A Short Visit to Puerto Rico

Old Mar 2nd, 2018, 11:22 AM
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A Short Visit to Puerto Rico

As my daughter was working under a FEMA contract, my DH and I went down to spend a long weekend with her during her final week. She had been there with a company which was mapping the island for future reconstruction, showing which areas should be more fortified, which neighborhoods should be elevated, etc. She was staying in an Ocean Park neighborhood Air BnB in San Juan and we stayed quite close to her in an Air BnB.

With a direct from DC, JetBlue got us there without a hitch and we were able to get a cab to our apt. We had a few hours until she was off work, so we walked to the beach about 4 blocks. Along the way, we noticed water marks on walls and fences which were about 2.5 feet up. One side of the sandy beach was very eroded right up to the seawall. A person showed us where this was. Since we hadn't been there before, there were no comparisons to be made. Dinner that evening was in a local seafood joint with some of daughter's co-workers. It was a lively group of interesting people, some with FEMA, some sub-contractors. Most had been there less than a month and were planning on staying on for various time frames. We ate mofungo, which is a classic PR dish with mashed plantains or yucca. With a few bottle of wine and good conversations, we enjoyed ourselves.

Friday we went to see the main fort and old San Juan. It was an easy Uber ride, about 15 minutes. Our driver was originally from the Bronx, NY but had relocated there 20 years ago. He told us houses could be purchased for $125k so it was a bargain compared to NYC. The fort was very interesting, a national park. We spent about two hours looking at the displays, avoiding school groups and enjoying the views and history. There is a walkway around the outside of the fort which leads to the Old San Juan gate. It was very sunny and lovely to enjoy the ocean. We saw many lizards on the walkway and rocks near the ocean.

Old San Juan town was very pretty. One can tell where the large cruise ships come in because there are a lot of souvenir shops, art galleries, duty-free jewelry and restaurants. We're not shoppers, so we admired the main church, the architecture and the flowers. We thought the buildings reminded us of Cartegena which made perfect sense given the area, history and the time frame. Lunch was unremarkable, but the cafe con leche is wonderful! We picked up a rental car at Avis in the Condado area. When we pulled up, I noticed the area had been hard hit and there was a lot of construction. The small one story building looked brand new and there was only one car in the lot. No Jeep in sight for us. The Avis worker told us that the Jeep hadn't been up to standards, but he was giving us a Mercedes for the same price. He also told us that he had gotten electricity restored to his home only two days prior. His household had been running a generator since September. His office still didn't have internet or landline or wi-fi. He was using his personal phone to do business and gave us his number.

Saturday was a trip for 2 hours to southern Puerto Rico. The drive was long because there were stretches of roads with potholes, some quite large. It reminded me of a spring road in the North east. The scenery was lovely. PR is very varied in it's climates and topography. The mountains, while looking green and healthy, didn't show the breakage and destruction of the trees because of the vegetation already growing back. Our daughter told us that a few months prior, it was very brown. We saw many electric company trucks heading into the rural areas for work. We ended up in Guanica on Cayo Aurora at Gilligan's Island. It was a family run business with a restaurant and a ferry out to the island. It seemed to be a very popular place for families and small groups of friends. Lunch ($4.99) was brought to us at the island. It wasn't remarkable and my daughter;s was so salty she couldn't eat it at all. In hindsight, we should have figured out a way to bring out own lunch and drinks. The water was very shallow and calm and the scenery beautiful. It was crowded, but everyone was having a great time. After our drive back to Ocean Park, we ate at a local taco place. Our daughter informed us that outside of the tourist area, mostly Spanish was spoken. We only had trouble with the language once, and were able to muddle through.

Sunday was another beach trip to a local area called Pinones. There is a state forest there, but we had heard the forests are still closed because of danger of falling limbs and trees. Daughter reminded us that the hurricane was a wind event, not so much a water event there. The beach was lovely, again crowded with families from nearby. The area features a natural breakwater parallel to the beach making a very large calm area for people to paddle around. There were some teens jumping and diving off the breakwater into the deep area of the pool. No one was injured in the jumping and it was kind of entertaining to see the kids playing. A very short walk away were little kioskos which featured food and drinks to buy. We ate there to taste PR beach food and were not disappointed. Fruits and veggies are expensive in PR, so the meals seemed heavy on starches and seafood. Regional cuisine determined by the circumstances.

We had checked out of our Air BnBs earlier and set off for the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel for a little last night luxury. The service couldn't have been better. With any request granted, we felt pampered and lucky to have seen both the local and tourist side of the island. With three pools and enough restaurants and bars, we had a wide variety to choose from. Daughter and I used the gym with great views of the blue water. DH used the spa and pronounced himself very relaxed and spoiled. We had dinner at the Tequila restaurant which served fresh, casual food.

Our flights on Monday were late and although we had to check out, the hotel had a wonderful luggage room and a very convenient, well stocked shower/changing room which could be reserved before our flights. Our morning was spent walking to and from a local restaurant for breakfast and then it was pool and relaxation time. Although windy, we enjoyed our dose of sunshine before heading back to February in the Northeast.

Final thoughts: The people in every encounter in PR were wonderful and welcomed us. They asked us to tell our friends to come and visit. There is still a lot of rebuilding and cleaning up to do after the hurricane. The prices were more toward what we pay in DC than we have paid at other Caribbean islands outside of tourist areas. Our overall impression is that of a warm island with friendly people and we would go back to visit, explore and relax.
StacyB is offline  
Old Mar 2nd, 2018, 12:07 PM
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glad to hear you enjoyed it. We go just about every year. Headed back in June.
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Old Mar 10th, 2018, 06:22 AM
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Thanks for sharing. We will be visiting San Juan next month and looking forward to returning. We have visited multiple times over the past few years and really love San Juan.
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Old Mar 12th, 2018, 01:24 PM
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Thanks for the trip report. Some friends and I are contemplating a cruise out of PR next February and were wondering how the island was doing.
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