Sun Bay, Navio Beach, thieves, and new friends

This morning we woke up to see how really beautiful the beach really was. It was amazing. The coconut trees covered the beach and the Sun Bay beach extended for at least a mile to the east. It was amazing. The Carribean Sea was that beautiful aqua color you always hear about and the beach was pristine. I was amazed at the lack of people and we were sure that by midday the place would be packed. For this reason we chose to leave our camp set up but hike to a couple of other beaches that are a little less accessible.

You'll notice that these are some of the same pictures from the banner at the top of my blog. These are really pictures from my trip and these are the views I enjoyed in the morning when I woke up. It was breathtaking and I want to go back right now.

We had breakfast and got ready for our day's hike. We packed up our valuables because we'd heard there were thieves. We figured as long as we had our wallets and phones we could do without our clothes and camping gear even though it would be a pain.

We began walking down to the end of Sun Bay. We walked right near the water where the sand was firm. It was a beautiful morning. Soon Ryan realized he'd forgotten his goggles and wanted to go back and get them. I sat in the shade enjoying the ocean while Ryan ran back to get his goggles. While I waited a guy and two girls who were camping next to us came walking up. They were headed to the same place we were. I smiled and waved and let them go on their way. After a little while Ryan was back and he had a story.

When he arrived at our tent he saw that someone was moving in our neighbor's tent. He knew he'd passed them on the beach going the other way so he yelled ,"HEY". A man came out of the tent with bags full of their things. Ryan yelled again and the guy took off running after he dropped the stuff and ran into a hole in the fence that went into some pretty dense foliage. Ryan put their stuff back in the tent and went to tell someone at the campground. When we arrived there had been a guard but it appeared that the guard took New Years Eve off because we never saw him again.

Well we ran to catch up to our neighbors and let them know what had happened. They didn't seem too concerned but quickly headed back to camp to check out the situation. We continued on to Playa Navio (Navio Beach) and found the most beautiful beach. The water was clear and the sand was white. There were two other guys on the beach but nobody else. We got in the water and enjoyed the waves. Pretty soon the beach got pretty crowded. It seems it wasn't that remote after all. Many people had heard of Navio Beach and had come to enjoy it as well. We enjoyed swimming for several hours and soaking in the warm sun.

We decided it was time to walk back after being there most of the day. We found our new friends (our neighbors) and they told us that the thief had only made off with a watch. Everything else was safe. The thief had been "shopping" in their tent though. He had emptied their bags and then filled them with only the stuff he wanted. We were glad that most of the their stuff was safe.

As we walked back we realized we'd both gotten a bit too much sun, especially Ryan. We walked in the shade as much as we could because the sun hurt. We got back to camp and had some lunch at the restaurant near the campground. While eating, our friends approached us and thanked us for saving their stuff (really it was Ryan...I had nothing to do with it). To show their appreciation they gave us a bottle of Puerto Rican Rum. We accepted it and thanked them for the gesture. We didn't explain that we didn't drink but we did continue to get to know them. They were from Vermont and had come to Puerto Rico for a friend's wedding. We were glad to make new friends and glad that Ryan had forgotten his goggles.