In trying to avoid going to the US this year – for obvious orange-tinged reasons – we ended up in a partial US territory, that felt at times like being in Miami’s Little Havana, given the Spanish-ness with tinges of American-ness of the whole experience.
Started off our trip in San Juan – where we were reunited with J’s suitcase after a few additional hours – and began with a walking tour around Old San Juan. Which was much prettier, quieter and with lovely old buildings than expected (despite the presence of a cruise ship in dock!) Kicked off with a bizarre breakfast item called a Majorca – a sort of hammy cheesy muffin, which would have been okay but for the half a tub of icing sugar spooned on top if it!
But it fuelled us for am 18,000 step wander around from one castillo to the east of the town to the big hilltop castillo in the west, both with stunning views and people flying kites on the big grassy knoll. Passing by various cathedrals, crumbly colourful frontages, a few dodgy tat shops and via a very good poke bowl store for lunch – one of the few places we found non-beige and non-fried food all week. Ended up in the gorgeous old fizzy pop shop, now a cocktail bar which yes, did give me me only hangover of the trip.
So good to feel the sun and see blue skies after our miserable grey UK winter and the temp was perfect the whole time, non-sweaty and generally with a bit of wind to keep us very pleasantly warmed.
Two night later, we were off south to Ponce (via several US style shopping centres, hello my old friend Macy’s..) where the cathedral and red & black fire station were the central highlights. Nailed a couple of drinks on a rooftop overlooking the main square, somewhat nicer than when we tried the local dish ‘mofongo’, a yuca/plantain based beast. We premium-ed up to the ‘bi-fongo’, with added sweet potato, in the hope it might be even better but no, not sure either of us is a total convert..
And we then swung west heading towards La Parguera. Stopped at this very lovely beach en route for an afternoon’s sunbathing, and despite it being Sunday, it wasn’t horribly heaving, well worth the $2 entry fee for the car park. Our hotel in La P was very nice – except for the thumping club music around the pool which pervaded the whole place – a shame as otherwise it was great and the tuna tartare was a winner.
We had gone there for a particular experience – a boat trip, kayak excursion and night swim in the bioluminescent bay. This was the moment J mentioned she’d never been in a kayak! Luckily they were doubles.. In all honesty it was a bit tame and not a patch on the bright turquoise bioluminescence I was fortunate to experience in Thailand 38 years ago, but it was still fun, bashing the water to see white speckles in the water once it was fully dark.
We then headed all the way east to the Ceiba ferry terminal where we hopped the ferry over to a little island called Culebra. The website said this was a 50 minute trip so I very foolishly hadn’t thought of needing any seasick tabs, assuming it was be 10-15 mins at both ends in shallow waters and just a quick hop in the middle. Oh no… The outbound trip was a full 2 hours and we were heading fully into the wind, so smacking all the waves constantly. No-one was allowed on the (in harbour, lovely and sunny) top deck as the man said ‘you won’t be just wet, you’ll be soaked’ and it would have been properly risky. Loads of people were sick, and god knows how I hung onto my stomach contents but I did arrive feeling pretty crap!
We rented a very rickety golf buggy to get around and found our very gorgeous beach, Flamenco, which fortunately lived up to all hopes. A right stunner, and very un-busy, which is always a bonus. We even got courted by a lonely American divorced man, Jeff, who went to the shops for us and then popped over with a leftover lobster the next evening as we were knocking up some pasta in our little villa. I think he was a tad disappointed not to get any more thanks than a couple of Light beers…
Our last stop was a total contrast – up into the the El Yunque rainforest, the only one (or was it the biggest one?) in the Caribbean. Stayed in the nicest hotel surrounded by millions of tiny frogs, making the ‘co-qui’ noise that gives them their name. Another first for J – we booked onto the 8 line zipwire course. I – of course – managed to smack one foot on a poking-out tree branch at 30mph, which gave me the heebie-jeebies a bit, and then got stung by a bloody bee as we got off the truck at the end! But it was pretty cool zipping through a rainforest at great heights, amazing views out to the sea.
And the view from our little hotel’s pool… where we spent the last afternoon, all on our own, making the most of the sun and the popsicle fridge – the coconut one was def the winner.
All in all, Puerto Rico was a really good choice, plenty of variety of stuff to do, a perfect temperature, not too many bugs biting Janine (though a few found their target), some okay shops (for those of us whose sartorial standards are pretty low these days!), a feeling of being safe throughout and of course a chance for me to speak Spanish, bonus. The roads were mostly okay but with some cracking potholes – and the added risk of 3 foot long iguanas basking in the tarmac warmth as you go round corners! This one scuttled off eventually as we were holding up 2-3 cars who probably couldn’t see our scaly friend mid-road.
Still getting over the jet lag now – and managed to get a dose of food poisoning last night from my own making of dinner – so hoping all will be back on track for H’s birthday this Thursday x x