We flew into San Juan on a Saturday night, arriving at 10:00 PM. We picked up a rental car at the airport and proceeded to promptly get lost in the dark, in the rain, and it seemed to us, in a foreign country, in the mountains in the central part of Puerto Rico. Fortunately, this was not an indication of the week ahead. We found ourselves on a road labeled highway 187 that wound its way through what was probably the most beautiful mountain rainforest that we could not see because it was pitch black. The headlights had trouble piercing the downpour of rain limiting our vision to less than 50 yards ahead of us. Not being able to see gave us the advantage of not being scared out of our wits from the size of the pot holes in the road, the treacherous cliffs on the side of the road, or the narrowness of this one lane each way trek over and through the mountains to the southeast coastal town of Humacao. We arrived at the Royal Club Cala in the Las Palmas development a little before midnight which saved us from turning back into white mice like Cinderella’s footmen. We had booked our stay here through our timeshare at RCI and they knew ahead of time that we would be arriving extremely late. Check-in was simple and quick – without the typical timeshare sales pitch we have come to expect at most of the resorts we have stayed at in Australia, Mexico, Hawaii, and the Bahamas.
Sunday was spent finding a nearby WalMart and groceries. We also walked down to the ocean and hung out around the resort. When we were coming out of WalMart, it sounded like we were in an industrial factory; there was the noise of large machinery coming from many different directions. There was a pharmacy and a Wendy’s in the parking lot of the WalMart. Noise and smoke was coming from behind both of these places. There was also noise of a large piece of machinery coming from behind WalMart. As we left the parking lot and tried to get out on to the highway, the traffic lights were all blank. Cars were alternating turns from each direction, most of them taking turns, but with a few idiots who couldn’t seem to be able to play well with others. When we got back to the resort, we learned that there was no electricity on this side of the island – everyone was using emergency generators. Only there was no emergency. It was just business as usual in Puerto Rico with electrical blackouts.
We were staying at the Club Cala Resort in the Palmas Del Mar Development. We were in a two bedroom condo on the second floor, with a full kitchen, two bathrooms, and a large balcony/patio that overlooked the street out front. The development is a sprawling assortment of lots surrounding two or three huge golf courses.
There is a pool at the office where we checked in. The beach is kind of like an afterthought.
We had to walk down the street , around the corner, and tucked away in the back alley was an access to a small sandy beach. But it did have the traditional palm tree that leaned way out over the sand towards the water.
The marina seemed to be the focus in this area of the resort,
but nowhere near the beauty of the golf courses.
We did learn later in the week that there were other beaches at the other end of the resort with clubhouses, restaurants, restrooms, showers, basically all the facilities one would expect at a tropical resort beach location.
On August 21, 2017 there was a partial eclipse of the sun.
It was to be visible from the northern portion of Puerto Rico, so we headed up to Loquillo on the North East corner of the island to Luquillo Beach.
You had to have some special viewing glasses to look at the eclipse without burning your eyes. You were to order them over the internet.
A very nice developed park with restrooms and tourist trap vendors selling tee shirts, hats, towels, and all manner of trinkets and souveneirs made in Mexico, Japan, or China and then shipped to Puerto Rico. The beach is a wide sandy beach with a long sandy bottom extending out quite a ways. I was able to come across a nine legged starfish about twenty yards off shore buried in the sand in about three feet of water.
Shared it with some other tourists there and the daughter who was about 8 or 9 quickly went to shore and refused to get back into the water. In the town of
Loquillas along the shore, we came across a hot dog vendor.
I was hungry and got a dog with everything on it.
We got the rental car stuck in the sand on the beach while chasing crocodiles and exploring Mayan Temples.
One thing we wanted to do was to check out the real estate situation – always on the lookout for that “shack on the beach”. It wasn’t until we got to the southern side of the island where we found roads that followed close to the shore. In traveling across the island, we came across some interesting ruins.
A pair of old warehouses in Manaubo made of rock and concrete with huge wooden doors. A real fixer-upper!
The roofs were gone, but the walls and the doors on one building were all there.
Came across an old sugar mill in Lucia where they used to process the sugar cane.
A bit difficult to access.
The machinery still there, rusting in place as the stone building crumbled around it.
I don’t think this is on the regular tour.
At Playa Lucia,
we came across a house that fronted on the beach and was set back about a hundred yards, right up against the hill that rose up to the highway that towered above the lot.
It was vacant. Had been for some time. No for sale sign.
There were many round stone silos scattered around – most likely used for sugar production.
Patillas Beach.
A nice long stretch of sand.
At one end is a restaurant that hangs out over a short cliff and above the ocean. We wanted to get lunch there,
but it was closed – it looked like it was permanent.
Further on along Hwy 3 which hugged the coast, we came across a real fixer upper. it was on a pie shaped lot
with the long side of the pie facing the ocean and the highway.
It looked more like a pile of used lumber, but if you looked close enough, you could just make out that it used to be a small house that pretty much covered most of the lot.
It appeared to have gone through at least three hurricanes – without any repairs. There was a for sale sign in what would pass as the front window,
but the last number was missing. A bit further down the highway towards Arroyo, we came across a number of cute little houses that sat right on the shore line. The definition of my “Shack on the Beach”.
Next to these were some houses that hung over the rocky shore line. The concrete foundations and floor over the ocean was very deteriorated.
Saw many other “Se Vende” signs, but when I called, I got their voice mail, and I guess that I must have been speaking in a foreign language, because no one ever called back.
When we arrived in Arroyo, we found our way down towards the shore. Near the malecon, we found a nice stretch of beach.
On the beach was a bar that looked like it had been constructed with the cast off materials from other buildings that had been destroyed in previous hurricanes – but it served its purpose. Across from the bar and beach, we found this little house for sale by owner. When we called the phone number, they directed us to a house about four houses to the left. A guy there was a friend of the owner and let us into the house. The downstairs had the single garage with a room behind the glass blocks, and a bathroom. Upstairs had a great room with kitchen/living room behind the balcony that has sliding metal doors over glass doors to protect when the owner is not there. Upstairs also had a bathroom and two bedrooms. They were asking $135K. We should have bought it.
After driving through Arroyo
and checking out the beach, we drove on to a town called Jobos.
There we stopped at the Fishing Club because they had picnic tables,
and we cut open a huge mango for an afternoon snack.
On the drive back to Humacao, we were able to admire the lush green jungle growth that was everywhere. We even drove through a few “tree tunnels”.
Basically, the entire island is a tropical paradise, with vegetation growing crazy.
At one point, the highway was clinging to the edge of the cliff, maybe a hundred feet above the rocky shore line directly below,
when we came around a sharp corner and there was a building hanging over the cliff with the smallest eight car parking lot ever, sandwiched between the highway and the building.
Someone coming around the corner too fast could knock the whole thing over the cliff to the water below.
Restaurant Paisajes Curet – we just had to stop. Dinner started off with the best passion fruit rum punch drinks
followed by fajitas – fried pork, onions, peppers, flour tortillas – only they called it something other than fajitas. A rose by any other name – it was delicious – or maybe it was just the rum punch! But the views from the dining area hanging over the cliff were fantastico!
The next day was devoted to Old San Juan. The old fort at the end of the peninsula that guards the entrance to the harbor is worth a post of it’s own.
I’ll be posting that as Part 2.
TTFN
TropicalCastaway 