Puerto Rico, Leaving and Summary (July 16, 2014)

We headed to Thirfty car Rental at 10:45 for our 1:50 flight; dropped off the car without issue. On the way to the airport in the van received southwest text flight delayed by 50 minutes which is fine!!! Trip home was very easy.

Overall thoughts about Puerto Rico:

It is awesome!

We could spend a lot more time here. Island is big enough it has much diversity to offer.

Felt safe everywhere we went.

Driving looks to be scary but really I wasn't bad at all. They drive fast but are courteous. Need to find an insurance company that insures in PR. Allstate does, Statefarm does not.

There are tolls on most main roads between cities. They range from $.50 to $1.50.

Gas was same price as in the mainland U.S.

Water is safe to drink and in most places very good.

Locals are very nice and easy going.

Cellphones work all over the island as does data as long as roaming is on.

Bathrooms are pretty readily available.

There are Walgreens stores everywhere; also several Walmarts (San Juan and Fajardo for sure).

Food is very heavy. Most everything is fried. No vegetables are served with meals but you can buy at Walmart where prices are good. You can also get some at roadside stands.

Beer and wine are expensive except at Walgreens and Walmart.

A car is a must. Parking in San Juan and Candado is very scarce.

Get a place where you can cook some of your own meals if you a health food conscious, otherwise you'll end up eating a lot of beans and rice.

Look at staying in Fajardo.  It looks like a nice town with lots to do.  Fajardo has easy access to the ferry to Vieques and snorkeling tours leave from here.

We would like to explore the west and carribean sides of the island as the seas are calmer and really nice by what we saw.

Southwest Airlines is easy in and out.

Thrifty car rental was easy.

Costs:

Total for hotel ~$1,200 which included breakfast, good wifi and a parking spot.  Our daughter was an extra $20 per day which is included above. Parking was $15 per day. Reserved parking spot is a requirement in Condado as on street parking is almost impossible.  This included all taxes and was for 7 nights.

Rental was a mid-sized for ~$500 total for car and full insurance. Full insurance was about half the cost.

Round-trip flights for three were ~$1,350 on Southwest, which was a great deal compared to all the other airlines we looked at.

Food was fairly expensive if you didn't look around. I would estimate ~$800 for the three of us and we tried to eat cheaply.

Gas was about ~$75 and parking in Old San Juan was about ~$35 at the parking garage near the fort. 

Again a place we would very much like to spend some more time.  Lots of additional things to do that we didn't have time for.

San Juan Viejo and Paella (July 15, 2014)

Today we headed back to Old San Juan for part two and three of Andra's walking tour. 

Walking the steep streets of San Juan Viejo

There are many statues throughout the city

Another steep hill, but this time a walking street only

This time we saw more highlights of the city and ended up at the other Castle. Very cool spot. San Juan Viejo is such a beautiful mix of old and new.   The following pictures were all taken inside the second castle (fort).  

Entering the underground prison

Views from the castle

This picture really shows the mix of old and new found in San Juan Viejo

There are a lot of stores if shopping and souvenirs are your thing, and lots of restaurants and cafes. There’s a beautiful little park in the middle of Old San Juna with a coffee stand, where you can just sit and relax, or you can walk for miles, just taking in the sights. 

Having drinks in the park.  I did great ordering in Spanish, until I panicked and switched to English. 

Fountain in the city

The prison cells at the old palace

A beautiful end to our walking tour

If you get hot, just pop into one of the little bars and have a drink. Everyone is so friendly and warm! 

 It was much hotter today so we headed back to the hotel to cool off, then on to the beach for beers and sand. Again amazed at how soft and fine the sand is. We went to dinner for paella at Antonio's. Very fancy place as waiters were in black ties. We had an amazing Caprese salad and then enough Paella for 10 people. We order for two but they brought for three. Darn, as wasted lots of it. 

Yummy Paella!

It was a really good dinner, but just too much food. We headed back to hotel for packing.  We're really going to miss Puerto Rico.  What an amazing island!  Lots to do and lots to see!

Fajardo, Traveler Catamaran, PR (July 14th, 2014)

Today we went on a snorkeling adventure on the Traveler out of Fajardo, which is on the northeast side of the island.  About 45 minutes from San Juan. We got to Fajardo a bit early so we stopped at Walmart to use the facilities. We drove ourselves to the pier in our rental car, so was $65 per person verse $100 each if we had needed transportation. The snorkeling excursion included equipment, lunch and rum drinks at two different locations. We left at approximately 9:30 and returned around 4:00; Very fun trip. 

