April 12...Leaving Lucia Beach Villas without a swim in the pool. There is no one at these villas. We believe people are staying at the main hotel where we had dinner last night and breakfast this morning.
Our first stop was Patillas where we stopped at the Malecon, meaning boardwalk. There was a pretty nice anchorage there with about five boats. Next was Salinas, drove to marina.....a large hurricane hole with lots of mangroves. A fisherman there had a pail of live lobsters, squid and some type of fish. We stopped for lunch but left as it was pretty pricy. On to Ponce to our restaurant but closed due to renovations of the boardwalk around it. Kept driving and ended up at Guanica where we booked another Tropical Inn. Drove along the Malecon there, pretty deserted but it could have been the time of day. Unfortunately not much walking as Peter did his knee in while crawling around the bilges.
April 14...Drove yesterday to the south west corner of PR but not before trying to find the sunflower farm. No luck in that one but did see the working salt flats. The Information Center was closed as many things around here are. Restaurants in hotels are only open on weekends it seems. Drove up the west coast, Puerto Real seems really nice, a sort of European coastal city but under construction so couldn't get through the town. Further up stopped along the water at Rincon for a bite and had a look at the Mona Passage. Wow, big body of water out there! Is that where we are going next year?
Ended up at a nice place overnight in Aguadilla, good price, dinner and two pools. Lovely breakfast this morning before we head out to the caves in Camuy and the observatory tower...largest in the world.
A long drive to the Rio Camuy Cave Park along windy twisty roads, not well marked. A wait for the trolley that takes you to the caves. Well, it was pretty spectacular once in....size enormous, we walked into and around it. The guide was knowledgeable and we also had a recorder to tell us about the various stations, the tour was about one and a half hours. Once in the area we drove along another windy narrow road to the Arecibo Observatory, the world's largest telescope. Unfortunately it was closed for repairs. One would think there would have been signs somewhere indicating it was closed.
Back to Aquadilla, we had decided to stay another night at Parador ElFaro. Clean rooms, good food and two pools, lovely grounds, an airplane, although I only swam in the one every morning and evening. What more could we want!
Puerto Rico is a land of baseball stadiums, roadside stands, narrow twisty roads, friendly people, crazy drivers, turn signals on cars are a waste,Walgreens, Burger Kings.....in all very picturesque, very green, rolling hills.
Today, April 15 on our way to San Juan. Feeling a bit sad that this journey will end shortly!
April 17...Bus into old San Juan. Free trolley tour and a stop at the museum of the Americas. History of the native Indians as well as colonization of Puerto Rico. Walked back to bus Terminal, a stop along the way for a Medalla, and then a long long wait for a bus but arrived safely back to the hotel. Best Western where we stayed last year with Emily is a short walk to the beach. Took a walk down, nice and surprisingly a turtle nesting area right at the entrance. A drink on our balcony before dinner. Sunset!
All checked in for tomorrow's flight!
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