Day 5, Hunt 2: That day we met 15 minutes away from our place. We had some time until the meeting and we decided to have breakfast at Viktor Pollo. What a way to start our day, the best ribs I ever had in my life with a top class chicken for Luca and even more at 08:30 AM. It was a big day, with a lot of people. We got divided in 2 groups and walked in opposite directions. We were a group of 5 plus the guide, the other group had 9 people. Why should we change our habits from the first day?
It didn’t take long for the lead to fly and for us to hear the distinctive sound of the pellets hitting their targets. By now, we knew the head shots, the light switch shots, and the body shots. All of them unique. You could hear us saying while pointing in the direction of the shot “Head shot”, “Body shot”, “Oh nice one, it’s down”, … One tree kept all 5 of us active for more than 30 minutes.
Some time you can even team up on the same tree for different targets.
We were now half way through our hunt, and we had run out of pellets. Trust me, take a lot of pellets if you go hunting for iguanas. I thought that we would only need 500 pellets as we would only be shooting here and there. How wrong I was!!! I think one to two thousand of them would have been a better number, mostly with Luca who had decided to start the 3rd world war against iguanas, nothing had a chance from tiny to big, one .25 cal. pellet would come in contact with it no matter what. Again, Abner was here to get us through our day with plenty of pellets to shoot and many dead bulbs followed. It was a long day with a long walk for him.
End of the day with a big smile an happy kid and a proud father.
Luca became tired, his chemo treatment and prosthetic were hitting him hard. He didn’t say anything until the excitement ended, but I could see that he was in pain.
Partial result of the day. A good 1/3 is still on the ground and all the one that we couldn't access in the trees.
So, we ended the day by relaxing at the studio and had our dinner at “Echo En Casa”, what a place that is! A big open place most of it outside with trees above. Some dishes can be on the somewhat expensive side, but it is good and well worth it.
Day 6, Hunt 3, The Dilemma: For us that day it was, should we get a lot of small ones that could have been eaten or go for a more restrictive trophy hunt?
We decided for a 4 Person trophy hunt. It was epic, with so many big, and I mean huge iguanas. Straight of the gate, we started to shoot at more than 6 large sizes just around the cars.
After the parking cleanup, we all started to walk maybe 10 meters, passed a gate and the “Pops and whacks” started to sound. We stood around at the base of really big trees where loads of iguanas were warming up shining their bright colors on the branches.
A slow approach, a good stand, a good aim off hand and one or two pellets later, the monsters were making a big flop after their usual gym moves they would do after their light was turned off.
We shot so many big ones that day.
At one point, Will and his wife found a tree where they had a massacre of monsters. We didn’t have enough hands to carry them all. Short of a 5 hour hunt, we decided to stop as we couldn’t carry any more and didn’t want to leave them behind. We couldn’t shoot so many biggies and not show them. Back to the truck with all of us fully loaded, we had to compare who had the brightest, the biggest, the longest.
All of which were bragging rights for us. After some time in the shade, snacks and drinks. We started to talk lunch. Abner and Rafael told us about a good restaurant at the local port. We drove to a nearby beautiful white sand beach along the 7710 and laid our biggies on the nice sand with an outstanding background.
The crew of the day righ to left : Will, Isabelle, Luca and Me
When all the posing and trophy photos were done, we dropped them to a place were the local dogs and birds could have a feast. The lunch was at “El Náutico” Jobos Guayamas marina, the food was good and not expensive at all, food (appetizers, entrées, deserts and drink) for 6 and a bill of $110 remember that we are on an island. Now is the time to say good by to our hunt buddies and our guides. Go home and enjoy a nice rest of the day with a nice nap of course. Then some local discovery.
Day 7, Ride Back North: Discovering the East coast from Guayama to San Juan to Caguas via the shore line. This is it, our last day in Puerto Rico, 7:30 tomorrow morning and we will be taking off to the main land. We have two main ways to go back to San Juan, in land or the shore line. It is 11 am and time to check out from our studio, Luca and I decided to go via the scenic route, so east we go. Driving on the coast is something special, the coastal view is beautiful. The more north you are driving the more touristy it gets, with more gated communities, more manicured areas and properties. Not long after our departure, Luca was already asking for lunch. If it is a surprise to some it isn’t to me. If there is some consistency in a teenager, it is probably the one “dad, mom I am hungry”. Few miles in, we drove by “Paraiso Bar & Restaurant” a nice local restaurant which looks to be the locals' weekend party place. The owners were patient and welcoming. Again, we had to use our Anglo-Franco-Ispano language supported by signs and drawings. The food was awesome, I had some grouper with rice and plantain, Luca chose something “safer” the good old roasted chicken with plantain, rice and beans. Both were meal were delicious. My plate was ready to go back on the shelf when I was done, the sauce was so light and flavorful. Now that all the tanks are full, we get back on the road of our discovery. The villages are more and more active, the view is awesome, so many cool houses sitting on the side hill with a prime view of the sea. One sign triggered a “Oh wow” reaction from me. It was the “Tsunami evacuation route” sign, who seemed to be spaced every half mile or so. It didn’t come to mind that we would be in a tsunami area, but we were. After passing Patillas and continuing north, we went through Maunabo, the drive starts to get more in land with hills and curvy roads. From Yabucoa it is a flat land for a while. But, when you start to get in the hills again, you start to see “Palmas del Mar” in Humacao and darn it is looking beautiful. There it is, we found the start of the touristy place area! From now on, it is villa, condo, magnificent long narrow beaches, lined up pined trees and the smell of coco and vanilla butter. Now, the drive becomes a bit heavier in traffic. starting from Fajardo the views gets fancier and fancier, not too much my place to be, but it does look cool. We finally made it to SJU airport. Earlier that day, I had made a reservation for a hotel near Caguas so we could be at the airport in less than 20 minutes, so we didn’t have to be up at 3:00 AM. The idea was good, the result no so good. Airbnb had the place dead in the middle of town, 20-25 minutes from the airport at 5:00 AM. So far, in theory we are golden. Practically, we put the address in the GPS, get to downtown followed the GPS got to an address without any hotel. I called Abner and give him the situation. He said “Oh I know that area that is where my folks live” but that is 20 or 30 min from where you guys are. Oh crap, so now we are going to be as far as where we were. We adjusted the destination and the GPS show 25 minutes. We both think that it is strange, but we follow. And guess what!? The darn hotel was 10 more miles away.