The first stop was a very nice beach and easy shallow snorkeling area.  We spent about an hour there.  There wasn't much to see at this stop, but gave everyone a chance to test out their equipment.  We enjoyed walking around the island more than snorkeling.

Then at the second spot we anchored over a reef and then snorkeled from there off a small private island.  We stayed on the boat and enjoyed a quick piña colada, or two, as everyone else crowded to the small ladder with all their gear to get into the water. Once the ladder was clear and we had finished our liquid refreshment, we headed out to join them. We snorkeled, non-stop, for more than an hour. The water was very warm and nice and seas were very calm. We saw an amazing variety of fish, including a huge jelly fish, the largest fish was 15+ inches long.  We finally looked up when they blew the whistle to let us know it was time to go, and then hurried back to the boat (yes, we were "those people" that held up the boat), but it was worth it.  We had a very good lunch of sub sandwiches, corn chips and pasta salad as we sailed back through the beautiful aqua ocean.  And of course, enjoyed more of those delicious rum drinks!  The men working on the boat were so nice and helpful.  They made our day very enjoyable!  We would definitely do this adventure again.

A beautiful sail back to the marina.  You just can't beat this.

We went back to El Jabritos (pronounced Hibritos), in San Juan Viejo for dinner since we enjoyed our last visit so much. Again, another great meal, and a wonderful end to another fun day in Puerto Rico.

Cuava De Indio, Puerto Rico (July 13th, 2014)

Today we went to Cuava De Indio, which is near Arecibo on the northwest shore. This is an area that has caves and arches along a very scenic shoreline. It is run by a local family that has owned this land for several generations. They charge $2 per car to park and $.50 per person to enter. Steve had heard via the web that they had guides for hire. We got there around 10:30 and were able to get Jacob from Fort Lauderdale, Florida as our guide. He lives with the family that owns the land, and works for tips. He gave us a great tour of the cave showing us the various entrances and exits and the petroglyphs.

Our first look at the lava flows that make up Cuava De Indio

Entering the Cave the easy way

Petroglyphs

Petroglyph of a baby

In one part of the cave, water comes rushing in and out, but you can’t tell where it’s coming from. We asked Jacob, and he said that there is a huge lava tube under water, that is about 35 feet long, leading out to the ocean. If a current comes in strong enough to knock you off balance, it can suck you into the lava tube, where you could drown before reaching the ocean. We decided that this is not a good place to play in the water, and continued on with our cave tour.  In the first picture below, you can see the rushing water behind us. 

During the time of the Spanish invasions, the Puerto Rican Indians would use secret entrances and exits from the caves to keep from being discovered. They are not quite as straight forward as the ladder in the picture above. Jacob took us out of the cave using one of these secret exits. He would coach us, telling us exactly where to put our feet and hands. We were literally suspended between two cave walls, well above the cave floor. He made it very easy, informative and fun. 

At the end was a small perch where you could crouch before jumping about 6 feet down to the sand below. 

The last picture is Jacob before he jumped out of the exit hole.

After the cave he took us down to the shore to show us three of the seven natural arches. He would run bare foot ahead of us on the jagged lava flows taking pictures of us. We tipped him well for the morning tours. 

Can you see the three of us on the edge of the arch?

When we got back to camp, we had fried tacos $1.50 each and $1.00 beers and sodas for lunch. There are quaint little restrooms around back, so that’s definitely a bonus! Jacob brought us a green coconut he had chopped open. Very nice and light flavored. There is no meat inside, as the green coconuts only have coconut water. 

Modest restrooms attached to the restaurant

Fried tacos and drinks for lunch.  You can see the menu behind our daughter

Jacob cutting our green coconut

Enjoying come refreshing coconut water, directly from the source

In the afternoon Jacob took us snorkeling. He took us to a rock ledge that he keeps clear of sea urchins to get into the water. 

He continued to be very attentive to making our experience great.  Sorry, we don't have any snorkeling pictures.  We don't have an underwater camera.  Maybe we can take care of that problem some day.  We saw a group of 100 plus blue tangs. Most were about 10 inches long. Saw a large variety of sea life.  The highlight was a black eel. Jacob gathered shells from the bottom for us to take with us. We tipped him again for the afternoon. Jacob was thrilled and so were we! He brought us a very large cookie to share as we were leaving.  We left about 4:00 after going back to the beach and exploring several tide pools on our own.  When we were heading back to the car, we saw this friendly little guy.

