Another day at Flamenco Beach.  This time we got caught in a downpour.  It has been raining here everyday, mostly light showers, but today was heavy rain and wind.  Luckily we got our Tostones (fried plantains), red beans and rice and barbeque chicken, before the sky fell.  After about a half hour of cowering under the picnic shelter with other beachgoers, the sky started to clear, and the beach was on.  The kids got about 2 hours of swimming and sand castle building before it started darkening up again, and we headed for the taxi.  On the way back into Dewey, it started raining hard again.  We stowed the chairs, cooler, beach bucket and shovels in the dingy and decided since we were already wet, to walk to Mamacita’s and check out the football game.  The Patriots/Chargers game was on when we got there, and as luck would have it, most of the people watching were Patriot fans.  They weren’t too appreciative when we told them we weren’t San Diego fans; we were just fans of whoever was playing against the Patriots.  The restaurant was starting to fill up while we were there.  I will have to agree the food there is very good.

The island is still a mystery to me.  As everywhere in Puerto Rico, you can see the US tax dollars hard at work.  The island receives a lot of government assistance.  Right now in addition to personal government supports, they are building new roads, and the school looks pretty new.  An older gentleman in Mamacita’s struck up a conversation with me.  He was originally from San Antonio, and had that great soft Texas accent.  He had sailed to Culebra on a sailboat 20 years ago and liked it so much, he sold his boat and settled here permanently.  He was a great source of information about the island.  Besides the tourist industry, the other business here is a Cobia fish farm.  Off shore, under about 80 feet of water, lies some kind of geodome, and inside it they raise Cobia.  The fish are raised from hatchlings, and harvested as they get older.  The fish are sold locally to the restaurants and are starting to be sold off island too.  He told me that not too long ago ABC News had an article about the fish farm.  Cobia is supposed to be good to eat though I am sure we haven’t had any.  Then he asked me if we saw the Triathlon the day before.  I said no.  He told me all about it and pointed to some people in the restaurant who had participated.

“That lady over there, she nearly got first place.  And this lady holding the baby,” he pointed to the lady who worked there, holding her young baby on a carrier on her chest. “She just had her baby not too long ago and she was in the race.”

I looked at her in awe. (Kind of makes my yoga workout seem lame!)

He told me in the military he was a pilot and I asked him about the airport here. You can see the route the planes have to take.  They start high over the mountain that separates Dewey from Flamenco Beach, then they shoot down between a break in that ridge, and head for the harbor, dropping low quickly.  At the point you think they’re going to land in the harbor the plane makes a sharp turn and drops to the runway.  It is quite a sight.  We met a couple here, from Wilmington NC, who had flown in.  She was sitting in the copilot seat and her husband, who was bigger, was sitting further back.  When the pilot approached the runway, the plane has to be put into a stall.  Of course, she said, they don’t tell you this, as they like to see the look on passengers faces when all the warning lights and sounds start.  I am glad we sailed in!  One time, he told me, a gust of wind hit the plane as it started to land and blew it under a house!  Luckily no one was badly hurt.

My friend had some good stories and it was obvious to see he had a lot of pride in his new hometown.  It made me start to see Dewey in a new light.  Unfortunately it was starting to get dark, and we had a long dingy ride to our boat so we had to leave before the game was over.  Back on the boat we caught the end on Sirius radio.  Looks like there is no stopping the Patriots!!