Puerto Rico: A Caribbean paradise with spanish heritage – Part 2

My first blog on Puerto Rico was about the most striking features of Puerto Rico (Old San Juan and bio-luminescence experience), but there’s much more to the Common Wealth of PR. It’s an island, so you might be wondering why I did not talk about the beaches, the water activities and its scenic locations. Well, this blog has information about all those as I relinquish memories of my Puerto Rican vacation with insights and tips for all the avid nature lovers.

El Yunque Rainforest:Lush green mountains, pretty waterfalls and the murmur of Coquí! That’s how I would describe the El Yunque tropical rain forest. For those of you who are intrigued by the word ‘Coquí’, it’s a frog native to Puerto Rico, a frog that sings!!! While you are driving in PR, especially at night, you get to hear Coquí sing. We heard it quite a few times when we visited El Yunque. We made a day trip to El Yunque for hiking the waterfalls. La Coca and La Mina are the two main ones and swimming is only allowed at La Mina. There are quite a few hiking trails in El Yunque but we decided to pick the ones that led to the waterfalls 🙂

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Beaches:Plenty of them, but here are my recommendations. Luquillo Beach for its calm waters. This beach is perfect for swimming. More importantly, you have to visit the beach for its food kiosks. I believe there are about 100 kiosks that serve local food. We had a gala time at Luquillo. If you are interested in watching wind surfers, Pine Grove beach would be your best bet. Some other good ones are beaches in the Isla Verde area as well as the Condado Lagoon.

Rio Camuy Caves tour: The cave park is in northeastern Puerto Rico and is about an hour’s drive from San Juan. The caves and the Arecibo observatory can be covered on the same day since they are close by. The only way to see the caves is to take their guided tour. I have done a lot of cave tours and Rio Camuy was no different for the most part. Most caves would make you feel a bit claustrophobic, but Rio Camuy has 2 huge openings and there is plenty of light coming in at a few places. You get to see the Rio Camuy river towards the end of the tour. I guess because I have been to so many caves, I was not thrilled by Rio Camuy. But if you have not been to too many, it’s worth a visit!

Arecibo Observatory: The observatory holds a humongous radar-radio telescope and is famous because it is one of the largest single aperture telescope. We went there mainly to view the enormous disk-shaped telescope, but there is a museum there too in case you are interested.

Surfer at Pine Grove beach

The surrounding islands of Vieques and Culbera: Vieques is probably considered to be one of the most romantic places in the world. It was a tough choice when we had to decide between visiting the beautiful and turquoise blue beaches of Vieques for a day or spending the day covering more of Old San Juan. We have been to quite a few exotic beaches so M and I unanimously (that does not happen too often!!!) decided to keep Vieques for another time and spent the day in Old San Juan. Although we did not visit either of the islands in our 6 day trip to Puerto Rico, the blog would definitely be incomplete if I did not put the word out for people who might be interested in the beaches more than the old town. Vieques apart from being a pretty island is also home to the brightest bio-luminescent bay called “Mosquito Bay”. Culebra has some good snorkeling options too. I believe Flamenco beach on Culebra is quite famous! I know it’s just a few words here and there for the 2 islands but since I did not visit them, I don’t know a lot about them.

To summarize, Puerto Rico was different from my other beach destination trips because of lively Old San Juan and the bio-luminescence experience, but there’s plenty to do there be it for the adventurer in you or the party-goer in you or the nature lover in you or the water-lover in you!

Puerto Rico: A Caribbean paradise with spanish heritage – Part 1

There are plenty of tropical destinations around the US to choose from if you are planning an exotic getaway during the winter months. Since we visited Hawaii last year, we decided to pick a destination in the Atlantic or Caribbean for our next tropical getaway. Some last-minute bookings and we were all set to spend 6 days of our Thanksgiving holiday in 2011 in Puerto Rico (PR). Miles of white sandy beaches, charming town of Old San Juan, warm and turquoise beach waters, rainforests, plenty of history, a diverse culture and good food 🙂 What more can one ask for?

