Playa Fronton
After our day trip to Playa Rincon, I was a bit afraid that the other beaches in Las Galeras would be slightly disappointing. Yet, Playa Fronton proved me wrong. Playa Fronton and Playa Rincon are like two sides of paradise. While the beauty of Rincon is characterized by the uninterrupted sections of white sand and clear blue waters, I found Fronton to be impressive in an entirely different way. There was something untamed about the beach that was awe-inspiring and majestic.
Playa Fronton is even less well-known than Playa Rincon and it is quite difficult to get to. Thus, not many tourists actually make the trip. Dan and I had initially contemplated walking from our hostel to the beach, but had heard too many stories about robberies along the way. Even the Lonely Planet author stressed the difficulty of finding the right path among the many poorly marked trails.
Instead of walking, we decided to take a boat. The main beach in town is the launching pad from which people can explore other beaches in the area by water taxi.
Waiting for a boat to take us to Playa Fronton acquainted us with the term “island time.” We arrived at the launching area around 10am, but our guides were hoping to find more passengers to make the trip profitable. After waiting around for a while, the driver of our boat informed us that a group of tourists from the nearby resort would be joining us “very soon” and to “just wait by the water for a few minutes.”
We waited. Yet, a few minutes turned into half an hour and then expanded to an hour. After an hour, Dan and I soon began to wonder if there were any tourists at all, but every ten minutes or so the boat boys would come over to inform us that it would only be another “five minutes.” Before our crew was finally together, two full hours had passed.
The journey was worth every minute of the wait and taking a water taxi proved to be a good, though terrifying choice. The waves out at sea were enormous and our little rickety wooden boat kept being tossed around. I felt partly like I was riding on a roller coaster and partly like I was flying, since we would catch a few feet of air with every wave.
As we distanced ourselves from Las Galeras, the beachfront scenery began to change. White sand gave way to dramatic rocks, and tall cliffs rose majestically out of the water. I would have liked to take pictures from the boat, but I was holding on to my seat so tightly that the thought didn’t even cross my mind.
The scenery surrounding the beach was impressive to say the least, but even the pictures I was able to take on shore do not capture the grandeur of the cliff faces.
When we arrived on shore, we swam a bit, but mostly took in the scenery and watched the fishermen out at sea. After about an hour of sitting in the shade of a palm tree, we were in for quite a treat. Our boat drivers had gotten tired of just sitting on the beach and decided it would be a perfect time to collect coconuts. I have never seen someone climb a tree with such agility. Let alone a tree without branches.
Our guide simply walked up the tree until he reached the fronds at the top. I was dumbfounded.
As our boat guide dropped coconut after coconut on the ground, his friend split them open for us. The meat of the coconut was so fresh that it fell off the shell and the milk was cool and refreshing.
When we arrived back in Las Galeras from Playa Fronton, we decided to treat ourselves to smoothies and an appetizer at El Cabitos.
El Cabitos is a restaurant overlooking the ocean and, though the menu was a bit spendy for our budget, we decided to take the advice of some travelers we met at our hostel and go for a late afternoon snack. The other travelers had gone earlier in the week and were able to spot whales.
Unfortunately, Dan and I had no such luck, but we did see an adorable sea turtle swimming in the water below us!
