The Adventure of Traveling to the Adventure

Yesterday's adventure to Jayuya (high-oy-ah) still whirls through my head as I sit with the Boriken wind blowing over me today. Surprisingly, driving on the windy, steep and narrow country roads through the subtropical forest, though initially scary, transformed into a bit too much fun after a couple hours. "Precious Mission Hill cargo" I remind myself and apply the brakes. We beep as we go around corners to alert others of our presence. A deep horn coming from around the bend means a 16 wheeler is about to come around and take up the entire road, so in other words, get out of the way. 

 

 

A dog lying down in the middle of what feels like the most dangerous road I have ever been on gives me a dirty look as our car heads straight for it. "This is their neighborhood road" Jeanne muses from the back seat. She's right too, I realize as four boys on bicycles furiously bike up the hill we happen to be going down. The five cars behind them patiently wait because they recognize what our team is realizing. Neighborhood road really puts all the scrutinizing eyes into context as we pass by their house or restaurant. 

 

We stop at one of these neighborhood restaurants, parking as we have learned as far off the road as we are able to get. Most of the other cars are parked in a way that indicates they are less worried about parking out of the way. We park and walk down the road/bike lane/walking path/front yard and now /parking lot until we arrive at the restaurant. We seat ourselves under the canopy and "rustic" doesn't do this setting justice. "Las Tortugas," it's called, and I say "that means..." 

"Turtles," Jenerra chimes in before I can finish. All of our Spanish skills are coming along.

We quickly notice why it is named this; at least six big turtles are sun bathing about 10 feet from us. As Jada and I are looking over the edge of what we thought was a closed pen, the waiter says "excuse me." Later in talking, both Jada and I laugh about how we both thought he was going to tell us not to do something or give us a word of caution. In fact, what followed was that he let us know about the multi-acre oasis in back of the restaurant that this open turtle area is connected to. We walked back and basked in the serenity under the shade of a variety of trees including breadfruit and bananas. Paths were connected by bridges with bamboo railings, surely taken from that very area. As the coqui chirped and birds sang we marveled at how it would be to eat at these isolated tables. 

 

 

 

We left the restaurant and our good spirits carried us through the hours of being lost on winding roads. We didn't really mind, it was hard to be upset while looking at views of clouds seated at mountain tops which sprang from the deep valleys below.