San Juan To Patillas
So after landing in San Juan, we grabbed our rental car – which somehow always takes more time than it ought to - and headed east to Fajardo. Since we had nothing to eat, we opted for the safe choice – Taco Bell. Mind you, we would have tried something more adventurous, but Taco Bell was our preference of the US fast food available, and that was ALL that we saw in San Juan. We then stopped at Wal-Mart (again, the only real choice we saw), and were appalled at the prices but bought a few things to get us through the night.
Since we landed about dark and had to do all this en route, we didn’t get to Fajardo, our first stop, until about ten. Now Fajardo is a port town, and those are notoriously seedy. I had taken the precaution of writing down several good options I found on the internet, which weren’t in Lonely Planet, to check out. We found one place – about the quality of what we’d stay at in Mexico for about 50$ - for 150$. I balked at that and so we went down the road. We tried place after place, but no one was around at any of them. Finally, we found one place - The Lighthouse of Las Croabas Guesthouse – for 75$. We happily set down there for the night, hoping the next day would be better.
Well, next morning we saw the ocean for the first time – which was, admittedly, a nice deep Caribbean blue – and then headed into Fajardo again to try and find a ferry to the nearby islands Culebra or Vieques. The auto ferry didn’t leave until 2:30, so we wandered around, ate a bite, checked Email, etc. Finally about 2:30 we decided that rather than go to the islands, we’d just head south around the island first.
So we followed the coast road, checked on several hotels which were shamefully overpriced for what they were – none compared to a Days Inn back home, and for triple the price! And this is the LOW season! Well, finally we found one for 120$, but we had no choice. And it was at least ON the beach. And when I say on it, I mean on it. Waves splashed 10 steps from our door. Big steps, but steps nonetheless.
We decided to hole up here for a day and catch our breath. It had been a fairly stressful trip thus far, and without anything positive to show for it. So we ambled around the beach, I played with my new snorkel-proof Olympus 1030SW camera, taking some underwater photos along with some lizards and crabs:
And at this point I had the first actually positive experience. It started like this; after dark on the second full day I was checking my Email on my laptop. This man walked up to me and asked me if I knew spirit air. I wasn’t quite sure what he was asking, but I said yes, I’d heard of it. And he asked me a few more questions that I didn’t really understand, but I understood enough to know that he wanted me to go to the website. So I did, and then he asked a few more things so I just let him use my computer to show me. He said it’d just be five minutes.
Soon his sister came up and we started talking. And it seemed odd to me that I could understand her, and she me, fairly well. I was at a loss to explain it, until she explained to me that she was from Colombia; then it made sense! I can understand Colombians! Just not Puerto Ricans! So I explained that to her and she said not to worry, that SHE couldn’t understand Puerto Ricans either! So it’s not just me!
Anyway, we exchanged stories and since we were circling the island in opposite directions we exchanged hotel information and where the best beaches were, that sort of thing. She told me that Columbia was not at all like it is in the movies; the drug lords have been thrown in jail and the coca plants have been uprooted. She said that it is safe for Americans to travel there and made it sound really nice. She’s a lawyer from Cali. I’ve always wanted to there anyway, and she said I can stay with her in Cali if I’m ever in the area. She also owns a finca (small farm) and wants a well drilled, and since I happen to sell well drilling kits all over the world, we might work something out 
Anyway, during all this time her brother, who is a systems engineer, was still using my laptop. Turns out He was trying to travel to several places in the US as cheap as possible, and you probably know how much time that can take.
So we talked some more, and he used my computer some more, until something like three hours had passed before he finally was finished. His sister made a big joke out of his “5 minutes” turning into “3 hours”, but I didn’t mind; I was glad to meet someone I could talk to
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Posted on October 16th, 2008 by Natnee and filed under Puerto Rico |
