Beautiful Puerto Rico

Our Second Honeymoon, to Puerto Rico

Juhi Ranjan                            Sanchit Garg

 University of Virginia                 TravelTriangle     

 juhi.ranjan@gmail.com           sanchitg@gmail.com 

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Since our honeymoon trip to Mauritius, Juhi and I didn't have any good vacations. We cancelled plans to Grand Canyon and after many reschedules we finalized on Puerto Rico for 4-5 days. We wanted to blog our fun trip for reading later. We will also try that you experience Puerto Rico as you read the blog. Juhi and I divided the days to blog - she wrote about the odd days and I about the even days. This gives us equal rights to bash each other and also saves our lazy fingers to write everything.

Day 1 by Juhi

Our flight to San Juan was scheduled to take off at 7.30 am in the morning from Washington DC. So let us back track time calculations to figure out when we had to start from home for DC. We needed to get to the airport two hours in advance in order to make it through the security checks. That meant reaching the airport by 5.30 am. And since we were parking our car in the economy parking lot, add to that an additional thirty minutes to find a spot, and catch a trolley to the airport. So that meant we needed to reach DC at 5 am. Since the drive from our home to DC takes 2 hours, we had to start from our home at 3 am, and therefore wake up at 2.30 am !!! Holy.... 

We made it to the airport on time, thanks to the multiple alarms that worked hard, starting at 2 am in the morning. Sans a minor hiccup (Sanchit had packed a olive oil hair cream in our carry-on, to check if scanning system can detect semi-solids), we breezed through security checks. Since we had been up so early, we were pretty famished by 6.30 am. We had a hearty breakfast before we boarded our flight. And speaking of boarding our flight, did I mention that we almost missed our flight because the husband decided to spend a few minutes (read 15) grooming himself in the men's room, right around the time when the boarding started. The flight attendant had started making the final announcements, and I had almost decided to barge into the men's room to get Sanchit, when I saw the confused looking husband heading towards me - probably wondering why I had all the four carry-on luggage strapped on to me. Anyway, the one good thing that came out of all this, was that the staff checked-in our carry on suitcase all the way to San Juan for free, because by the time we boarded the flight, the overhead compartment space was full.

We had two hours in Miami before we took our connection to San Juan. And we decided to spend that time exploring the sprawling airport. My favorite thing at the airport was a gigantic touchscreen memory game. As a child I had played this game a lot with my parents, and this has been one of my favorite games every since. In fact, the first android app I wrote was also a memory game. Now, the best time recorded on this game at the airport was 35 seconds. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't solve it any faster than 45 seconds. Sanchit had to peer me away amidst my protests so we could get some lunch. And while we were walking away, a gentleman remarked, "Don't worry, you'll beat the score next time". So after grabbing a quick lunch, I was back at the game, and sure enough this time I solved it in 33 seconds !!! Wahoowaa.. Now my mind was at peace and I was ready to proceed to our boarding gate.

The flight to San Juan took 2.5 hours thanks to favorable wind conditions. We were welcomed by the captain to "Beauuuuuutiifulll Pueertttoooo Riiiiicoo". And while we were taxiing on the runway for the next 10 minutes ( the ground staff was not ready to receive the flight reaching on-time), we saw something amusing on the adjacent runway. Tens of huge reptiles, bearing strong resemblance to Styracosaurus were basking in the sun. Did we just land in Jurrasic Park?? It turn out that Puerto Rico has a major Iguana infestation problem. Brought on the islands as exotic pets, only to be released in the wild later, the iguanas have thrived in the island, having no natural enemies. And by thrived I mean in forty years, their numbers have reached 4 million. Somebody give them TV sets!

Rented house and car

Our luggage came after the baggage handlers finished partying and drinking. Surely they must have been partying, why else would our luggage take 40 minutes to hit the baggage belt. We got our suitcase, and were finally on our way to our AIrbnb apartment in our $20 a day rental car (Thrifty). We had no problems in getting to our apartment thanks to the detailed instructions given by our host which covered all bases - have a gps? No, have an iphone? No, have a map? have no map? And the house itself was beautiful, right in the middle of a big garden with a old banyan tree. There were also two hammocks, which we later learnt were very popular with the local mosquito crowd, who hang out in there chilling,. So we let them be and kept to ourselves in the apartment. 