Welcome to Caguas.
Luca and I decided to go back to Caguas for our dinner with Abner and launch straight to the airport and spend the night there. And that was a bad, like really bad idea. First, after 9:00 PM Delta doesn’t do check-in anymore. Second, the freaking seats are sooo uncomfortable. So now it is 10:30 PM and now we have our check-in at 5:30 AM. It was a long and painful night. But that didn’t erase any of the magnificent memories we had accumulated in the last 7 days.
Puerto Rico we will be visiting you again, love at first sight. Iguanas, we will be back more ready for next time, beware…
Back home for now
Places we went and staid.
Lechonera Los Amigos south of Caguas https://goo.gl/maps/fV5yVfb2gL12 http://www.lechoneralosamigos.com/
Hecho en Casa east of Guayama https://goo.gl/maps/SeqpmYWmo3P2 https://www.facebook.com/resthecho.encasa/
Viktor Pollo west of Guayama https://goo.gl/maps/pWvHcSikYCH2
El Náutico west of Guayama https://goo.gl/maps/8wLbX92zaXq
Tazza D' Oro Caffè Guayama https://goo.gl/maps/m14bLx1EcY92
Our Studio at Guayama https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/20653355?guests=1&adults=1
People we were with:
Our magnificent outfitter: Abner and Rafael at Iguana Hunting Tours of Puerto Rico, https://iguanahuntingtourspr.com/
It didn’t take long for the lead to fly and for us to hear the distinctive sound of the pellets hitting their targets. By now, we knew the head shots, the light switch shots, and the body shots. All of them unique. You could hear us saying while pointing in the direction of the shot “Head shot”, “Body shot”, “Oh nice one, it’s down”, … One tree kept all 5 of us active for more than 30 minutes.
Some time you can even team up on the same tree for different targets.
We were now half way through our hunt, and we had run out of pellets. Trust me, take a lot of pellets if you go hunting for iguanas. I thought that we would only need 500 pellets as we would only be shooting here and there. How wrong I was!!! I think one to two thousand of them would have been a better number, mostly with Luca who had decided to start the 3rd world war against iguanas, nothing had a chance from tiny to big, one .25 cal. pellet would come in contact with it no matter what. Again, Abner was here to get us through our day with plenty of pellets to shoot and many dead bulbs followed. It was a long day with a long walk for him.
End of the day with a big smile an happy kid and a proud father.
Luca became tired, his chemo treatment and prosthetic were hitting him hard. He didn’t say anything until the excitement ended, but I could see that he was in pain.
Partial result of the day. A good 1/3 is still on the ground and all the one that we couldn't access in the trees.
So, we ended the day by relaxing at the studio and had our dinner at “Echo En Casa”, what a place that is! A big open place most of it outside with trees above. Some dishes can be on the somewhat expensive side, but it is good and well worth it.
Day 6, Hunt 3, The Dilemma: For us that day it was, should we get a lot of small ones that could have been eaten or go for a more restrictive trophy hunt?
We decided for a 4 Person trophy hunt. It was epic, with so many big, and I mean huge iguanas. Straight of the gate, we started to shoot at more than 6 large sizes just around the cars.
After the parking cleanup, we all started to walk maybe 10 meters, passed a gate and the “Pops and whacks” started to sound. We stood around at the base of really big trees where loads of iguanas were warming up shining their bright colors on the branches.
A slow approach, a good stand, a good aim off hand and one or two pellets later, the monsters were making a big flop after their usual gym moves they would do after their light was turned off.
We shot so many big ones that day.
At one point, Will and his wife found a tree where they had a massacre of monsters. We didn’t have enough hands to carry them all. Short of a 5 hour hunt, we decided to stop as we couldn’t carry any more and didn’t want to leave them behind. We couldn’t shoot so many biggies and not show them. Back to the truck with all of us fully loaded, we had to compare who had the brightest, the biggest, the longest.
