Birthday Beaches

Part of our semi-retired life is choosing what days of the week we take as our days off. This past week, we decided to take Friday off because that was my birthday. 

Since I always enjoy being outside when the weather is nice, it seemed like heading out to several beaches was the ideal activity for the day. We decided to visit three different 'playas' that we had driven by several times but never actually stopped and enjoyed 

The first beach that we stopped at was actually unnamed. We sometimes drive this way and had always seen the giant Puerto Rico flag, so we knew it was a good place to stop and get a picture. And that's what we did. It turns out there were two swings underneath the flag as well for photo ops.

Next door, there's a restaurant called El Caracol (which we chose not to try since we had just finished our morning coffee). Between the restaurant and sign there is a short boardwalk to the beach area. This provided a nice view of the ocean. However, the beach itself was not very clean. Lots of debris - probably left over from Fiona - along with trash that no one had bothered to clean up. So we did not stay very long at this beach. 

Researching the flag, however, I did find that it was painted by island muralist Hector PR, whose goal is to paint a flag in all municipalities of Puerto Rico. That’s 78. This is Flag Number 76 for him. His project is entitled, "78 Towns, One Flag." For Hector, his murals also carry a message of awareness about climate change and its consequences by showing the warming bands for Puerto Rico.

The next beach we went to was called Playa Parchola. This particular beach area also had a section called Monumento al Valero de Dorado. Roughly translated, that means a monument to the sailboats of Dorado, which was the name of the area that we were in. This was a lovely sitting, picnicking, and relaxing kind of beach, mostly a rocky shore, so not good for swimming. The breeze was very strong, so the 80 degree weather felt a little chilly. I guess I'm getting use to the hot weather if a breeze feels cool!

Finally, we walked down to El Paraiso Beach. Parking along the road is very haphazard. Nothing official. This beach was cleaner but still had some debris. Also, this time of year on the north side of the island there is almost always a rip current warning, so not the time of year or place for swimming. Still, a very nice view.

Puerto Rico has about 300 miles of coastline, but probably less than 100 miles with good beaches. According to one website, there are 248 official beaches here, but probably dozens and dozens more that are unnamed or grace out-of-the-way coves. It will take us a long time to explore them all. We look forward to making the effort and enjoy seeing all the different types of beaches that Puerto Rico has to offer.