700 Year Old Trees and Coconut Shenanigans

Every moment so far on our trip to Puerto Rico has been a blast but there have been a few that have stood out as some of the best of the trip. In particular, the day that we hiked through the dry forest and saw the beach in Guanica. The hike ended up being about twice as long as planned because the day we went ended up being Three Kings day which is a popular holiday in Puerto Rico. This meant that the person who usually unlocks the gate in the morning took the day off so instead of just having to hike from the entrance to the trail farther up the mountain, we had to make the hike all the way up and around part of the mountain first. This proved to be much harder than we all imagined as most of the climbing was at a 30-45 degree incline. Pairing that with the blaring hot sun didn’t make things too comfortable. Making it to the beach became everyone’s goal as the hike progressed. Being in such an interesting ecosystem made things a lot more manageable. With the climate in that region being so arid, it has led to the creation of something called a dry forest. It can be compared to the chaparral of southern California and the Mediterranean. The soil was very rocky and sandy and there were plenty of woody bushes and cacti growing in the area. Professor Rodriguez told us that the area only receives about 10 inches of rain every year, meaning that every plant has adapted to live on very small amounts of water. On the hike, we also were able to see one of the oldest trees in Puerto Rico. It is estimated that the tree was around 700 years old! Its roots sprawled out on different levels and gave all of us a great place to sit and stop for a quick snack. After the side trail and seeing the ancient tree, we were back on the main path and inching closer and closer to our first beach day in Puerto Rico. As we descended down the mountain we could finally see what we’d all been waiting for. The water looked perfect, the only problem was how far away it still was… After 25 minutes and dodging out of the way of plenty of cars we scaled down about 5 huge rock steps and finally stepped onto the sand of the beach. The hike was completely worth it, the views were breathtaking and the water was so blue it didn’t look real. People could hardly wait to get in the water and bags were dropped just as quick as shoes could be taken off. The water was the perfect temperature, and just what we all needed after a long hike in the hot sun. There were some bits of sea weed in the water but we didn’t mind. We did mind when the huge waves blew us down and tumbled us over a large bed of sticks either. Sure, a couple people got some cuts but no one really cared. The experience was all worth it. The waves were huge, and if you met one just right, you could body surf about 20 feet! I hadn’t been in the ocean for a while and was surprised at how salty the water actually was. This, of course, meant that when everyone got out, they were dying of thirst. We made camp around the base of a large shade tree. Its limbs spread out far and provided much needed protection from the intense sunlight. After drying off to some extent, I started my quest to find a perfect coconut washed up on the beach. I knew the key was to shake they to listen for the water inside and not to get one that felt too heavy because that meant they were water-logged and most likely bad. Surprisingly enough, I found one that seemed perfect only about 100 feet from where all of our stuff was. I brought it back and began the very tedious task of extracting the cannonball-sized nut from inside the husk. I began this operation by first removing the 3 sections of outer husk. The coconut had been out in the sun for some period of time so the husk had dried and cracked along each of the three sections. I was able to slowly spread them apart and remove 2 of the sections. Keep in mind, this was a VERY exhaustive process. The hardest part was definitely removing the 3rd and final section of husk. On the beach, I found a concrete cylinder with some iron pieces coming out of it. My best guess would say that it used the be the base of an old sign post. This tool proved to be imperative to my coconut breaking endeavor. I hit the coconut with one husk section remaining on the iron piece that came out of the tool and was able to slowly work the section piece away from the nut. Once enough space was created I slowly ripped the fibers until the section was finally removed. From there, I cleaned off many of the remaining hairs and was finally ready to break it open and try what I had worked so hard for. I slammed the coconut once, hard, onto the metal and it plunged a perfect, golf ball sized hole. I flipped it over and was able to keep some of the milk from leaking out. Emma, Emily, and I were the first to try it and needless to say, it tasted better than the fancy store-bought organic kind. One more hit on the rock and it cracked right down the middle exposing the sunscreen scented meat. Dr. Rodriguez pulled out his trusty pocket knife and we began cutting off pieces and trying it. It tasted incredible! It wasn’t as sweet as packaged coconut, but it just tasted more… real. That whole day was definitely one of my favorites. From the awesome hike through a very rare ecosystem to seeing a 700 year old tree to body surfing on 8 ft waves to successfully cracking open and trying my first coconut, all were memories that I will never forget. This trip has already been so fun and interesting, I can’t wait to see what the rest of it has to offer.

2 thoughts on “700 Year Old Trees and Coconut Shenanigans

  1. I think it was really cool to be able to take in all that we could from the hike. Even though we had to hike a little bit extra on that extra terrain I saw and picked up my first hermit crab which was super cool, and wouldn’t have happened til later on in the trip had the gate no been closed. After swimming I walked along the rocks next to the ocean and saw and iguana ten feet away from me. All of a sudden, another on came out of nowhere and they began fighting. I intently watched them fight eachother for about five minutes until one shoved the other into the ocean. This was really cool for me to see.

  2. The day proved to be a tough one but I completely agree with you, it was well worth it. I also understand the struggle you went through to open a coconut because shortly after you opened and ate yours, Kai, Alisha and I tried our hand at opening a coconut. It was extremely tedious work!
    A good way to incorporate our experiences from that day into our booth would be to talk about the ecosystems we found in the dry forest and especially highlight the 700 year old tree. we then could move on to show the audience the complicated way to open a coconut.

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