All of which were bragging rights for us. After some time in the shade, snacks and drinks. We started to talk lunch. Abner and Rafael told us about a good restaurant at the local port. We drove to a nearby beautiful white sand beach along the 7710 and laid our biggies on the nice sand with an outstanding background.
The crew of the day righ to left : Will, Isabelle, Luca and Me
When all the posing and trophy photos were done, we dropped them to a place were the local dogs and birds could have a feast. The lunch was at “El Náutico” Jobos Guayamas marina, the food was good and not expensive at all, food (appetizers, entrées, deserts and drink) for 6 and a bill of $110 remember that we are on an island. Now is the time to say good by to our hunt buddies and our guides. Go home and enjoy a nice rest of the day with a nice nap of course. Then some local discovery.
Day 7, Ride Back North: Discovering the East coast from Guayama to San Juan to Caguas via the shore line. This is it, our last day in Puerto Rico, 7:30 tomorrow morning and we will be taking off to the main land. We have two main ways to go back to San Juan, in land or the shore line. It is 11 am and time to check out from our studio, Luca and I decided to go via the scenic route, so east we go. Driving on the coast is something special, the coastal view is beautiful. The more north you are driving the more touristy it gets, with more gated communities, more manicured areas and properties. Not long after our departure, Luca was already asking for lunch. If it is a surprise to some it isn’t to me. If there is some consistency in a teenager, it is probably the one “dad, mom I am hungry”. Few miles in, we drove by “Paraiso Bar & Restaurant” a nice local restaurant which looks to be the locals' weekend party place. The owners were patient and welcoming. Again, we had to use our Anglo-Franco-Ispano language supported by signs and drawings. The food was awesome, I had some grouper with rice and plantain, Luca chose something “safer” the good old roasted chicken with plantain, rice and beans. Both were meal were delicious. My plate was ready to go back on the shelf when I was done, the sauce was so light and flavorful. Now that all the tanks are full, we get back on the road of our discovery. The villages are more and more active, the view is awesome, so many cool houses sitting on the side hill with a prime view of the sea. One sign triggered a “Oh wow” reaction from me. It was the “Tsunami evacuation route” sign, who seemed to be spaced every half mile or so. It didn’t come to mind that we would be in a tsunami area, but we were. After passing Patillas and continuing north, we went through Maunabo, the drive starts to get more in land with hills and curvy roads. From Yabucoa it is a flat land for a while. But, when you start to get in the hills again, you start to see “Palmas del Mar” in Humacao and darn it is looking beautiful. There it is, we found the start of the touristy place area! From now on, it is villa, condo, magnificent long narrow beaches, lined up pined trees and the smell of coco and vanilla butter. Now, the drive becomes a bit heavier in traffic. starting from Fajardo the views gets fancier and fancier, not too much my place to be, but it does look cool. We finally made it to SJU airport. Earlier that day, I had made a reservation for a hotel near Caguas so we could be at the airport in less than 20 minutes, so we didn’t have to be up at 3:00 AM. The idea was good, the result no so good. Airbnb had the place dead in the middle of town, 20-25 minutes from the airport at 5:00 AM. So far, in theory we are golden. Practically, we put the address in the GPS, get to downtown followed the GPS got to an address without any hotel. I called Abner and give him the situation. He said “Oh I know that area that is where my folks live” but that is 20 or 30 min from where you guys are. Oh crap, so now we are going to be as far as where we were. We adjusted the destination and the GPS show 25 minutes. We both think that it is strange, but we follow. And guess what!? The darn hotel was 10 more miles away.
Welcome to Caguas.
Luca and I decided to go back to Caguas for our dinner with Abner and launch straight to the airport and spend the night there. And that was a bad, like really bad idea. First, after 9:00 PM Delta doesn’t do check-in anymore. Second, the freaking seats are sooo uncomfortable. So now it is 10:30 PM and now we have our check-in at 5:30 AM. It was a long and painful night. But that didn’t erase any of the magnificent memories we had accumulated in the last 7 days.
Puerto Rico we will be visiting you again, love at first sight. Iguanas, we will be back more ready for next time, beware…
Back home for now
Places we went and staid.
Lechonera Los Amigos south of Caguas https://goo.gl/maps/fV5yVfb2gL12 http://www.lechoneralosamigos.com/
Hecho en Casa east of Guayama https://goo.gl/maps/SeqpmYWmo3P2 https://www.facebook.com/resthecho.encasa/
Viktor Pollo west of Guayama https://goo.gl/maps/pWvHcSikYCH2
El Náutico west of Guayama https://goo.gl/maps/8wLbX92zaXq
Tazza D' Oro Caffè Guayama https://goo.gl/maps/m14bLx1EcY92
Our Studio at Guayama https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/20653355?guests=1&adults=1
People we were with:
Our magnificent outfitter: Abner and Rafael at Iguana Hunting Tours of Puerto Rico, https://iguanahuntingtourspr.com/
