compared to the last few days. YAY! Discovered I had a flat rear tire before we ever started this morning, but even that was not a so bad because we had the spacious front patio to replace the tube.
Smooth sailing for first half hour to our breakfast stop in Arecibo. The town was filled with beautiful murals throughout and had a wonderful beach promenade to the popular breakfast spot. The mochas with whipped cream and cinnamon were awesome!
It really felt special riding along the ocean. There was some sandy beaches, but most of this coastline had a lot of volcanic rock jetting out.
11:11 shot of the day. At the entrance to the Cueva del Indio, an important site within indigenous Taíno culture.
An awesome stop today. In his very broken English (way better than our Spanish), this guy told us how he climbs the coconut trees on his father’s property to harvest and bring fresh coconuts to his roadside stand. It was fun watching him use the machete to open the perfect hole for a straw. Once the liquid was consumed he whacked it in half and we devoured the coconut meat. So good!
We’ve been noticing throughout Puerto Rico the vast number of abandoned homes and businesses. It really is shocking and sad . It seems most of the newer construction that we’ve seen are American brand fast food, restaurants and businesses. Places where there is a lot of tourism have more authentic Puerto Rican restaurants available, but most towns we rode through have many local food trucks or roadside stands with some plastic chairs set up for their patrons to grab a bite.
Beautiful countryside.
We are in a modern hotel today. We didn’t get our Pina colada yesterday after our challenging ride, so we had one today with our Don Q rum to celebrate finishing yesterdays ride, enjoying today’s ride and having one more cycling day left in Puerto Rico. 🇵🇷
