Ay Ay Ay Ay Puerto Rico

What I call the mini-United Nations left for Puerto Rico last Tuesday at the crack of dawn. Mini-UN because the group of 13 included 8 nationalities (American, Pakistani, Australian, German, Chinese, Russian, Argentinian, and Bulgarian). It was definitely a very diverse group. Once there though we split up for our 4-day stay. Some people wanted to spend the whole time at the beach, others (including me) wanted to see more of the island given that we hadn't been there before. So I spent most of the time with my core group of four, driving, hiking, getting lost, staying in sub-par hotels and the like. But let me first start with impressions.

- At first glance, you almost can't tell that you are outside the (mainland) U.S.. The highways, the strip malls, the fast food chains, even the big SUVs are all around. On the surface, only the signs, sometimes exclusively in Spanish, would give away your location.

- When people think of Puerto Rico, they most likely think of a cheap beach-going destination. And while that is true (and there are some spectacular beaches in PR - more on that later), there is a lot more to see - both in the cities and outside.

- I didn't find Puertoricans to be the friendliest bunch, although it might just have been the people that we ran into.

Now to details of the trip:
We spent the first day in San Juan, mostly walking around the Old Town, and visited the biggest fortress in the city (known as El Morro). I quite liked Old San Juan (although in some parts it was extremely congested with cars). The narrow streets and colorful buildings gave it quite a lively air. The fact that it was low season and the place wasn't packed with tourists probably also helped. One thing you immediately notice about Old San Juan are all the stray cats. There were so many of them! At some point I counted over 20, having just walked a few blocks. Some of them were quite friendly and immediately approached us to be petted. The "highlight" of San Juan was our hostel, which turned out to have dripping ceilings (in some rooms the ceiling dripped onto the bed, but we quickly switched out of those). Guess that is what you get for trying to squeeze by on the lowest possible budget.

Day two: Having rented a car, we headed east to El Yunque (PR's National Rainforest) for some hiking. El Yunque was an enchanting place, and once in the forest, it felt like you were in another world. The sights, the sounds, even the smells were somehow different. Our guidebook had warned us about rabid "creatures" and boa constrictors, so we approached the hike as quite an adventure. Luckily, we had a run-in with neither, and after 1.5 hours made it to the top of El Yunque peak. There we really got to experience why the park was called a rainforest. The peak was covered in mist and it started raining as soon as we got there. For a few moments the mist thinned out, enough for us to see that we were extremely high up. The descent was much quicker, especially since we were rushing because of the rain.

Next on the itinerary was Ponce (PR's second biggest city, located in the south). We had planned to spend the night there in order to be closer to another top attraction - Phosphorescent Bay. The bay's microorganisms (we are guessing plankton but aren't quite sure) give off a phosphorescent glow as you swim and move the water around. However, we ended up reaching Ponce too late and the lady at the reception of the hotel recommended we go there the following day when we could get there while it was still light out. So we postponed that plan. Instead, we decided to follow her advice and make our way to Ponce's boardwalk where (apparently) the whole town was going to gather to celebrate Halloween. We discovered that Halloween must be Ponce's biggest celebration because as we tried to make our way to the boardwalk (we had to drive on the highway), we got stuck in the biggest traffic jam I have been in in a while. Three lanes of cars barely crawled along, while the shoulders of the highway were flanked with parked cars from quite a distance away. At the same time, people in costumes were making their way on foot down the highway, in between the cars, and it felt like everyone was dressed up, except us. I concluded that the main goal of Puertorican women dressing up for Halloween was to wear the most revealing costume possible, regardless of what "role" they were playing - police officer, cowgirl, nurse, vampire, etc. The goal was to reveal as much skin as possible :) Well, suffice it so say that we didn't make it to the boardwalk in the end. But, we did instead end up going to a bar and listening to a live Puertorican ska band. That was fun!

Day three: Given that we were going to the Phosphorescent Bay at night, we had to find something to do during the day. Our first attempt was to go hiking again, this time in a dry forest. But it proved way too hot for that. So we decided to hit the beach instead. This beach wasn't the greatest, but it was nice to swim and chill for the afternoon. Once we got to the Bay, we had dinner and bought our tickets for a boat trip out (turned out we couldn't just head into the bay ourselves). I must say that swimming in the bay was pretty cool (the plankton really does glow) but I wished that we could have somehow done it on our own, because the boat captain allowed us only 5 minutes in the water and the whole trip just felt too commercial (although in and of itself the bay and the idea of swimming while the water glitters around you is amazing). 35 minutes later we were already on land again. So that was that. The following day we were going to make our way to Culebra (an island off the coast of Puerto Rico with the most beautiful beaches, as advertised by our guidebook and by other people we had talked to), so we made our way back in the direction of the ferry departure point (approximately 3 hours away from the Bay). We made it to the hotel only to be "surprised" by the fact that the room was already occupied ... by a family/clan/village of cockroaches. I must have seen at least 10 by the time I went to bed, but given the fact that it was late and we were super tired, we didn't have the energy to really do anything about it. So we pushed the beds towards the center of the room and hoped for the best.

Day four: The ferry to Culebra was leaving at 9 a.m. and we made sure to get there 45 mins early...but, as luck would have it, we hadn't calculated in the fact that it was Friday and that many Puertoricans were leaving for Culebra themselves for the weekend. So, the ferry sold out, 4 people in front of us. The next one was at 3 p.m. We had quite a bit of time to kill, so hit the road in search of a beach. We found a good one in Luquillo (northern part of PR), that actually had good waves and as a result seemed to be a popular surf spot.

By the time we got on the Culebra ferry, we felt like the island was this elusive destination that we would never get to. (The remainder of our group of 13 was already on Culebra.) As soon as we got there and found the house we were staying in, we dropped off our things and headed straight to Flamenco Beach (known as Puerto Rico's best beach), reaching it just as the sun was setting. The gratification of running into the crystal clear water is hard to capture in words. Even more so is the feeling of peace and tranquility as I looked around. Apart from 3-4 people, the beach was deserted. Picture a wide expanse of white sand, turquoise water, darkening blue sky, and lush vegetation in the back. And just sounds of nature (and our own laughter, I suppose). Seeing it while the sun was shining the next morning was even more picture-perfect, but the tranquility was spoilt slightly by the larger number of tourists slowly trickling in.

After another few hours at the beach (this is on Day 5), we had to make our way back to the ferry, back to "mainland" Puerto Rico, back to San Juan airport and back to the U.S. I will not go into the details of our trip back to Princeton. Suffice it to say that it certainly was not as pleasant as the trips in PR. (I will post a few pictures shortly; the rest are up on facebook; you can find them under my name.)

San Juan-View from El Morro

Street in Old San Juan

In El Yunque National Rainforest, with a huge leaf

View from the top of El Yunque peak

Flamenco Beach, Culebra Island