Its Got The Lot
Trip Start
Apr 04, 2008
1
89
108
Trip End
Jul 03, 2009
Fajardo, Puerto Rico
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Puerto Rico is one of those exotic places that has a little of everything to make it an interesting and exciting holiday island, its only 136 miles long and 36 Miles wide but it has a diverse range of scenery, tall mountain peaks, rainforests, dry scrubby forests, surrounded by emerald green waters and castaway looking islands, and it has one of the most stunning Caribbean cities, Old San Juan.
We stopped in at Harri's favourite marina (because it has cable TV and golf buggy rides) "Marina Del Rey" in Fajardo on the east coast of the island for four days to catch up on school work and some housekeeping issues after which it was time to hit the trails and hike in the El Yunque National Park.
We started out early for a hike up to the peak of El Toro. Two hours uphill and then two hours downhill, it gave our calves and quads a workout we hadn't had for a long time. A combination of rock, gravel and mud made up the trail that snaked its way up the side of the peak with a rain hut every 20mins or so. Luckily for us the heavy rain of the previous days had disappeared leaving us with clear blue skies and warm (but not too hot) temperatures. Rainforest streams with moss covered rocks straight out of National Geographic graced the walk and allowed us to fill our water bottles with lovely clear fresh water... Once we reached the summit the views were amazing. The downhill run was a little slower as all our feet were objecting to be in shoes (it's been a long time) so half way down we changed out of our sensible hiking shoes into our Aussies Hiking boots (the good old thongs) and we scooted down the rest of the mountain.
The next day it was off to Old San Juan where we had only briefly visited on our way thru last year and was eager to see more of. Old San Juan has to be our favourite Caribbean city with its charming cobblestone streets and brightly coloured buildings. There is so much beautiful Spanish architecture and history, each street is filled with buildings of different colours and texture. Walk around a corner and be treated to a small plaza with fig trees for shade or a larger plaza with fountains, statues and sculptures and bright bougainvillea climbing the walls. There seems to be a surprise around every corner. We explored it further with a trip around the fort, a ride on the free trolley, lunch in a Mexican cafe, a little bit of duty free outlet shopping and a wander thru the charm and ambience that is Old San Juan. Love it, Love it, Love It.
After dragging Harri away from the cable TV we sailed south down the east coast stopping at some very beautiful anchorages, early one morning we awoke to see a manatee/sea cow/dugong (take your pick) swimming and grazing about 10 metres off the back of Bella, it was really lovely to see one so close up. Another afternoon we anchored off Monkey Island home to over 1000 monkeys who at dawn and dusk sound like something out of Jurassic Park. You are not allowed on the island but can dinghy up pretty close to the shoreline and watch them as they thrash thru the trees and screech either at us or at each other. A few followed us along the coastline and watched us quite closely and I'm sure if we got too close they'd take the opportunity to jump in the boat with us.
Pretty cool to watch.