Where to stay: If you only have a few days in PR, stay in San Juan. Preferably closer to Old San Juan. Flights to San Juan are the cheapest compared to other airports in PR. We stayed at Caribe Hilton which is a couple of miles from Old San Juan. I highly suggest renting a car to get around in PR. It gives you much more flexibility in terms of how much time you want to spend at a particular place.

There’s plenty to do in Puerto Rico, so I am going to split up the blog into two parts. The first one is going to cover Old San Juan and our adventurous kayak tour to a bio-luminescent bay because these were major highlights of my trip. The bio-bay tour will surely be a memory I will live for years to come. The second blog will talk about all the other good things to do in Puerto Rico if you have more time – beach hopping, caving, hiking and some more touristy stuff!

At San Cristobal fort - Old San Juan

Old San Juan: We started off our vacation by visiting Old San Juan. It is a town bustling with life! Vibrant colors define the town. The best way to cover Old San Juan is to walk (probably 1-1.5 mile covers the entire downtown). Gopuertorico has a great walking tour which we followed. It really helps you save time and still cover everything that you want to. Whether it is the historic forts of El Morro and San Cristobal or the magnificent structures like La Rogativa or The Raices fountain, there’s plenty of history behind the town. El Morro offers amazing panoramic views of the coastline and Old San Juan. The blue cobblestone streets and local artists are other things that define Old San Juan. PR is extremely famous for shopping and as a souvenir an absolute must buy is a Vejigante mask. Night life is quite rocking and if you enjoy dancing, make sure to set aside a night for some Latin dancing! We frequented Old San Juan a lot in our 6 days, but a Sunday evening walk to the street that leads to the Raices fountain was mind-blowing. Witnessing locals salsa dancing on the street, lively latin music, street food: quite a treat to the eyes, ears and taste buds!!!

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Food and restaurants in Old San Juan: Puerto Rican cuisine is very similar to Cuban food. Don’t miss out on Mofongo – Puerto Rico’s signature dish. Few of my picks for restaurants in Old San Juan are – El Picoteo at historic El Convento Hotel (best tapas ever!), Lupis Mexican grill, Tijuana’s Bar and grill on the pier (try the plantain enchilada). Apart from that, I highly recommend stopping for cotton candies, shaved ice and fresh pina colada at the various street shops.

So San Juan was definitely a highlight of my trip, but the next thing I am going to describe will be a highlight of my lifetime! As far as I know, a bio bay kayak trip can only be done in Puerto Rico, skip the other stuff and spare time for this. You can snorkel and scuba dive elsewhere but not kayak your way through glowing water and glittery sparkles in a bay full of living organisms that emit light 🙂 Confused?? Read on to find out!

An experience of a lifetime: Kayak tour to a bio-luminescent bay
Ever heard of bio-luminescence? People say that there are around 6-7 bio-luminescent bays in the whole world, most in the Caribbean, with 3 of the brightest in Puerto Rico. So if you are in PR, an absolute must do is taking a trip to one of these bays and experience the phenomena. Mosquito Bay at Vieques Island is considered to be the brightest, but if you are not staying at Vieques, the one at Laguna Grande in Fajardo is your next best bet. We choose to do a night kayak tour with Kayaking Puerto Rico. You have to kayak through mangrove channels in the dark to get to the bay. Once you are in the channel, you can touch the water to see that it glows with billions of bio-luminescent organisms! Its like fairy sparkles in water that vanish in a matter of seconds. I have never experienced ANYTHING LIKE THIS ever. Surreal and out of the world!!! Unfortunately, it is extremely hard to capture bio-luminescence in pictures and trust me some things are best left for your eyes to cherish and let you live in the moment 🙂

More vibrant buildings of Old San Juan

If there is ONLY one adventure you can do in PR, opt for the bio-luminescent kayak tour. Check the moon calendar before planning your planning tour since bio-luminescence is better on darker nights. And make reservations in advance during peak season. I highly recommend Kayaking Puerto Rico. The guides are amazing and make the overall experience memorable.

There’s lot more to Puerto Rico, but as I mentioned earlier, this blog is about our most striking PR memories. Another one to follow soon with details on our beach excursions, trip to the El Yunque Rainforest, Ramuy Caves and more!!!