Puerto Rico - Days 3-5

Sunday:


On Sunday we headed out for a long drive/tour of the western side of the island. We left here about 7:30 AM, with our first stop the Rio Camuy (Cam-oo-ee) Cave Park in the middle of the western side of the island. It is a 268 acre underground cave system and has the third largest underground river in the world. We were told it was always busy so get there early because they only let so many people through each day. It was raining the whole way there and we knew that they didn't even run the tours if it was raining but we went anyway. When we got there it had stopped raining and there were only about 5 other people waiting. It worked out beautifully. We had the tour, which was amazing. You wouldn't believe the size of the cave they took us in and the rivier is just incredible. A definite must see in Puerto Rico. They even have a fountain of youth you can drink from (natural water running from the cave down a rock wall - quite good and I feel younger already).

From Camuy we headed to Rincon, a popular surfing/snorkeling area on the west coast of Puerto Rico. We made it there but not without challenges. It is very difficult to drive in Puerto Rico because all the roads are windy and many not well marked until it's too late. I think every time we drove somewhere we ended up getting lost at least once. We did find the beaches we were looking for and they were beautiful. We watched the surfers at the surf beach, then checked out the snorkel beaches (Steps and Tres Palmas) then headed to the swimming beach. It is crazy how none of these beaches have many people on them and the people that are on them are usually locals. It is almost disconcerting, like we shouldn't be there or something. The swimming beach had very fine, soft sand but the water had rocks all along the bottom so swimming was dificult and sometimes painful. We just relaxed for awhile before heading further south to drive through Ponce, on the southern coast of Puerto Rico.

We just did a lot of driving to see the island. It is unbelievable how green it truly is. We finally cut north and stopped at some thermal springs in a town called Coamo. They were marked on our map so we decided to try it out. When we got there we were the only non-Puerto Ricans there. Again, disconcerting. We stuck around though and got in. There are cement pools built to hold the water and it is nice and warm. I started talking with a woman who has lived in Puerto Rico her whole life. She was telling me about the springs and answering my questions so I started to feel much more comfortable. When we were baked through and red as lobsters we headed back to our car and back to San Juan. It started raining really hard on the way home and visibility was terrible but we made and boy were we exhausted.


Monday:


This was tour Old San Juan day. We were so exhausted from early days on Sautrday and Sunday that we slept in and went to Old San Juan for the day. Our original plan was to go to the island of Culebra for the day and then do the biobay kayaking tour but we changed that plan on Sunday because we were exhausted and needed sleep. Thank goodness for exhaustion. Because of what we now know to be Tropical Storm Olga, it was quite rainy and overcast throughout the day and the ferries to Culebra were closed that day due to 15-20 foot swells.

We took a bus to Old San Juan. It's $.75/person each way and takes about 30-45 minutes. You get to see a lot of the city, even driving through ghettos. It was an adventure, especially coming home during rush hour. In Old San Juan we walked through San Cristobal fort and El Morro castle. They had great views of the ocean and city and we even had a good history lesson in how Puerto Rico came to be. I always enjoy learning about the history of the place I am visiting. Old San Juan is known for its beautifully colored buildings and fancy doorways. They are amazing - pink, periwinkle, sea foam green, orange, you name it they've got it. The streets are also cobblestoned in many places. The area is filled with shopping, food and sites. We stopped for awhile in the San Juan cathedral during one of the several 10 minute rainbursts of the day. Other bursts were waited out in a museum, under a tree in a park and in the doorway of a shop. We were very damp by the time we made it home.

Coming home the bus was so packed and we'd been on it so long, we got off earlier than our actual stop, but it turned out to be earlier than we'd anticipaetd so we had quite a hike home in the rain. Just add it to the already wet day and it wasn't that bad . The food here is quite expensive, which is disappointing and painful on the pocketbook. In the evening we had our free drinks - well Chad did. He loves those virgin pina coladas and then watched a movie. We rented several and brought them with us. Again, I love having a lap top.


Tuesday:


This was the day I was waiting for most. We got up super early and left the hotel by 7 AM to head for the ferry to Culebra in Fajardo about 1 hour 30 mins but only 33 minutes away. We got directions from the front desk and were diligently following them but somehow we ended up on the opposite site of the city than we needed to be on. It was a disaster. We stopped a guy in the residential neighborhood we were in and he gave us directions. Thank goodness other countries want their children to be bilingual. Most know english here. Maybe we should get on that bandwagon and teach spanish but that's for another blog on another day.

Anyway, we hightailed it to the ferry with the guy's directions, which seemed questionable when being given but were actually perfect, (we did confirm them with two other people before we got to the ferry) and made it there with 45 minutes to spare before the 9 AM ferry. We were mostly worried because again we were told it gets packed fast and to get there early. Not so again. I guess it's good not to travel in high season (except you experience things like Tropical Storm Olga).