Later for dinner, while aimlessly cruising around our neighborhood, on the other side of the main highway, we came across a food truck - taco truck. This place was managed by a super friendly guy, and his Jalapeno sauce is to die for. After a good  dinner we decided to get some grocery for the next day, from the super markets. After searching for a non-existent Amigo store, we came across a Walgreens. The first thing I picked up from the aisles was a waterproof camera. Next stop food. Our kitchenette didn't have any cooking supplies, so in addition to bread and eggs, I decided to get oil and salt/pepper. Sanchit protested saying why do we need to do full fledged shopping in the middle of a vacation, and surely scrambled eggs can be made without oil. I ignored him because I knew very well that those were the words of a man with a full stomach. And sure enough, next day when we had breakfast before leaving for the day, 'somebody' was very happy.

Day 2 by Sanchit 

Trail to La Mina

We got up early morning with nature's alarm of frogs and crickets. Juhi cooked scrambled eggs as we decided not to eat all 3 meals outside everyday. Having a kitchen at our apartment made it possible. We headed out to the rain-forest El Yunque National Forest. Clueless how to roam around in the forest we first visited the Visitor Center. As we parked our car Juhi saw a wild rooster and started chasing him with her camera. She followed it in the midst of jungle only to find its harem of hen. She would have taken 50 amazing pictures of that rooster. Unfortunately none of those cut the bar to made to this blog. At visitor center, a boring documentary on the jungle was shown. But the staff provided awesome instructions on how we could spend the day in the hilly forest.

Waterpools formed in the trail

Roots and support roots - life forms
thriving in a competing environment

After driving uphill in the forest, we hit the trail for La Mina waterfalls. Hike was downhill with lots of waterfalls / pools on the way. As we walked on the 40 min hike, I watched the rain forest closely and found it to be different from the other forests - life grows on its every inch. There is dense moss / creepers on all the trunks of the trees and trees come out of dead fallen branches. Everything is moist and you can see droplet of water everywhere producing new life. I am glad I am writing this

day blog with all such observations. While I was busy observing the forest, Juhi was busy clicking the forest - ironically to save her memories of this forest. Had I not chased her to complete the hike on time we would have finished the 30 min hike in not 40 min but in 2 days.

We reached first at the La Mina and went down the stream to be the warrior against the waterfall. Bathing in a clear gushing water stream - perfect beginning of the tour.

Picture does no justice of the top view

We then had lunch at a local restaurant in the hills. So many veggie options there surprised us. I had quesadilla and it was amazing. We wanted to see how the forest look like from the peak. So we went on another hike of 2 hours to the top of the peak (Mt Briton). It was a spectacular view! We got a macro view of a rain forest - densely packed slopes with trees and scenery changing in every 5 mins due to fast moving clouds and wind. Once clouds gave the way we could

see the coast line of Puerto Rico and it was no less amazing. It is tough to pursue Juhi for a hike, but everytime we reach on the top - she is like "wow!, thanks for dragging me to here".

               

Upcoming wave picking up sand            
from retreating water          

Sea grass at Luquilo beach

We then drove down from the forest to Luquilo beach where I chilled on a couple of beers and had a quick pasta before we headed to biobay.

It was a quick drive and to enjoy the biobay, Juhi and I paired up on a crazy kayak which went through a lagoon surrounded by mangrove forest. Every stroke of the oar gave a bright green light (blue as per juhi - one of us has to be colorblind). This color came as we agitated some kind of bacteria that is found in this bay. It was magnificent to do kayaking at the middle of the night in a jungle full of mangrove trees only to escape to a secluded lagoon (Lagoona Grande). We dropped dead after 2 hours of kayaking and an eventful day. We drove back home after having a quick dinner of Mofongo on the way at Fajardo local eatery market.

Day 3 by Juhi

VIlla Marina Yacht Harbor

Exhausted!! That is what we were when we woke up the next morning, having hiked two trails, strolled a beach, and kayaked for two hours in the midnight, our bodies complained even after a 8-hour siesta. We wore swimsuits and cover-ups and got ready for our day at Culebra, another island near PR. We reached Villa Marina Yacht Harbor, and found our tour operator for the day. Today's plan was to snorkel and enjoy beach time at two of the select places in Culebra. 

