Day 1 – Saturday—San Juan airport
After two uneventful flights, we arrived at the San Juan airport after 9 pm. Getting the checked-in bag took forever, but we were reminding ourselves that we were on island time. Eventually, we found our way to the airport Best Western and checked in. Since everything at the airport closed at 9 pm, we went outside in search of a beer. In vain. The only place we found within a walking distance had a “boxing night” and wouldn’t let us in without paying a steep entrance fee. Resigned, we went back to the hotel and had mint juleps imported from Orange County.
Day 2 – Sunday –North coast
After “continental” (which continent it came from we don’t know) breakfast at the hotel, we picked up our rental car and set out to explore the island. First stop was a beach called “Pinones” very close to San Juan. It was early so the beach was still pretty empty. The color of the Atlantic ocean on the north side of the island is a perfect turquoise and in combination with the golden sand and the tall coconut palms, it looks like perfect tropical paradise. After a walk on the beach, we got in the car and drove to the Caribbean National Park, the Puerto Rican rainforest El Yunque. Distances here are really much shorter than they appear on the map so it took us only about an hour to get there. We first went into the visitors’ center – a beautifully designed open building that blends into the landscape, and then drove up towards the El Yungue mountain stopping at the El Coca waterfalls, on observatory tower and finally taking an hour hike to El Mono waterfalls where a lot of people gathered to cool down in the falls. Temperature here is actually quite nice --- very warm (over 80F), but not oppressively hot like in Asia. It’s quite humid, though. After El Yunque, we drove to Luquillo Beach, where (according to the guidebook and some Puerto Rican friends) you can taste a really authentic Puerto Rican food served in beach-side kioskos (booths). We had a taco with shrimp (Puerto Rican tacos don’t even resemble Mexican tacos) and a fried doughy something stuffed with crab and two local beers. We had to admit that the beer was better than the food…
After this lunch, we decided to stay at the Luquillo Beach and dip in the Atlantic. The beach was picture perfect and the water warm and clear. Then, on to Fajardo, an unremarkable little town. We had to drive through it a few times to finally find the right road to the Conquistador resort, the best resort on the island. It was quite spectacular, a gorgeous place, up on a hill overlooking the ocean, with miles of grounds, including a golf course, 5 or 6 pools and a funicular that goes down to the marina below.
Since we didn’t make any reservations for tonight, we decided to call a place recommended in our guidebook called “Ceiba Country Inn” up on hill side south of Fajardo. It turned out to be quite a charming place owned by an American couple fro Rhode Island who adopted 5 dogs and 4 cats and runs this 9-room B&B. It’s quite a remote place and when we got back there in the evening, we were surprised at the loud noise that we couldn’t identify. We couldn’t figure out if it was birds or insects so we asked. It turns out that it’s tree frogs that make this unbelievably loud noise. I hope we’ll be able to fall asleep…
Day 3 –Monday --- East to South
After breakfast, we got in the car and started driving towards Ponce> the first stop was Playa Naguabo, at least it was our intended first stop. Unfortunately, signage in PR leaves a lot to be desired so we had to circle the town of Naguabo three times until finally someone pointed us in the right direction of Playa Naguabo, a totally separate village. It’s quite confusing because even though it is called “playa”, it doesn’t have a beach. It is a picture perfect little town with a beautiful coastline, a hill and even some interesting-looking architecture, but NO people. It was totally empty. We were really looking for a beach so we drove south out of the village and about 10 minutes later we found a spectacular beach right off the road --- Playa Tropical. It was ideal for a swim. Since so many people warned us about theft, we were watching our belonging and the car all the time. There was a group of young people sitting by a parked car not too far away. At some point one of them, a young woman came up to us. She was wearing an official-looking badge so we thought that maybe she wants to tell us to get off the beach, but she only wanted to chat and offered to take our picture.
Then we drove south on coastal PR-901 through spectacular scenery. We started looking for a place to eat or at least have coffee, but couldn’t find anything that looked half way appealing so we decided to stop on the first beach and consume a mango that we bought along the road and our trail mix, and that’s what we did… As we finished our meal, we noticed a group of people ahead sitting by plastic tables so we walked in their direction and found…. A café truck!
After this refreshing stop --- and getting lost a few times along the way, we got to Ponce. It’s a really interesting historic town that somewhat resembles New Orleans, that is its architecture does, not the atmosphere. It came as a big surprise to us that the town is completely dead in the evening. We had a hard time finding one open restaurant to have dinner. Luckily, the place turned out to be very good. Walking back to the hotel through the main playa, we saw several young people sitting in the dark with their laptops. The city is completely WiFied and it even has power outlets in the planters so you can plug in your laptop!
