Gong through some old pix and ran across a bunch with my Grandmother. Of all the people in the world I truly loved my grandma. Hard working and pulled no punches. She wasnt about to hear about trials and tribulations especially from males and she found me the first place I ever lived when I moved out after graduation.
So I decided to look up the place she and her husband owned in Puerto Rico. She had a home in Queens NY which my mother was born in and as kids living in East NY Brooklyn we would call visiting her in Queens as "going to the country" What a respite from the housing projects.
At some point in my late teens her and her husband decided to buy some land in her old stomping grounds as a kid and build on it.
I enjoyed many a vacation here. Then my daughter enjoyed many more right through her 20's
https://maps.app.goo.gl/yRQtoJaqabzVEXAn7
My cousin finally bought it from her when she got tired of maintaining it and her husband passed away being stupid.
Hope you can pull up the link. You walked across her back yard, opened the fence and walked another couple yards to the ocean. This wasnt really swim and frolic area since it was full of sea urchins and lava rock but it was great surfing and boogie boarding. The waves there were like nothing I had seen and making your way back out for another run was to say the least, Challenging.
When you rode in you knew when to bail as the wave would pick you up way up high and with so little water now in front of the wave you could look down and see the sharp lava rock and sea urchins and knew .. when the wave ultimately discarded you throwing you down like so much garbage you better stay high because a dude could get hurt.
it was a great spot and when storm would come in all the young teens would paddle over to catch the now sick waves. I got to know many of them because at first as they huddled together to wait for rides I would be off to the side. Then I remember Mutual Of Omaha wild life show and remember the Wildebeest that always got eaten by the lions was the one off by themselves and I figured if a shark came by I would rather be with the group so he had choices.
If you walked out to the waters edge and went left you could climb an area of lava rock but lava rock is like walking on razor blades and you better be goat like because if you trip and fall your getting stitches. There were several caves though and they were full of bats and it was always fun but maybe annoying to the bats to take a palm frond and whack at the entrance and it seemed like a thousand bats would fly out.
Keep going and there was a little lagoon type area. it was maybe a football field in diameter but the walls went up 30 feet covering 3 sides, with vines and other tropical plants on them. It echoed in there so you spoke quietly. There were no waves in here as there was a reef just at the arched entry way so the water would ebb and flow over it and it was always calm in there and you could float and swim there.
If you went right from my grandmothers house there were guys would would go out early in the morning to dive for octopus.I was younger then and figured they were in their 40's and 50's . They would go out on largish row boats and just take a dive in with no gear other than a swim suit.
I was a strong swimmer but there were times I would swear they must be dead because NO ONE could stay under water that long and suddenly they would come up with an octopus in a net bag. Guess their lungs had developed to the point they didnt need to breath because they had done it for so many years. Cool to watch though.
Yea.. Miss my grandmother. Spent a few summers out there and shorter stays once I was working regular jobs. Nice place to spend the time with someone you care about. Of course visiting meant I had to fix the stuff going wrong with the house as did my brothers since we all were working construction but it was a joy to do it
So I decided to look up the place she and her husband owned in Puerto Rico. She had a home in Queens NY which my mother was born in and as kids living in East NY Brooklyn we would call visiting her in Queens as "going to the country" What a respite from the housing projects.
At some point in my late teens her and her husband decided to buy some land in her old stomping grounds as a kid and build on it.
I enjoyed many a vacation here. Then my daughter enjoyed many more right through her 20's
https://maps.app.goo.gl/yRQtoJaqabzVEXAn7
My cousin finally bought it from her when she got tired of maintaining it and her husband passed away being stupid.
Hope you can pull up the link. You walked across her back yard, opened the fence and walked another couple yards to the ocean. This wasnt really swim and frolic area since it was full of sea urchins and lava rock but it was great surfing and boogie boarding. The waves there were like nothing I had seen and making your way back out for another run was to say the least, Challenging.
When you rode in you knew when to bail as the wave would pick you up way up high and with so little water now in front of the wave you could look down and see the sharp lava rock and sea urchins and knew .. when the wave ultimately discarded you throwing you down like so much garbage you better stay high because a dude could get hurt.
it was a great spot and when storm would come in all the young teens would paddle over to catch the now sick waves. I got to know many of them because at first as they huddled together to wait for rides I would be off to the side. Then I remember Mutual Of Omaha wild life show and remember the Wildebeest that always got eaten by the lions was the one off by themselves and I figured if a shark came by I would rather be with the group so he had choices.
If you walked out to the waters edge and went left you could climb an area of lava rock but lava rock is like walking on razor blades and you better be goat like because if you trip and fall your getting stitches. There were several caves though and they were full of bats and it was always fun but maybe annoying to the bats to take a palm frond and whack at the entrance and it seemed like a thousand bats would fly out.
Keep going and there was a little lagoon type area. it was maybe a football field in diameter but the walls went up 30 feet covering 3 sides, with vines and other tropical plants on them. It echoed in there so you spoke quietly. There were no waves in here as there was a reef just at the arched entry way so the water would ebb and flow over it and it was always calm in there and you could float and swim there.
If you went right from my grandmothers house there were guys would would go out early in the morning to dive for octopus.I was younger then and figured they were in their 40's and 50's . They would go out on largish row boats and just take a dive in with no gear other than a swim suit.
I was a strong swimmer but there were times I would swear they must be dead because NO ONE could stay under water that long and suddenly they would come up with an octopus in a net bag. Guess their lungs had developed to the point they didnt need to breath because they had done it for so many years. Cool to watch though.
Yea.. Miss my grandmother. Spent a few summers out there and shorter stays once I was working regular jobs. Nice place to spend the time with someone you care about. Of course visiting meant I had to fix the stuff going wrong with the house as did my brothers since we all were working construction but it was a joy to do it