Lots of motor cycles were out as it was a Sunday afternoon and it appears to be where everyone on the island goes to ride and hang out together. We would really like to spend more time in this area of the island. We stopped at a road side stand and purchased Nutella and Oreo smoothies. They were very good and refreshing.

We went to Wendy's for take-out salads for dinner, as we were dead tired and wanted something remotely healthy.    Later in the night we went back out for crepes at the Crepe Maker (we had our healthy streak earlier, so of course this was a good idea). We had a Nutella, strawberry, banana crepe at about 10:30. Wonderful!!! We walked back to the hotel at 11:30. The locals were just coming out for the night.

What a way to end an amazing day in Puerto Rico!

Condado and San Juan Viejo, Puerto Rico (July 12th, 2014)

We spent the day at the beach across the street from Holiday Inn Express, in Condado; very nice sand. Steve walked in the sand all day without shoes. This was a first for him, since being run over by a car when he was 19.  Felt great!!!!!, and the beaches are so clean! We got a six-pack of Modella beer ($6) at Walgreens (they are all over the island) and enjoyed it on the beach. By lunch time, we needed to get out of the sun so we took a trip to the new Walmart. It was about 2 miles from our hotel. We had great grilled sandwiches for lunch at their deli; very fresh and nice ($5) each. Yes, a good meal at Walmart...go figure!

After spending the afternoon back at the beach we went back to the hotel, cleaned up and went to Old Town San Juan for dinner. Our friend, Kathy, who's husband grew up in Puerto Rico, and the web both recommended El Jibarito's for good local cuisine. We arrived at 8:00 and had about one hour wait. The wait was pleasant, as the weather outside was perfect!  It was really good, authentic food for ~$10 per person.  After dinner, we took a long slow walk back through Old Town which was very busy with both tourists and locals.

Inside El Jibarito

Camuy River Cave, Lares, PR (July 11th, 2014)

Again up fairly early to get to the Camuy River Cave. It is in the middle of the island, toward the northwest side. GPS wouldn't find it by name so put in the coordinates we were able to find via then internet. This got us very close and then started taking us through fields and back roads. We finally decided to turn around. We tried asking several people if they knew where the Camuy River Caves were, but the language barrier made it difficult. We saw lots of small farms and cattle ranches. Cattle were in grass that went well above their stomachs. We saw a cow in the back of a truck, just riding along. The driver was driving faster than we were, on roads that were very rough, and cow just stood there!

Who needs a trailer when you have a really small truck?

We arrived at the cave at 10:30. Tickets were $12 each and $3 to park. After waiting about 20 minutes they took us about a mile in a small train like transport to the cave entrance. 

It appears the cave is owned by the National Forest Service and is run by an independent operator. It is very easy walking as all of the paths are concrete, and most have hand rails, there were also lots of lights on the concrete paths. The largest room was 350 feet long, 200 feet wide and 75 feet tall. All tours have a guide that keeps the group together.  Very cool but fairly commercial. 

Outside the cave looking in

Stalagmites and stalagtites are everywhere

Inside the cave looking out

If you keep your eyes out, you will even see some of the local inhabitants. 

He was huge!

After the cave we headed to the town of Lares. This is a small town where our friend Kathy’s husband grew up. The town was difficult to find as it’s in the middle of the jungle with lots of vegetation and located on the side of a steep hill. Upon arriving in town we had a light lunch at Pizza Columbo. The owner spoke no English nor did most people in the town. We made him very nervous, although we didn’t mean to. We spoke as much Spanish to him as we could, but we are pretty poor Spanish speakers.  

We were looking for an ice cream shop that our friend Kathy had recommended, so we used our daughter, who is fairly fluent in Spanish, as our interpreter to see if the shop owner knew where it was. He explained to her that it was closed for a long time, but that was all that she could get out of the conversation. We were able to find someone in the pharmacy who spoke English very well, and she was able to tell us that unfortunately it was closed as owner had recently passed away and family wasn't planning to reopen it. She then told us where we could find another shop as we were all wanting ice cream (helados). 

Cooling off with some wonderful helados

We walked by a shoe store with cute shoes (zapatos) in the outside window. Found greats sandals for $10 to $12 a pair. Ended up buying four pairs! Great souvenirs! It started raining as we were in the shop. After it stopped the Mosquitos came out. They even came into the store as the front door was open. These were the only Mosquitos we had seen on the entire trip. Used some deet and they stayed away. 

On our way back to Condado, we noticed that all of the trucks use steel window wells instead of fenders. What a great way to recycle!

It was a really fun day in Puerto Rico, which we are really beginning to like a bunch!