Sunscreen'ing

Our guides gave us our fins and snorkel masks, and we decided to get ready for the day by applying sunscreen. I told Sanchit, "Darling we are going to be swimming in the sun a lot today, and even with our skin type, we can get sun burnt, so please apply sunscreen liberally". Sanchit took my words seriously, and started applying sunscreen. I got back to applying sunscreen myself. After sometime I noticed that Sanchit's face was white - covered with sunscreen. I asked him what he was doing. He said that once while playing cricket, his nose got badly sun burnt, so that's why he was applying a double layer of sunscreen on his face. ON HIS FACE !!! The same face which will be turned inside water, away from sun.. That face?? Anyways.. as long as he applied it to his back as well, it didnt matter. After some time Sanchit asked me to apply some sunscreen on his back. I took the tube from him and squeezed out some...... insect repellent!! That's right. Mid way Sanchit had switched the two bottles and was now merrily applying insect repellent instead of sunscreen. It is times like this that I remember our wedding card -- Reasons to marry Sanchit, "If I don't marry him, who will?"

Looking at Sea Turtles

Posing

Our captain turned out be this really cool looking guy, whom I nicknamed "Jack Sparrow" (after all, we were in the Carribeans). He took the yacht out to the open seas and soon we were coasting towards culebra. The ride there was beautiful, and we could see rainbows in the waves created by the boat. Our captain first took us to Tamarindo beach, a reserve for sea turtles. We quickly put on our snorkel gear and jumped into the 13 feet deep clear waters. We followed him to a place full of turtles hiding in sea grass, and coming up to the surface occasionally for air. The sight was awesome. I saw a few fishes too. The captain dove down, picked up a sea urchin and placed it in Sanchit's hand.

Refreshing drinks served!!

Anchoring Yacht at Culebrita

Next we went snorkeling near some coral reefs. Here the water was not too deep. In fact at some places there was only a feet or two's gap between surface and the corals, and we had to navigate carefully around those areas. The varieties of the corals and the entire ecosystem was fascinating to see. We got to see many varieties of fishes here. At one point Sanchit's fin came off, and I got to play the knight in shining armor and get it for him.

After this, the captain took us to Culebrita, which a small island off Culebra. 'Culebrita' literally means smaller Culebra. The yacht was anchored a little further away from the shore, so we swam from there. The beach was absolutely pristine, and the water clear. Sanchit kept floating in the water for the entire time that we were at the beach.

Beach at Culebrita

Floating in the sea

Natural Exfoliation

We went to a local shopping area, had some street food and shopped for souvenirs and ended the day happily.

Day 4 by Sanchit

We started the day with boiled egg & black sausage made of beans and lentils. We had kept this day free to explore San Juan and other local attractions at Puerto Rico. Last 2 days had been enough water and we wanted a dry day for ourselves.

Camuy Cave entrance

To decide where to go, we went on Tripadvisor and decided to drive 1.5 hr West to see a much hyped Camuy Cave Park. After reaching there, we realized it was not a very well managed tourist place for eg. ticket window opened 1 hr late since the lady there was late, there was no latch in the toilets, the trolley service to take us to cave was erratic, etc. Leaving aside the management, the cave was very beautiful. It was carved by the Camuy river millions of years ago and now the river had gone underground, leaving a park of caves with lot of limestone stalagmites and stalactites. I feel that the guide could have done a better job in explaining and showing the place. I have been to Luray Caverns and their tour is far more fantastic than these guys.

Baby Snail - clicked just like that

Radio Astronomy - huge reflector

Best beach ever :)

After getting bummed by the caves, we went to the radio astronomy observatory driving through the narrow country roads. It has a huge disc of 300 mts diameter collecting radio signals from the distant galaxies. They also had a very wonderful exhibition which has pushed me to explore geology and space. I made my notes on what to read after coming back to home.

On the way back we did lunch at El Taino - didn't find much veggie options and had to eat boiled veggies with rice and paid $10 for the same.

Juhi posing at the lagoon

Beautiful sunset at the beach

Post this, we went to La Poza (a mini lagoon) at the North of the island. This beach was very beautiful and it had 2 amazing fun spots. At one side of the beach, huge waves were crashing and it was fun to fight against the waves and to get natural body scrub by doing rolly polly in the water over the sand. Second fun spot was more of a warm lagoon which was kinda a wavepool as lagoon walls were stopping ferocious waves. We couldn't stop us from jumping in the water the minute we saw the beach. So much for a dry day that we started with!

