My friend Duncan from Franklin, MA met me for 10 days and he offered to rent us a car which is basically a requirement to see any of Puerto Rico. We took full advantage of it as well. The first night he arrived and met me in San Juan. We stayed at Casa del Caribe in Condado, the touristy section of San Juan.
Nice beach, lots of sushi restaurants and just a skip to Old San Juan. We were there during the Celebration of San Sabastian so the streets were filled with over 300,000 people with musicians and lots of young people and lots of partying and wonderful street food.
We toured Old San Juan, El Morro, The Fort.
We visited the Bacardi Factory which was an interesting story about the symbol of the Bat being their logo.
The owner's wife noticed bats in the ceiling of the storage facility in Cuba and decided
to give it a fruit bat because i
t symbolized health, happiness and family. Lots of free rum samples and the mojito (ru
m, club soda, mint, and sugar and lime) s probably my favorite.
We then picked up our rental car last minute. I totally forgot they closed at 5:30 pm
and we barely made it. Pheww just in time for this brand
new 4 door white Toyota Yaris with 1500 miles on it. We drove to Rio Grande to stay at this Wyndam Resort package I picked up for 4 days/3 nites. It was SPECTACULAR and normally 3-400.00 per night. so a nice splash right off
the bat.
I must admit the beds we slept in were THE MOST comfortable beds we have ever slept in. We had a room facing the El Yunque National Forest mountains but.....were upgraded to a grand ocean
view overlooking to pool and palms and lovely surf.
We met a nice family fromNY, went to town to get food, mostly mangos and there was this great line of PR local food stalls on Loquillo Beach just east of our resort hotel. We ate there frequently, crab, rice and eans, pina colada, and tacos filled with (camarones) shrimp or juelo(crab) . great great place.
Unfortunately, Duncan really hurt his food on a Jacuzzi so was a bit immobilized at first but it worked out since we were at this ritzy hotel.
Then we headed to Fajardo. We stayed at the Anchor Inn, run by a French woman.
Black/red decor nothing to write home about but we went on this Bioluminescent Bay tour. It is in Las Cabezas de San Juan nature Reserve. These are microorganisms that glow like little fireflies MILLIONS AND TRILLIONS OF THEM. The best time to see them is when it is darkest so just before new moon so we timed it PERFECTLY. There are only 10 of these places around the world and 3 of them are in
Puerto Rico. They have now banned swimming in the lagoons that have these microorganisms but....we
kayaked through them and swished our hands in the water and ........watched FISH and skates swimming, and flying fish jumping out of the water illuminated by all of these little sparkles. It was absolutely
amazing. It was in a lagoon surrounded by mangroves and with a 3-4 km waterway entrance/exit so no manatees or boats allowed. Amazing just amazing. $47.00 pp.
South coast of PR
We would have liked to go to Culebra or Vieques Islands but since we had the rental car we decided to stick with the off
beaten trek and travel around the island. So we drove through El Yunque National Forest
and along the eastern coast. We bought mangos LOTS OF MANGOS. Delicious and $2.00 each same is in Maine
but.....quite ripened. Bill gave me a Swiss Army knife as a going away present and can I just say that that has been
soooooo handy so far this trip. I use it to cut fruit and use my Frisbee as a plate. Fantastic. I think Duncan thought I was
crazy initially when he saw how little I packed and what I brought but I am quite sure he has grown to appreciate my
backpackers sense.
Anyway we made it along Rte.3 heading west mostly eating
food from street vendors which is cheapest and most delicious. I saw 5 star fruit for $1.00 on the side of the road and we
stopped to buy them. The woman had on a Maine State prison t-shirt. Go figure. She and her husband moved to
PR 20 years ago from the US and never left. they make and repair sails. Anyway she told us of a cheap hotel west of Santa Isabel for $28.00/nite. Turned out to be for US military to visit with acquaintances shall we say.
We found a place and it was $28.00/6hrs. We decided to
look around the area and came across Motel Marebella which was $32.00 for 12 hours
Monday-Wednesday so we got a deal. The way this motel works is you pull into the
parking garage and close the door. And then pay through the little window with your credit
card. Very private and very regulated time wise. Lots of mirrors so it was quite a hoot for Duncan and I to experience and we wondered how this type of business would do on the continental US?
For dinner that night we had fruitos naturales frappes. I had a coconut/pineapple one and he had a strawberry coconut one. DELICOUS indeedy!
We spent the AM in Ponce, with lots of historical buildings, a castle and a famous baseball
team. We took a trolley tour of the city which was a nice way to see it AND had crescents at a little pastry shop in the morning.
La Playuela Beach
Unfortunately things did
n’t work out as I had hoped to stay with David Fishman, a
high school classmate from Gould. He and his partner have a guesthouse in Guanica and
not only were full but their house was too. And I had also hoped perhaps to stay with Nan Bradshaw and her sister in S
an German but...that didn’t work out either so.....Duncan and I carried on on our own. We took all of the off beaten
little roads, jikka jikka (south African term for driving around) to spots that looked interesting. So we decided to visit the southwest corner of PR Cabo Roho and las salinas (salt flats) and a lighthouse with an adjacent beach called La Playuela or some call it Playa (beach) Sucia.
