Puerto Rico is both beautiful as it is enchanting. I enjoyed the tropical island life with its palm trees and fountains, quaint streets and its contrasting beauty of music and harmony. Once in Guanica, you found yourself admiring the natural coast as the road twisted and twined toward the Copa Marina resort, which was located on a flat section of land atop the coastal bluff. Once settled into this little island resort as quaint and nestled away from civilization as Gilligan’s island located across the way from us, we started our mentor series workshop with our mentor, Mark Alberhasky. Mark explained how photographers actually use a histogram for lighting and picture quality; how to shoot in RAW as opposed to JPEG and setting your ISO for maximum quality picture taking.
After introductions, we set out on a sunset cruise out to a pristine bay lined with houses sitting atop of the water where people fish for their dinner from their patio decks. We ate empandaditas on the ship locally handmade stuffed with chicken and as delicious as they were filling. Next stop was a bay filled with fluorescent plankton only invisible to the naked eye at night. About eight of our trekkers were brave enough to view the plankton up close by diving off the ship into the dark water. What an experience to be surrounded only by water and the plankton that lit up as we swam around. After docking in Paraguera Bay, Puerto Rico, we walked through the colorful markets selling souvenirs and dotted with “cantinas.”
The next day was a trip to Crash Boat Beach for pictures with models. It turned out to not be rain showers as predicted but a beautiful sunny and hot day. The models were fantastic and braved our shutters posing along the line of palm trees on the beach and with their boards, both in and out of the water. Naturally, the hit of the day was trying to capture the perfect picture of them surfing. And they even had a little fun standing on top of a breaker wall while a wall of water smashed against it and sprayed them.
Next, we moved on to an old style French castle (mansion), the Palacete Los Moreau. For those of us interested in flowers and old history, stained glass windows and beautiful lined balconies like those of bourbon street, this was a casual resting place with wood doors and a yellow exterior. The grounds were beautifully manicured as we enjoyed the shade of the trees and the beauty of the tropical flowers. We then ventured to our first lighthouse sunset opportunity at the Rincon Lighthouse. We also got a taste of what real local surfing was like located to the west of the lighthouse, a perfect lookout and secluded beach for surfing four to six foot waves. Dotted along side the road to the lighthouse were peach colored condos set into the mountain.
Moving on, the next day we traveled to Ponce, the next biggest town in Puerto Rico. As in most towns, it has a center park with a fountain and shops reaching out from there dotted along the street plaza. There was a park, a library and a music school. We photographed dancers dressed in traditional costume at the Parque de Bombas. At the old style red and black fire station, we got a taste for local tradition in the Plaza Las Delicias which is where the Cathedral of Our Lady is located where the four statues of lions, the symbol of Ponce, guards her. We saw La Gloria, a shoe store where as a kid as one trekker fondly remembered they would hand out a treat with each pair of shoes purchased. In the streets around the plaza, the vendors sold local food where tripe was flattened, battered and fried in oil at the vendor carts. We sampled placedos de pais (ice cream sherbert) made from shaved ice. It was shaved by hand from the block of ice in the cart then topped with whatever flavor you desired. Most everyone spoke both English and Spanish so it was very easy to get around and find what you needed.
In the afternoon, we took a drive to Cabo Rojo Lighthouse for some more majestic sunset pictures. We were standing along the cliffs at the perfect time to capture the sun setting over the Oceanside and the lighthouse.
On our last day, we ventured into the mountains to the town of Juana Diaz to view and take pictures of waterfalls. The trip to the waterfalls up the winding mountain roads was almost as fun as the view once we got there. At the Toro Negro rainforest, we climbed a set of stairs that looked like the mayan ruins up to a trail that led to an abandoned pool. On the other side of the bridge were more picnic shelters and more dense vegetation indigenous to the area. We saw wild impatients growing along side the mountain roads and trails, some red bonnet bushes as well as other tropical flowers I could not identify. The tranquility of the park was only surpassed by the breathtaking picture of the little cove of natural flowing water that made for beautiful sketching and picture taking. It was truly an experience to have explored this natural island from the limestone cliffs over looking Cabo Rojo to the city streets of Ponce. What an undiscovered treat Puerto Rico has to offer, from beaches to mountains to rainforest. The people of Puerto Rico were kind and generous and shared their traditions, food and music, and love of their island if for just a few days, we enjoyed the splendor of island sunsets and the wild beauty of their hospitality.
Julie Campbell
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