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Our visit to the west coast

Last activity 28 June 2016 by dafa

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purplesugar

Hi all. Just sharing. My boyfriend and I just got back home to Minnesota today after spending the last week staying in Rincon. It was my first time on the west coast and my boyfriend's first time in PR.

It was very rough driving from San Juan to Rincon in the middle of the night after our 12:30am arrival. We were exhausted and the airline had lost my baggage. Never again will we plan a 2 1/2 drive for the middle of the night in unfamiliar lands. After making a few wrong turns, we finally made it into Rincon and found our rental property for the week. We stayed in the Corcega neighborhood and had a lovely 2 block walk to the beach. I did not mind the roosters at all and loved the sound of the coqui.

Over the course of the week, we explored practically every road in Rincon we could find (and it was terrifying BTW - I NEVER want to drive up into some of those mountains again). We also explored nearby cities including Anasco, Aguada, Aguadilla, Cabo Rojo, Mayaguez, etc. We visited quite a few beaches and my very favorite was Crashboat beach in Aguadilla. I am a horse person so we did a trail ride with PIntos R Us and also visited the only barn that I am aware of, Rincon Riding Club. Also met with Cynthia from Defensa and met a couple of her rescue horses. I have high hopes for moving to the Rincon/Aguada/Anasco area and owning a rescue someday! We went to the Thursday night art walk and the Sunday farmers market. Everyone we met was very nice. We ate tons and tons of good food!!! My boyfriend decided that he will probably homeschool his son rather than spending money on a private school.. and he doesn't want him in the public schools there.

All in all we had a wonderful visit and are planning to move this summer if we can swing it, rather than waiting until next year like we had planned.

ReyP

Congratulations, so are you moving to Rincon?
I assume you plan to rent since you said nothing of purchasing.
I sugest to put a pin on the destination you want and then have the GPS take you there, may find it a lot easier. Addresses a lot of times don't do well in PR with the GPS.

purplesugar

ReyP wrote:

Congratulations, so are you moving to Rincon?
I assume you plan to rent since you said nothing of purchasing.
I sugest to put a pin on the destination you want and then have the GPS take you there, may find it a lot easier. Addresses a lot of times don't do well in PR with the GPS.


Rent in Rincon or nearby. Just definitely not in the mountains. My GPS wasn't working! My service is through AT&T and had cell reception but the GPS was a different story. It worked sometimes.. Enough to find my location initially and route it, but then it would lose my location and we were on our own to follow along on the map and guess where we were.

sandrarduncan

I live in the mountains in Rincon and love it. We have both Sprint and at&t and get service on both in the mountains. At&t has the best cell service in pr.   After you drive the roads up here most aren't scary.   We get great home high speed internet as well. Sorry we didn't get to meet when you were here.

sandrarduncan

Definitely agree with you on public education .It's horrible .Many of us home school. There are some private schools here. House of kings (religious based) academy without walls (religious based- non denominal)
Mama Mel's up to 2nd grade non religious
On the boarder of Rincon an aguada semillas
Non religious its a waldolf style school however very expensive but it's my school of choice if it wasn't so costly
Masis excellent school in anasco very close to Rincon
But as I said we home school and love it
Large group of home schooler here
If you aren't on friends of Rincon of Facebook please join. My name on there is zazoo Pitts
You will find lots of helpful information

purplesugar

sandrarduncan wrote:

I live in the mountains in Rincon and love it. We have both Sprint and at&t and get service on both in the mountains. At&t has the best cell service in pr.   After you drive the roads up here most aren't scary.   We get great home high speed internet as well. Sorry we didn't get to meet when you were here.


