A Day at the Beaches

Today was a typical day here. We had breakfast on the balcony overlooking one beach and then went to the other beach for a few hours of swimming, walking and just sitting and reading. Then back on the balcony again for dinner while we watched the sunset.

The condo we are staying in is located in an area called Joyuda Beach. Joyuda is kind of a small community populated by condos, restaurants, bars and a few locals. The beach itself is not very large (from ocean to lawns) but it is fairly long. The beach is OK for sitting on, but is not conducive to swimming as the water is very shallow and there is vegetation along most of it and reef just a few dozen feet out. The reason we like this condo is that it sits right on the beach and we can sit on our third-floor balcony and watch the wild life and listen to the waves break on the reef and (at high tide) on the beach itself. There is not a lot of motorized vessel traffic here so we don't have to put up with the noise of jet skis and so forth.

However, if we want to "go to the beach" we always go to Boquerón. The beach there is a major local and island wide attraction. The beach is actually located on a large bay with the reef way out at the mouth of the bay. The word boquerón means "wide mouth" and is very descriptive of the bay. From mouth to beach is about two miles and the mouth itself is also about two miles wide. As a result, the waters are very calm at the beach. The beach has a lot of parking available and has some resort style villas at one end. We have never visited the beach on the weekend, but it is clear that it becomes very, very busy. Many people who live in the San Juan area rent or own places in the Cabo Rojo area and spend the weekend over here. However, during the week there are very few people at the beach or on the roads. Parking is wide open and we consider it to be crowded if there are more than a half dozen cars in the lot we use. That is when we go to the beach. We even have our favorite tree to sit under with a picnic table next to it that we can put our stuff on. Generally we won't see more than 20 or so people on the beach and many of those are in family groups perfuming the air with their cooking. I cannot imagine what it is like on the weekends when it is likely wall to wall people.

We do enjoy both beaches: Joyuda Beach for sitting on our balcony and enjoying the view and Boquerón Beach for sitting on the beach and swimming in the water.