Sea Warrior - fighting ferocious waves

Wave pool was fun

I just love sea and Juhi has to literally pull me out everytime

All drenched in sea water, salt and sand, we drove back home and ate at the same taco truck before calling it a day.

Day 5 by Juhi Ranjan

Our last day in Puerto Rico !!! We were sad, but there was not much time to brood because we had a packed schedule ahead of us. We started off by cleaning up the apartment before we left, and that was quite a task given the generous amounts of beach sand that we brought in everyday. Once packed and cleaned, we were about to head out, when we noticed a lot of sand under the car seat. Oh no! We tried to get it off the floor. Shaking out the car mats helped some, but there was a big mess right on the side of a seat that was very hard to reach. The sand was super sticky and it refused to come out, despite our efforts. We decided to give up for sometime and instead stop at a gas station and vacuum suck it out. 

Our agenda for the day: Well it was 8.30 am now and we had to catch a flight at 6 pm. So how much time did we have left? Remember day 1 and how much I like to back calculate. Let us do that again. Arriving at the airport 2 hours in advance, meant reaching there at 4 pm. Also rental car return formalities and shuttle to airport meant additional 30-45 minutes. So we had to be back in San Juan by 3.15 pm. That means we had the next 6 hours to do whatever we wanted to before leaving Puerto Rico. We decided to explore Old San Juan.

Old gates at the fort

Looking out to sea with El Morro in the backdrop

Flags at El Morro

Noticed the cemetery

First stop was El Morro fort, which was highly recommended on TripAdvisor as well as by other tourists. We drove all the way to the old city, and were wondering where to park, when we noticed all cars turning to the left. We followed suit, and sure enough there was an underground parking garage nearby. We started walking towards the fort when we noticed a cemetery by the sea side! We decided to get back to the cemetery after exploring the fort. 

Guard station inside the fort

Moving down to another level

The fort itself was big, designed across six levels. There were many information board describing how each floor was used. It was fun to walk around, climb and look out from every level. Being surrounded by sea on three sides, it was extremely windy and that kept us cool on that hot and humid day. No matter where we went, there was always a view of the sea. Even the restroom had huge galleries looking out to the sea. So turns out that Puerto Rico was highly sought after in the colonial days because who ever controlled this country had access to the trade going through Panama. Therefore this military fort had seen quite some action. It was built by the Spanish, who for most part of it held on to the fort. The English tried to attack often, and succeeded once, but that lasted for a very short time, before it was recaptured. But finally when America attacked with their modern warfare, the old defenses of the fort, designed for the seventeenth century artillery could hold up no longer.

After exploring the fort and its gorgeous views,

we decided to find a way to the cemetery we had seen earlier. After talking to a Ranger, we came to know that we had to follow an underground road to the cemetery. That felt weird given that it was a curved underground road with no pedestrian walking space. I was reluctant to walk on the road, still hoping there would be another way to the cemetery. But once we saw a couple of tourists going on that road, we decided to throw caution to the wind and go ahead. And that was such a good decision. The cemetery is a museum. I have never seen such exquisite marble sculptures out in the open for free. Okay, I lied. Florence had some good sculptures too. But this was the mostly densely packed artwork I had ever seen. The beauty of statues had turned a place of grief into a place of peace. I will talk no more about the cemetery and let pictures describe to you what I saw.

After happily clicking away in the cemetery, we were hungry and decided to find some food in the town. In the process, we also ended up touring quite a bit of the old town. All the streets were cobbled, and the houses painted with a combination of a bright color and white. And no two adjacent houses were painted the same color. We found a tiny Tapas restaurant opposite the Cathedral and had fun trying out different appetizers. We strolled around a bit after that, We saw the main gates that people used for entry into the city. I guess I forgot to mention that the old San Juan was completely fortified with high walls around the entire city, and the entry gates were operated on strict timings. If you were late to enter the city, and the gates had been closed, you had to camp outside until the gates were opened in the morning. We explored the city some more and took pictures at some of the plazas, before heading back to the parking garage, ready to end the vacation.

References
First Honeymoon: Mauritius