After two uneventful flights, we arrived at the San Juan airport after 9 pm. Getting the checked-in bag took forever, but we were reminding ourselves that we were on island time. Eventually, we found our way to the airport Best Western and checked in. Since everything at the airport closed at 9 pm, we went outside in search of a beer. In vain. The only place we found within a walking distance had a “boxing night” and wouldn’t let us in without paying a steep entrance fee. Resigned, we went back to the hotel and had mint juleps imported from Orange County.
Day 2 – Sunday –North coast
After “continental” (which continent it came from we don’t know) breakfast at the hotel, we picked up our rental car and set out to explore the island. First stop was a beach called “Pinones” very close to San Juan. It was early so the beach was still pretty empty. The color of the Atlantic ocean on the north side of the island is a perfect turquoise and in combination with the golden sand and the tall coconut palms, it looks like perfect tropical paradise. After a walk on the beach, we got in the car and drove to the Caribbean National Park, the Puerto Rican rainforest El Yunque. Distances here are really much shorter than they appear on the map so it took us only about an hour to get there. We first went into the visitors’ center – a beautifully designed open building that blends into the landscape, and then drove up towards the El Yungue mountain stopping at the El Coca waterfalls, on observatory tower and finally taking an hour hike to El Mono waterfalls where a lot of people gathered to cool down in the falls. Temperature here is actually quite nice --- very warm (over 80F), but not oppressively hot like in Asia. It’s quite humid, though. After El Yunque, we drove to Luquillo Beach, where (according to the guidebook and some Puerto Rican friends) you can taste a really authentic Puerto Rican food served in beach-side kioskos (booths). We had a taco with shrimp (Puerto Rican tacos don’t even resemble Mexican tacos) and a fried doughy something stuffed with crab and two local beers. We had to admit that the beer was better than the food…
After this lunch, we decided to stay at the Luquillo Beach and dip in the Atlantic. The beach was picture perfect and the water warm and clear. Then, on to Fajardo, an unremarkable little town. We had to drive through it a few times to finally find the right road to the Conquistador resort, the best resort on the island. It was quite spectacular, a gorgeous place, up on a hill overlooking the ocean, with miles of grounds, including a golf course, 5 or 6 pools and a funicular that goes down to the marina below.
Since we didn’t make any reservations for tonight, we decided to call a place recommended in our guidebook called “Ceiba Country Inn” up on hill side south of Fajardo. It turned out to be quite a charming place owned by an American couple fro Rhode Island who adopted 5 dogs and 4 cats and runs this 9-room B&B. It’s quite a remote place and when we got back there in the evening, we were surprised at the loud noise that we couldn’t identify. We couldn’t figure out if it was birds or insects so we asked. It turns out that it’s tree frogs that make this unbelievably loud noise. I hope we’ll be able to fall asleep…
Day 3 –Monday --- East to South
After breakfast, we got in the car and started driving towards Ponce> the first stop was Playa Naguabo, at least it was our intended first stop. Unfortunately, signage in PR leaves a lot to be desired so we had to circle the town of Naguabo three times until finally someone pointed us in the right direction of Playa Naguabo, a totally separate village. It’s quite confusing because even though it is called “playa”, it doesn’t have a beach. It is a picture perfect little town with a beautiful coastline, a hill and even some interesting-looking architecture, but NO people. It was totally empty. We were really looking for a beach so we drove south out of the village and about 10 minutes later we found a spectacular beach right off the road --- Playa Tropical. It was ideal for a swim. Since so many people warned us about theft, we were watching our belonging and the car all the time. There was a group of young people sitting by a parked car not too far away. At some point one of them, a young woman came up to us. She was wearing an official-looking badge so we thought that maybe she wants to tell us to get off the beach, but she only wanted to chat and offered to take our picture.
Then we drove south on coastal PR-901 through spectacular scenery. We started looking for a place to eat or at least have coffee, but couldn’t find anything that looked half way appealing so we decided to stop on the first beach and consume a mango that we bought along the road and our trail mix, and that’s what we did… As we finished our meal, we noticed a group of people ahead sitting by plastic tables so we walked in their direction and found…. A café truck!
After this refreshing stop --- and getting lost a few times along the way, we got to Ponce. It’s a really interesting historic town that somewhat resembles New Orleans, that is its architecture does, not the atmosphere. It came as a big surprise to us that the town is completely dead in the evening. We had a hard time finding one open restaurant to have dinner. Luckily, the place turned out to be very good. Walking back to the hotel through the main playa, we saw several young people sitting in the dark with their laptops. The city is completely WiFied and it even has power outlets in the planters so you can plug in your laptop!
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