The water was PERFECT temperature and clear as
glass and the brightest most beautiful turquoise blue you ever have seen. We swam an
d played Frisbee for a few hours and this nice PR family gave us each a beer. Best beer we had on the whole trip. Many people we met like this beach better than those on Culebra so I do hope one day to make a comparison.
Eugene and Jimmy
We continued driving along the west coast and visited many more beaches and fishing/beach communities including Combate Beach, Boqueron and Joyuda. We ended up staying in Boqueron in Panador Boqueron. We shared a Caribbean langusta (lobster) 1.5 lbs PLUS fixings for $36.00 gulp!!!! at Galloways a cool pub/restaurant right on the water.
Then we settled into our hotel room, made some rum and guava juice drinks and walked the beach and down town little area. I was wearing my PERRY MAINE shirt and we ended up talking to a bunch of Americans (semi retired) sailors. Eugene from VT who spends 6 mos in the Carib on his 54 foot power boat gave me the contact phone number of a good friend of his in DR so that was great. And one of the guys has been living on the beach doing carpentry work and fixing boats for 20 years. He is from Machias, Maine and named Jimmy. Didnt catch his last name.
The beach here was beautiful. Just beautiful. Lots of retired Americans walking the beach and settling down reading books and drinking their .25 cent coffees. Nice atmosphere. Puerto Ricans are VERY friendly and FUN people we found.
Ferry and Rincon
We headed north through Mayaguez and since we went right by the ferry terminal we decided to stop. Great idea. I bought my ticket to and from DR for $198.00 return NO CHANGE DATE or $100 to change gulp. You must by two way ticket to DR or have flight out of DR for customs. And $10 cash to get into DR (Dominican Republic) and $20.00 cash to get back TO PR. Yikes! The ferry leaves at 8pm on Monday Jan 26 and I will return on Tuesday mar 3. I thought Grace was planning to meet me in PR on Mar 4 so I went ahead and booked return for Mar 3. Unfortunately she is not able to get away from work but I think this will work out nicely. I hope to visit with Bart, maybe see David and these new friends in San Juan before I head home.
Well then we spent an afternoon in Rincon visiting different beaches in search of surfers. It was soooooo cool to watch them surf. I have never really watched it. When we were in Rio del Mar we had really really nice waves for body surfing but the waves off of Rincon are HUGE. We did find a beach to swim at and I caught a little crab on the beach. The men and women who surf have PERFECT yes PERFECT physiques and no wonder. What an amazing sport. I am too afraid to ever try it but I must admit I enjoyed watching them "catch the best waves" and admire the bods.
Central PR
Duncan was not keen at first to go inland but I convinced him that maybe a few hours driving through the rain forest would be a nice change from all the beaches and swimming. PR is so amazingly diverse in just a few hours drive it is incredible for an island of 3 million people and about 100 miles long by 40 miles wide. The roads and stop lights however make it MUCH longer....
so in a down pour we headed inland. lush rain forest. bamboo everywhere, lots of fruit trees, oranges (chinas), mangos, grapefruit, bananas......amazing. And the roads.......well Duncan hates heights so he really did well driving through these windy windy did i say windy roads. We ended up at a little place $40 on top of a pizza place in Utuado. Nothing fancy but a good price. we ended up visiting a wonderful Patricia's Hacienda a coffee plantation owned by a man in Ponce and in 2007 was recognized as THE best coffee in PR. Louis the care tender made us fresh coffee and then his buddy Bart arrived and used to work in Connecticut so we had a nice visit. He is 72. Same age as my father. he couldn’t have been more friendly and hospitable. Louis gave us a grand tour of the coffee plantation/factory and Bart interpreted. Bart has several horses, farms, dances, drinks homemade rum and is just a really nice man. He said on my way back from DR I could stay with him. I cannot wait! I plan to do so.
So Duncan and I bought FRESHLY ground coffee at $12.00/lb to bring home as prezzies to share with our coffee drinking friends. I may drink this though. Yummy and no preservatives or additives. All handpicked and processed. The view from the factory was spectacular looking through he rainforest and out to the ocean. absolutely amazing. It was so amazing that it took my breath away and brought huge tears to my eyes.
I hope to return mar 3 and go dancing with Bart! He said he'd fetch me in Mayaguez.
So we make our way through winding roads along the Ruta Panamoramica which goes the entire length of PR. We traveled about 1/3 of it which took several hours, nerves of steel, a good car and good luck but .......back to the beach we headed. Duncan really liked La Playuela Beach so for his last farewell we went back but prepared with pork and rice and fried banana for food, a dozen Medalla light cervazas (beers), good sun block, Frisbee and back to our tree. And....there were our friends the Blancos and all their kids, grandkids and friends with coolers and coldest beers ever. We greeted them, drank beer with them visited, compared the NY Yankees to the Red Sox and had a grand time. We played lots of Frisbee in the Caribbean sea which was delightful.
So then I hear this voice and turn around and behind a few bushes are Nan and Dean Bradshaw and her sister Kathy and husband. This is THEIR favorite beach. Go figure. We had a nice little visit and I hope to catch up with them for a beach day on Monday before I head to DR. We will see if that works out or not!
We then watched teh sunset over the Caribbean Sea and headed east to sleep, repack and have Duncan headed out on time and in the right direction in am. He left me in Ponce to carry on...........not sure when I can add a blog again. But thanks for reading.
Besos (kisses), Georgie
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