The black and gold coast

our dynamic namesake – the black and gold coast

(“The Black and Gold Coast” was the original name of this blog.)

It happened so slowly it was barely perceptible.  Bit by bit, sand from our beloved beach vanished into the sea.  We didn’t even know what was going on until one day late last year it hit us; our sandy beach had completely disappeared!

Right under our noses the black and gold coast had reinvented itself into a rugged, rocky shoreline, now featuring tide pools with seashells and sea glass tucked in between the rocks.  As much as we appreciated the change in scenery, we missed being able to build sandcastles with the boys and run barefoot sprints on the beach.  We started to get worried when we heard stories of sand being moved to Playa Jobos and of dredging in nearby Aguadilla to renovate it’s ocean-side boardwalk.  Was our beloved beach gone for good?

The black and gold coast turns into a rocky shoreline
pic of rocky shoreline taken on march 14, 2016

You can imagine our relief when, seemingly all at once, our beautiful sandy beach reappeared at the end of June!

The black and gold coast
pic of the same stretch of coast taken on august 23, 2016
The black and gold coast

As we walked up and down the beach we rediscovered the patches of fine black sand on the otherwise golden brown beach that inspired the name of our blog (the Black and Gold Coast was the original name of our blog).

The black and gold coast
the black and gold coast is back!

I was listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast a few weeks back where he mentioned in passing that he played with magnetic black sand as a boy.  Upon hearing this, I told the boys that we needed to go down to the beach with a magnet to see if the black sand is magnetic or not.  A few minutes later, I heard Desmond yelling from the bathroom sink; “this sand is magnetic, VERY magnetic!”.  I had forgotten that they had brought a few handfuls home the first time they saw it.

magnetic black sand from the black and gold coast
black sand piled up on top of a magnet…

The black and gold coast may not be the best or the most popular beach in Puerto Rico, but it’s a pretty darn cool place if you ask us! 🙂

The black and gold coast
I hope I never take this for granted…

4 comments

  • On the last visit to the neighborhood beach La Poza del Obispo or simply “la poza”, I too noticed changes of the ocean floor and it’s shore. The palm tree I would normally lay my towel under now appeared to be a lot closer to the shore, as if a good ten to fifteen feet of shoreline had disappeared. And then too once I walked into the water about three feet, the ocean floor had a sudden drop of about three feet. The great and powerful sea had rearranged things. It will be interesting to see if things have changed again on my next trip in January. Paz.

    • A friend of ours told us that we need to visit la poza when the surf is up. We’ve never been. They showed us video they took on their phone of the water splashing over the rocks… it looked awesome!

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