Need Beach, Will Travel.

The beach in front of the Marriott Stellaris Resort and Casino

We deferred our usual Summer beach visit this year knowing that we were heading to Puerto Rico. For me, it’s just not summer if I’m not laying in sand somewhere and frollicking in the waves. The area of San Juan where we are headquarted is a resort area called, Condado. Each morning we rise and troop across the street to the Starbucks for our coffee. (I save the Starbucks gift cards we inevitably receive throughout the year for just these occassions.) I try to save my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season for when I am either in an airport or at a travel destination. Pumpkin Spice is not so popular on Puerto Rico and their coffee industry took a major hit with Hurricane Maria. None the less, Puerto Rican coffee is delicious and we would order it at every opportunity. We would then usually stroll around the neighborhood before heading off for the day. There is still a significant amount of repair going on in Condado which is know for it’s beaches, shopping, casinos and night life.

View from my hotel room

Our hotel has a pool, hot tub, bar, restaurant complex that overlooks the beach and then there is a walkway that takes you down to the sand where they set up lounge chairs and umbrellas for you when you arrive. The wait staff from the restaurant will even come down, take your order and bring your food and beverages right to you. All beaches in Puerto Rico, even the areas immediately in front of the hotels are public.

The problem is that our area of beach is notorious for rough surf and riptides. In fact, several drownings have occurred in the area. There are no life guards and every day we were there the red flags were out. Nice for sitting surfside and gazing at the water but not nice for me to relax and float. I need a better beach. There is one a little further down the road from us and we decide to check it out on our walk to Old San Juan.

Playita de Condado

Nicer but small.

There’s a reef formation that surrounds this beach which seems to keep the waters pretty calm. It’s also ringed by hotels so it’s not too windy. While tucked into an urban area, it’s not my vision of swaying palm trees and crystal blue water. We decide to rent a car for a couple of days and plot a course that will let us hit the rain forest and a couple of well known beach towns.

In the Luquillo Mountains of Northeastern Puerto Rico lies the only tropical rain forest in the U.S. Forest Service system. El Yunque National Forest was decimated by Hurricane Maria and over a year later there are still only 3 very limited areas of access available to visitors. Under hurricane conditions, large branch breakage and defoliation occurs at 60 mph, weaker tree trunks snap at about 70 mph. It is estimated that sustained winds in excess of 140 mph hit this region. (The weather station that was located there has not been found yet and the odds of it being intact are slim.) A lush, verdant area became an impassable quagmire of brown detritus. As we snake our way up to the viewing point of one of the water falls we pass numerous work crews. Some roads have cavernous pot holes and the threat of landslides closes almost all of the hiking trails.

For some strange reason, our GPS navigation app takes us on a detour through a small housing development located just before you enter the Forest. It is our first up close look at what I would call country living in Puerto Rico. The homes are mostly 1 or 2 levels that are very low profile and made of concrete with flat, concrete roofs. Some have water collection tanks on top. Most windows have venetian-blind type shutters and most interestingly many have the doors, porches and property encased in wrought iron gates.

We finally arrive at the viewing point for the La Coca Falls.

La Coca Falls

We pass a few other small falls on the drive but are kind of disappointed because you used to be able to hike down to the bottom of La Coca and swim in the pool it creates.

Our next stop is the Yokahu Observation Tower. A climb up provides you with some nice panoramic views of the forest and coast.

Yokahu Tower

In April a team of scientists from NASA with specialized intruments flew over El Yunque to document and monitor the forest’s response. No doubt the cards here will be reshuffled and some species will thrive and some may fight to survive. Time will tell and hurricanes have been hitting here since before the indigenous peoples began drawing references to them. Obviously, there is still much work to be done.

Our next destination is Balneario Monserrate, more commonly known as Loquillo Beach. Public beaches with lifeguards and facilities like bathrooms, lockers, showers and food are known as balnearios and most are operated by the Puerto Rican National Parks company. You pay for parking and another small fee gets you a bracelet that gives you access to the facilites. This beach is a short drive from El Yunque. Another interesting thing about driving in Puerto Rico (which is very much like driving in the Bronx) is that tolls are ubiquitous and there are no cash lanes. Your rental car comes equipped with some kind of mechanism for keeping track of your tolls. You just drive right through the toll lanes. We encountered only 1 person who did not speak any English. Most folks we encountered were fluent but some spoke enough for us understand. I always initially spoke Spanish (my bad version, which very much impressed Don) and most took pity on me and immediately responded in English. When we arrived at Loquillo, I found MY beach.

The water was placid, bath-like and very blue. The beach has views of the mountains in the distance that just enhances it’s overall appeal. It was a weekday and we practically had the place to ourselves. After a significant amount of time spent enjoying the ocean we ventured over to the snack shack for a little lunch. Don was sporting his ‘geezer hat’, which is how I refer to his USS John F. Kennedy CVA-67 cap. It is emblazoned with all his little Navy pins and trinkets. We decided on some meat pies that they were making fresh and a couple of Coronas. There was a young couple in front of us waiting for their order. The young man thanked Don for his military service and shook his hand. I placed our order, in Spanish and the woman behind the counter asked me a question and I had no idea what she wanted to know. I responded that I didn’t understand and the young man told me, “She wants to know if it’s for here or to go.” I thanked him for his rescue and told the woman it was for here. She told me the price and then the young man spoke to her in Spanish. He told her he was going to pay for it. This lovely young couple bought our lunch. We chatted with them a little longer, them asking how we were enjoying Puerto Rico so far (very much!) and us relaying our exploits to date. After lunch we headed back for some toes in the water, ass in the sand time. Then we decided to pack up and check out our next beach stop.

Fajardo is known for it’s diving, snorkeling, water sports, pleasure boating and famous bioluminescent bay. The casino at the El Conquistador Resort was where they filmed part of the James Bond classic, Goldfinger. The trade winds that blow here coupled with an off-shore coral reef provide the environment for all these fun activities. Today we are headed to the Balneario Seven Seas. This is a crescent sliver of beach that has a nice amount of natural shade owed to the almond and palm trees. It was a bit breezier than Loquillo and the sand has more natural debris in it. There was a fair amount of trash too. There is also a rock ridge running across part of where the ocean meets the shore. We observed what the locals were doing and where they were congregating and heading into the water then located ourselves accordingly. When we arrived it was later in the day and it seems like people were arriving with their kids after school. There were also dogs on this beach where the signs at Loquillo said, “no pets.” The water was still warm and blue but had a little bit more of a wave to it due to the trade winds. Still a lovely place but if I had to pick, I’d say I liked Loquillo more.

We swam, we basked, we walked and when we had enough sun (it is very strong and despite sun screen we were getting burned) we headed back to Condado. Back at the Marriott we showered then headed down for a drink before having dinner at a close-by establishment. We topped off the night by making a donation at the casino.

Next: The foremost archeological site in the Carribean

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