West to North Coast

Day 6 –Thursday
We left La Parguera in the morning for Baja Roja, the south west tip of the island where the Caribbean meets the Canal de la Mona, which separates Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. We followed route 301 which abruptly ceased to be paved and became a dirt road with large water-filled potholes. Fortunately none of them were deep enough to swallow the car and fortunately Al ignored Bo’s pleas to turn around. We were rewarded with a spectacular view. We encountered one of the most beautiful beaches we’ve ever seen --- a pristine crescent of white sand with no indication that humans have ever been there. Al was going to skinny dip, but when he went to the car to get a towel, people started to arrive.

From Baja Roja we drove to San German, the oldest town on the island (established in 1506). It has both French and Spanish influence reflected in its architecture. Evidently it doesn’t get many tourists because when we walked into the tourist office, they jumped to attention. The manager called the church to tell them we were coming to see it and personally escorted us to open the back door to show us the cathedral. It has 14 altars and he proceeded to describe every one of them until we excused ourselves saying that our parking meter was expiring. San German is a beautiful colonial town, amazingly clean and colorful.For the night, we checked into Hacienda Juanita, a lovely former coffee plantation high in the mountains near Maricao.