It all started when my best friend told me, with much excitement, that she was engaged. After a week of pre-planning her wedding, she came to the much-less exciting conclusion that wedding planning simply sucks and decided to run away with her man to Puerto Rico, taking M and I along with her. I’m all for eloping, especially if it means a trip to a fantastic corner of our big beautiful world.
Her choosing Puerto Rico meant something extra-special to me because I’d been there before and have been wanting to introduce M to this favorite spot of mine. I mean, if she had chosen someplace less cool, like Kansas, I would have gritted my teeth and gone, but she’s super-cool so she chose Puerto Rico!
So…. let’s revisit my first trip to Puerto Rico.
The year was 2007… I was working at a park that was causing me a great deal of stress (the management is stressful, not the park itself). One particularly stressful day, I was talking with a friend and coworker, let’s call her J, about being anywhere but there. You know, where would you go if you could disappear right then. Â We somehow landed on Puerto Rico. It had the right combination of another country feel with no passport needed and they speak English as needed. Besides, neither of us had been and we heard they had beaches and a laid-back attitude. Just what we needed….
In November of 2007 our plans, and dreams, came true. We landed in San Juan after a red eye flight and picked up our rental car. I was driving because J, being from Illinois, has NO SPANISH SKILLS. So it was up to me to drive, and navigate the map in Spanish…. no easy feat. Driving in San Juan is similar to driving in New York City…. lots of honking, cursing, and close-calls. (I’m not a bad driver. This is how its done there. Google side mirror repair in San Juan. You’ll see)
Somehow we survived our 2-hour drive out of the city and into the El Yunque tropical forest where our first guesthouse was located.
Casa Cubuy Guesthouse is a thing of dreams. Its all hammocks and waterfall sounds and coqui frogs and rainforest views. Check out the sounds here… They have trails leaving the property, crossing a river, and heading into the rainforest. These trails also go right by their fruit trees, which we gorged on constantly.
The patio doors are what made me want to go back so bad. They slide all the way into the walls, opening the room up to rainforest sounds and refreshing cool breezes. Oh man… can’t wait to go back!
We finally crawled out of our hammocks and headed to Vieques, Â a small island off the main island. We had to drop our rental car off several miles away from the airport but we were assured that someone at the rental car place would give us a ride. When we got there, the owner of the rental car lot introduced us to her husband, our chauffeur, who happened to also be the mayor of the town! Talk about service!
Vieques is a quick plane hop away. Half of Vieques was once owned and used by the US military to test bombs and other violent stuff. After an innocent US civilian was killed, and a lawsuit, they picked up and left the island to the locals.
Semi-wild horses run loose on the island. Anyone who wants a ride from one place to another is free to use the horses.
Down along the water, there’s a touristy strip of ex-pat bars and hostels. It was an unpleasant area where Ugly Americans hung out.
But the other side of the street held a gorgeous promenade! So ignore the tourist traps and enjoy the Caribbean!
While on Vieques, we went snorkeling in both the Caribbean and the Atlantic where the military base was once located. At night, we went swimming and canoeing in Mosquito Bay, the premier bio-luminescent bay in Puerto Rico. Millions of tiny dinoflagellates light up when the water is disturbed. It was luminous and amazing.
After taking a very crowded, loud, and late ferry (NEVER AGAIN! the ferry was over an hour late), we were picked up by our mayor chauffeur and taken back to our rental car. We drove back up to San Juan to our cheap bohemian guesthouse in the fancy section of town, Condado. There we were told that our room was overbooked and that they would give us a room at their sister location a few blocks over. We were fully prepared to kinda roll with the punches on this, until we stepped into the new location. It was amazing! There was a literal brook running through the lobby. Rooms were easily 3x as expensive as our bohemian spot, but we were paying our original rate. Yay!
From San Juan we took a day-trip over to the western side of the island. After getting lost a tiny bit in the farmlands, we made our way to Arecibo Observatory and Rio Camuy Caverns.
The Arecibo Observatory has been used for 40 years to listen for responses to signals sent into space. The idea is that if any other sentient beings hear the signals and respond, this thing will get their message. Plus… James Bond (Pierce Bosnan era) was here…
Rio Camuy Caverns is a great spot. The Camuy River is the 3rd largest underground river in the world. J and I both worked at a cave park so we felt right at home.
Our last two full days in Puerto Rico were spent wandering Old San Juan and the old fort El Morro, which is part of the national park system.
After leaving El Morro, we walked around the old town, which is surrounded by 500 year-old walls and turrets.
On our last morning, I wanted one last beach fix before the 6-hour plane ride home….
All in all, we found Puerto Rico to be relaxing, fun, beautiful, and very friendly. I highly recommend everyone plan a trip. I’m super-excited to take M there in 2 weeks!
High Rises to Hiking Boots 
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