You must be very brave, or just used to the roads. I didn't drive..just a passenger. It felt like the roads had just enough room for 2 cars to pass and no extra room. Some of the roads take extreme twists and go up and down with blind approaches. I felt like we were about to drive off a cliff at any moment with hardly any guardrails or shoulders.

purplesugar

sandrarduncan wrote:

Definitely agree with you on public education .It's horrible .Many of us home school. There are some private schools here. House of kings (religious based) academy without walls (religious based- non denominal)
Mama Mel's up to 2nd grade non religious
On the boarder of Rincon an aguada semillas
Non religious its a waldolf style school however very expensive but it's my school of choice if it wasn't so costly
Masis excellent school in anasco very close to Rincon
But as I said we home school and love it
Large group of home schooler here
If you aren't on friends of Rincon of Facebook please join. My name on there is zazoo Pitts
You will find lots of helpful information


I think if we were going to pay for school, we'd consider Without Walls, but homeschooling is probably best. He will be in 4th or 5th grade when we move. A couple years ago he was excited about school..viewing it as playtime with other kids..but since then he has realized other kids sometimes pick on him  so it's not all fun and games like he was hoping and he's become much more focused on just doing his schoolwork. I think at home he'd probably get through his schoolwork quite quickly and then we'd find other kids for him to spend time with via whatever home schooling networks are around.

I am on Friends of Rincon and I learn soo much there!

ReyP

Roads like that exist everywhere specially in the inside of the island. Some come to a single car bridge to make them more fun. Some will not accomodate 2 full size vehicles unless you get past the edge of the road. Some are real steep. But you get used to it, just like you learn a new car and learn if it can squeeze by. There been people that go off the cliff but it is fairly rare.

purplesugar

ReyP wrote:

Roads like that exist everywhere specially in the inside of the island. Some come to a single car bridge to make them more fun. Some will not accomodate 2 full size vehicles unless you get past the edge of the road. Some are real steep. But you get used to it, just like you learn a new car and learn if it can squeeze by. There been people that go off the cliff but it is fairly rare.


I want to live where it is flatter and perhaps someday I would consider the mountains if I can get used to the roads lol.

ReyP

I may mount my phone in the rental and make a movie next time I go see my brother to give new comers a flavor of it. While those roads can be scary, they are ussualy surrounded by vegetation and trees that form a canopy or tunnel. I consider them beautiful. The nice super deep potholes that sometimes can not be avoided, add to the charm and car repairs.  :D

sandrarduncan

It's definitely scarier when your the passenger then driving. Most people do a great job letting cars go by when it's tight . You .An be in the mouth without the small tiny twisted roads. You just need to know which roads  to take .There are some good roads right outside of the. Enter that takes you to mountain areas

mandarjones

I have lots of questions about homeschooling in the Rincon area. Is there a way to search on the forum? I seem to be having trouble. thanks in advance

sandrarduncan

Not really .There's a group out of cabo rojo .Wench and another one called weavers .  If you go on Facebook to friends of Rincon.  You should be able to find the information on there .My name on Facebook is zazoo Pitts . If you let me know you are going to friend request me. I can add you name to homeschooling groups on Facebook

sandrarduncan

Many of people do home school in Rincon and Sony belong to any group people do get together and share information.

mandarjones

I sent you a friend request on Facebook Mandar Jones (Mandy Groves) and thanks for all of your advice. It is genuinely appreciated!!!

sandrarduncan

I didn't see it can you send the request again
My location might be under arecibo pr .The photo that shows up is a lady with money on her eyes and a us flag across here mouth

dafa

On our first trip to Rincon, I felt the same way about the roads.  I was amazed that anyone would choose to live in the hills.  I was literally getting car sick once we turned off of Rt 115.  10 years later, we live in the hills and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else! 

We have no need for air conditioning.  Often when we leave our friends' house by the beach we find it's 8 degrees cooler at home.  The temperatures at night fall into the 60's - my ideal sleeping temperature.  The view and amazing tropical breezes are wonderful up in the hills.  We have less mosquitoes.  Our neighborhood (Atalaya) is much quieter than when we rented in Stella and prices are cheaper.  Our neighbors are very friendly and we love hearing the sounds of our neighbors' animals like sheep, turkeys and horses. 

I totally understand how unnerving the roads can be in the beginning, but like me, you might feel differently in a short while.

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