Chilling with Pelicans at Playita Rosada

La Parguera is a gem of southwestern Puerto Rico. Surrounded by natural sand bars and mangrove islands, the area is filled with outfits specializing in tours of the surrounding channels, pastel houses on the water, and amazing little bars and food counters. However, when we arrive on an overcast Monday, the tours are closing up shop. Not to be discouraged, we hop back into the car and head up a winding road towards Playita Rosada.

A man-made beach, Playita Rosada is a small clearing surrounded by mangroves about a five-minute drive from the bars, restaurants, and shops of La Parguera proper. A single boardwalk extends from the shore about twenty feet into the water, where it forms a salt water pool, a square of turquoise water in the deep blue of the Carribbean. When we arrive, the gate to the pool is locked and the Pelicans have taken to scooping up schools of small fish, using the rafters of the boardwalk as a base.

Rather than turn around, we shimmy around the sides of the entrance, hovering over the water with our cameras and personal belongings suspended from our shoulders. It’s worth the risk. Once we’re on the other side, the breadth of the Caribbean expands before us. In the distance, the mangrove islands are shrouded in the silhouette of late afternoon. Behind us, the white cliffs of the southern Puerto Rico surge upwards, and all around, the Pelicans flap their wings and plunge into the water.

The water itself is cool and refreshing. We dip our feet and watch as tiny schools of fish surround them. Because it was an impromptu trip, we don’t have any towels or bathing suits with us. Next time, we’ll come prepared. But this time, we are more than content to just let our feet dangle in the cool waters and listen to the wind and the songs of the birds.

My friend, Bert