This week in Picture Perfect the theme is Summertime Fun!  I can't enjoy the summers outside a lot but I love to go to the different fairs and events.  One that is like a family tradition is the Flower Festival in Aibonito, PR.  We used to visit that one with my grandparents when we were little girls.  Now I accompany my mom to it when I'm in Puerto Rico.  The Flower Festival is a full week of flowers expositions, music, food and artesanal vendors.  Aibonito is a little town in the center or the island's mountains.  The name means "Oh, beautiful" in Spanish.  No joking! 

The photo above was taken on the Orchids Festival 2006 in San Juan, but I arrived late for that one this year.  So I'm waiting next month to visit the one in Aibonito with my mom.  Also this was the very first photo I took with the camera!!!

If you want to see the rest of the photos they are in the Orchids Festival 2006 album.

Our Mother's Day was great and I hope yours was as good as ours.  Mom and I went to the Plaza of Carolina to take some photos and later went to Letty's home.  She cook a delicious lunch of "Carne Mechada" and rice with coconut.  Mom made strawberry jello with cream cheese and fruit salad for desert.  After that we went to Piñones to eat a late afternoon snack of Puerto Rican fritters.  Going home we were stuck in the famous "Piñones' Traffic Jam" and we decided to go back to Carolina and eat on an Italian restaurant.  I added a photo album with the ones I took.  Tomorrow I'll post some that Letty took with her camera and also the photos of mom's new babies. 

It's 1:17 am and I'm so tire and full of delicious food that I think I'll hit the sack and fall asleep really fast!

It's Thursday already!  Gosh!  TIme flies!!!  This week Picture Perfect has the theme Movement.



I took this photo in the Escambron Beach, San Juan.  I was a long time that I didn't visited that beach and one day mom and I decided to go out and walk a little on San Juan.  I think I took over 100 photos that day and yes I moved a lot!  Who knows me know that it's difficult for me to move due to my health.  Anyway...  This photo I was trying to capture some little fishes that were playing near my feet.  I was mesmerized by how the sun reflected on the water.  The water was moving just a little with the gentle breeze.  The fishes can't be notice because of their camouflage, but it was ticklish. 

Just another little glimpse to my dear island.  Where I'll be traveling soon!!!

This week's Picture Perfect's theme is "Infinite".  I know that the 1st thing that comes to mind is a beautiful horizon and though I have beautiful horizon's photos I decided for this one.  It's a view of the Historical Cemetery of San Juan, plus the brown building is the fort El Morro and the horizon is the Caribbean Sea.  I think there's 3 "infinite" in this photo.  First the cemetery, where most people find an infinite peace after a gruesome life.  In this cemetery, great Puerto Ricans from our history are buried here: politicians, poets, governors...  Their names preserved for the eternity among the white stones.  The fort is also an infinite example.  It's been there over 5 centuries; having resisted pirates and invasion attacks, hurricanes and strange phenomenons (this is part of the Bermuda's Triangle).  Tons of stories and legends have been forge here also.  Specially in that garita (overlook) that is called "Garita del Diablo" (Devil's Overlook); but that's another post.  Last, the beautiful horizon...  Miles and miles of beautiful deep blue sea, until it mixes with the Atlantic Ocean.

Hubby wanted to help me with the theme this week and he choose another view of the same area, more or less...  I'm posting it here also because he got interested in the theme.  SO it's like he's the one posting this one.  He has never been out of Egypt and he dreams of traveling with me to Puerto Rico and live near the beach and the rainforest.


As usually, click on the photos to get a bigger view.

This week on Picture Perfect the theme is Shadows.  It's getting more challenging each time.  Specially now that my card reader damaged and I  can't get the photos from the card of my camera to transfer them to the pc.  But I have tons of photos saved on a CD and the external HDD.

Anyway...  I decided to use this week this photo I took on 2006 in San Juan, PR.  This is the Park Luis Muñoz Rivera. This huge tree is called Ceiba and they grow in strange forms and live centuries.  This one is pretty "young" but have been in the park at least for a century.  It has lasted years of storms and hurricanes.  The park is beside the beach.  These trees offer a lovely and cool shadow in summer, and on rainy days you can take cover under them.  The woman taking cover under inside the tree's shadow is my mom.  There's one Ceiba tree, famous in PR because has over 300 years old and it still as lovely as a century ago.  I'll be traveling soon to PR and will go and take photo of that one.

Thanks for looking!

This week on Picture Perfect the theme is Red.  I have been thinking what to post in this week's challenge.  I'm not a person that likes the red color.  Never wear it and things that are red usually don't impress me.  For a few exceptions like this one:


This is the "Parque de Bombas" (Fire Station) in Ponce, PR.  It was constructed in 1883 and is still in the original place.  It's been transform into a museum now and inside you can see a couple of original tank trucks and several models of the station's designs among other things, everything related to the fire station and firemen.  It's famous not only because of it's age but for the colors red and black.  Ponce is called also the "Regal city" because of it's beautiful buildings, parks and gardens.  Visiting the city is like been transported to the old colonial era.  Ponce was also the 1st capital of Puerto Rico and was named after Juan Ponce de Leon, the 1st governor of the island.

You can find more photos of Ponce in this album.

This week's theme on Picture Perfect is Water.  Since child I have always been in love with waterfalls.  I grew up surrender by water everywere.  Our home was around 15 minutes drive from the beach and like 45 minutes from the rain forest El Yunque where plenty of waterfalls, rivers and ravines could be found.   The poetic Rio Grande de Loiza is now "literally" in the backyard of my mom's apartment.  I still remember the weekend trips with grandma to the mountains and rivers.  Puerto Rico is pretty small and you can drive around the island in a day.

The photo in this post is the ravine Caimitillo on El Yunque Rain Forest.  This place is so peaceful and quiet.  When I started with my depression attacks I often came here and sit for an hour or two to calm and meditate.  It's very small and you need to hike a few minutes up the mountain to arrive to this part.  There are some cement benches along it.  Hurricane Hugo (1989) and later Andrew, destroyed a great part of the rain forest and this ravine was badly damaged.  But when I returned to PR on 2006 the ravine was almost perfect.  There are still some boulders in some areas and they couldn't be removed, so the course of the ravine changed a little, but still you can enjoy the beauty and serenity of it.  If you go on a rainy day or like 2 hours before sunset (sunset in the rainforest is ealier) you can have the treat of listening to the coquis (little tree frogs) singing and that is the most calming thing you can do for the soul!

I'm a little behind with challenges but I think today I'll catch up.  This week theme at Picture Perfect was "A Song Title".  The 1st song that came in mind was Preciosa", a popular Puerto Rican song about Puerto Rico's beauty and some political struggles.  The song is in Spanish, but I'll try to translate it.  The video is by Marc Anthony, who is Puerto Rican (actually New York-rican - a person born in NY from Puerto Rican parents).  The song was easy to choose but not the picture.  I have so many gorgeous photos of PR  but I think this is my favorite.  It's called "San Juan's Gate" and it's literally the gate of the city.  San Juan is the capital city of PR and is surrounded by an antique wall.  This spot was a strategical point of entering to the island and so the huge gates were made.  I love it because of its beauty and significant, and I thought it was perfect for this song and challenge.  The camera I used is a simple digital camera Kodak 310.  I don't have (yet!) any fancy camera.  Enjoy!

This video is from 1987 and was filmed entirely in Old San Juan, the capital of PR. forgot about this video until a classmate sent it to me on Facebook. Pretty cool!