The ferry ride was torture. Chad took dramamine because he always gets seasick. I don't so I didn't take anything. Bad choice. About 35-40 minutes into the 1 hour 15 min ferry ride I was so sick I just wanted to jump overboard. The storm was still working its way through and the waves were so high. As I write this, thinking about it is making my head light.

When we got to Culebra there was no activity. We went across the street to Culebra Dive where I had gotten information a couple days earlier about snorkeling and equipment rental. Of course, the shop was closed for the day. Then we saw an American woman handing out information about her guesthouse. There are no hotels on the island just privately run guesthouses. She was talking to another guy and his father who were on our ferry. I asked what she suggested we do and she immediately pulled out her cell phone and called Willy. Willy is the taxi driver for this island of 2,700 people and he rents snorkel equipment. He has lived on the island his entire life and even pointed out his mother's home as we drove by on our way to Flamenco Beach.

On the drive, he stopped at a deli so we could purchase sandwiches because he said none of the food places at the beach were open today. What we learned is that no one was expecting ferries or planes because of the storm so our arrival was a complete surprise. Many things had closed for the day because without tourists what's the point.

We got food then stopped at Willy's house to get snorkel gear. On the bus, we started talking with this couple from Minnesota. I told them what I knew about snorkeling on the island from the research I'd done and confirming it with Willy so they asked if they could tag along. When we got to Flamenco Beach, we arranged for Willy to come back at 4 PM to pick us up for the 5 PM ferry back to Fajardo then headed out on a 25 minute hike to Carlos Rosario beach for snorkeling.

Chad was leading and at the end headed left into what we later discovered to be the wrong beach because the waves were huge and unsnorkelable due to the storm. Our friends, Rob and Janet, headed off to see what they could find and Chad suggested we go the other way on the trail. We found the calm part of the beach. I went back to get Rob and Janet and met two nice women, who later we got the privilege of seeing topless, who explained to me about the snorkeling. I guess the presently highwaved beach - Tamarindo - was beautiful glassy water the day before. Go figure.

I took Rob and Janet back to the other beach and we all snorkeled for awhile. Chad and I lounged on the beach to rest and our friends headed back into town. We snorkeled one more time then hiked back to Flamenco Beach to check it out. The sand was beautiful and fine but it was a red flag day so no swimming. The waves were really high and you could see two undertows going two different directions. While sitting on the beach a stray cat came up, loudly meowing and promptly made himself comfortable right next to Chad on his towel. It was quite funny.

Our plan was to go do the biobay kayaking excursion that night after returning from Culebra but while on the beach the guy called and cancelled because of bad weather. We were very disappointed. We met up with Willy at 4 PM and he took us back to the ferry port. We started talking to our friends Rob and Janet and told them about the biobay cancellation because they were also supposed to do the tour, we discovered. They had heard you could just go to the place and hook up with a tour so we decided to do that when we got back to Fajardo. The ferry ride home was much better because I took dramamine and fell asleep and the water was calmer. when we got back we all headed to the park where the biobay excursions start.

Rob and Janet beat us to the park and ran over to our car when we pulled in to tell us that a group was leaving right then and we could join it. Chad and I had changed into normal clothes so that is what we kayaked in. The kayaking was fun but exhausting. The point of the excursion is to see the glow in the dark organisms. When anything moves through it, it glows. We kayaked through this narrow passage of mangrove trees into an open lagoon where we grouped in the middle and heard a little speach on the organisms and the lagoon. It was pretty close to pitch black. All of the fish in the lagoon glow because they move through the organisms. They make glow green paths through the water as they swim and jump. There were tons of them visible in the lagoon. I've never seen anything like it. When we got back to the port we were exhausted and soaked but happy for having been able to do this. After this excursion we headed back to the hotel where we slept like babies.



Wednesday:

Trip is over and it's time to go home. We got up and had breakfast then went to the pool for one last swim/relaxation time. We then got cleaned up, packed and headed for the airport, which turned into an adventure in and of itself. We got the airport very early for our 5:20 flight. Everything was fine at first. We had found a plug outlet, which was more challenging than you'd think by this other couple and had settled in for the wait. We eventually started chatting with the other couple who are about our age. Turns out they're LDS and living on a small island in the Carribean, where the husband is going to med school. Our flight got delayed and delayed again so that we didn't leave until almost 6:30. We only had a 30 minute lay over in Houston on the normal schedule. thanks to bad weather in Houston that flight was supposedly delayed. Basically it was hit or miss whether we were going to make it back to Phoenix that night or have to sleep in Houston. Somehow and I still really don't know how, our flight that left an hour late from San Juan made it to Houston so that our regularly scheduled 8:50 flight out of Houston only had to wait an extra 15 minutes for us. I don't get it but we made it back and the trip ended, sort of. We still had to pick up Grant, say good bye to my mom and sister and drive to Tucson.