Culebra and El Yunque

Last round of pictures... The first few are from Culebra, again. The last few are from our day trip to El Yunque rainforest.

Flamenco beach

Flamenco beach in Culebra is the flagship beach of the island, being a so-called blue flag beach. Blue-flag beaches are environmentally friendly, well preserved, and therefore particularly clean and beautiful beaches worldwide (some others are in NZ, South Africa and Canada, I read). You can imagine that snorkelling and swimming are especially amazing here.

San Juan airport

Alright... after an interesting, rather sleepless night we're now at the airport. We got out here early to drop off the car and now we have a little while before the flight leaves. We're tired, but thanks to coffee and great weather, we feel fine. Now that the frustrations have settled (knock on wood), here are some pictures in the order of our trip...along with some stories...


Our last night in San Juan, enjoying live music and mojitos.

Our hotel in San Juan at breakfast, right before leaving for the island of Vieques...
...on this little plane

I really got to fly shotgun (next to the pilot who talked on his cellphone and sent text messages during the flight)

A safe and interesting flight, another taxi ("publico") ride and a walk later, we got to enjoy the first beach :-)

After kayaking out into the ocean at night to enjoy the bioluminescent bay, we took the ferry to Culebra the next day. Culebra is another small island, closer to the Virgin Islands than to Puerto Rico, actually. As soon as we got there we knew it was a good decision to spend most of our stay here. Beautiful beaches, friendly locals (mostly expats, although they don't like to be called that) and not the typical tourist atmosphere with an endless, loud night life. More like a small vacation place where people come for beaches during the day and restaurants and bars at night (all of which close around 11 or midnight). The locals are proud of their island and determined to preserve it, now that the Navy is done bombing the place to the ground (some beaches are called impact beaches, because mortal shells can still be found on land and in the sea).

More pics will follow...

A hell of a day

Hey guys...long pause and I have so much to tell you, with many pictures to back it up. And let me say this, before I let off some steam about the frustrations of this day...we have really, really, REALLY had a good vacation. There were frustrations along the way, sure, but those are part of life and travelling on a budget (I guess). For the most part, however, we were lucky with the weather (lots more sun and clouds than rain), the spots and activities that we chose and the way things went. We got to go sunbathing, kayaking, snorkelling, hiking and swimming in the ocean and a bioluminescent bay (the most amazing thing ever...you glow in the water at darkness and every one of your moves creates light), we saw what must be some of the best beaches around and lots more. And even today started out to be a good day...until we got off the early morning ferry from the beautiful island of Culebra (where we had spent most of our week) back to the main island, where we had reserved a car (the price of which was one of the frustrations). There is no public transport on this island, so the only choice to get from the ferry in Fajardo back to San Juan is flying, renting a car or taking a taxi. All of the above cost between $70-100, so we decided to rent a car (for freaking $90 A DAY) and at least see El Yunque, the Carribean National Forest, along the way. The headaches started (literally) when we found out that Avis didn't do pickup from the ferry, but that we had to take a taxi up to this super expensive, outrageously wasteful, big-ass resort - a 10 minute ride for $20. At that moment I wasn't sure whether I was more angry at Avis, the huge corporation sucking you dry and not telling you up front you had to take a taxi to get to them (it's the customer's responsibility to ask, we were later told by a customer service rep), or the poor Puertorican taxi driver ripping us off because we obviously had more money than 70+% of the people on this island just because we were able to come here, rent a car, stay in hotels, etc..
Regardless, we made it to El Yunque and went on some beautfiful hikes through tropical rainforest (even though we were both in pain from wearing sandals on sunburnt feet) and seriously considered car-camping in the park (which is legal and, even better at this point in our budget, free) for a moment. After sweating like crazy we decided it was better to look for a small hotel, get a good night's sleep and take a shower before spending tomorrow on airplanes. Long story short: The only (!!!) hotel room we could find was at the Best Western airport hotel for $275 + tax. I swear I am not kidding you. Almost $300 for a Best Western room. That's the Carribean, we're told.
Now it was down to "sleeping" at the airport or calling a friend of a friend of Patrick's. And that's where we are now. Along with 5 other guests who had the same idea/problem and were also on spring break here in PR. Since we came last, we'll be on the couches, pretty much as we are. To top it all off... we didn't have any lunch or dinner (or breakfast, really) all day and over all the searching we didn't get to grab much, either. We brought some snacks and bread and were ready to eat it now (everyone else went to a bar), but the guy's dog found it first and enjoyed our dinner before us. Talk about frustration. So here we are... hungry and uncomfortable, but safe and with internet. I can't help but think of Maslow's hierarchy... (I wonder where the need to be online would go these days.) I guess it beats sleeping in the car in a place that, come to find out, is really not half as safe as we liked to think.

Now my battery is almost out, so pictures will have to follow... Good night!

Gut angekommen

Wir sind gut in Puerto Rico angekommen und geniessen die Wärme und die Sonne auf unserer kellergebräunten Haut ;-) Ein paar Fotos von San Juan seht ihr hier, morgen geht's weiter auf die Inseln Vieques und Culebra zum Kayakfahren, Baden und Schnorcheln. Sobald wir wieder Internet haben, gibt's mehr...

San Juan

We made it! We're in Puerto Rico - got here LATE last night. We were supposed to get in around 10 pm and didn't make it until midnight. We jumped right into the hustle and bustle of Puerto Rico's largest city...and even in the darkness we could tell it had lots to offer. This morning we got up early, had our "breakfast" (toast and cereal from plastic bowls :-() and went right back out. We walked around and by now we feel we have seen every street in Old San Juan. It's beautiful and colorful ...and WARM! Finally, after a sudden cold spell in Nashville and snow in Washington DC (I wore flipflops on the flight and almost froze my toes off), the temperature here is a very welcome change. Other first impressions include very European architecture, a big Saturday night rush (not to say party), the typical smell of the tropics (this mix of garbage, sweet perfume and disinfectant) and, yes, cockroaches (the first one we saw after only 10 minutes of walking and it was literally the size of an egg). Lydia's very first impression of San Juan was that it felt like a mix of Rome and Brazil. We like it. Our hotel is right in the middle of San Juan and that alone (as opposed to the spacious, bright, clean rooms and the sufficient breakfast) must explain the prize of $135 A NIGHT. Ouch. But it's worth it, as we fall out of bed and right into the midst of restaurants and cafes, beautiful architecture and Sanjuaneros dancing to live music. Tomorrow we're moving on to the island of Vieques, where we will go kayaking at night, touring a bioluminescent bay. We shall see if we find internet access there somewhere, but we will be back with more asap. For now here are some first pictures...