Puerto Rico: La Isla del Encanto
One of the best vacations I've ever been on was to La Isla del Encanto: Puerto Rico baby! I hadn't had a vacation with so much fun and adventure in a long time. I went with two girl friends of mine for Halloween in 2014. Not only was this trip SUPER fun, but we were pretty frugal as well. We stayed in PR for five days. Well, I did. They stayed six. We rented a car from Charlie Car Rental. We were a little skeptical at first since it wasn't one of the big name rental companies, but it worked out really well! We had a nice new Kia (the Rio or Forte, sorry, I don't remember) that was about $250 for the five days. Unlimited mileage AND even though we were under 25 years old, there was no underage fee! Sweet! The car came filled with gas and it lasted us the ENTIRE week on the one tank. We refilled before we turned it back in. And we drove A LOT! We stayed at the Hyatt Place in Bayamon, PR. A city just 10 minutes away from San Juan. It has a small casino attached to it which is pretty neat. The first casino I have ever been to! The hotel was also next to Plaza del Sol which is a nice mall in Bayamon. One of the women I went with worked for Hyatt at the time so we got a nice discount. But either way, compared to staying in the heart of the city, this hotel was rather affordable. Plus they had complimentary breakfast. The good kind.
So, that was transportation and accommodation. Now for the adventures!
Day 1: Wednesday October 29th.
We had a theme song for our vacation. Marc Anthony's Vivir Mi Vida. It was on repeat on my phone when we were landing. And we played it at the beginning of every car ride. On this first day, we drove through San Juan listening to Marc Anthony and falling in love with the island by the second. After we arrived at the hotel and checked in (which was a breeze considering we split the payment three ways) we relaxed for about an hour until we got hungry. We went next door to the mall and ate and had a few drinks. Later on that evening, one of my friends had a friend (they went to basic training together) who took us to a few local spots for the evening. To be honest, I don't remember what they were called or where they were located. But we had drinks and fun!
Day 2: Thursday October 30th.
Flamenco Beach, Culebra, PR.
Fortunately for the three of us, the drinking from the previous night had not caught up to us. We were up bright and early at 7 to make our way to the ferry in Fajardo. The ferry left at 9am to go to Culebra, PR (an island of the eastern coast). We figured leaving at 7:30 would be good timing. And so we were in our car and on the road by 7:40. Fajardo was about 45 minutes away. So we were good...or so we thought. Now we're from Atlanta, some of the worst traffic in the country, but this small island traffic was insane! We arrived at the dock at 8:56. When I tell you nothing but GOD! We got there literally with seconds to spare. We bought 3 round trips tickets for $15 (that took about 1 minute) and ran to the ferry as the last passenger was getting on board! Phew! Despite the rocky start and the 2 hour boat ride that lay ahead, Day 2 was my favorite by far. We arrived on Culebra were we were greeted by hoards of tour guides! But we found what we were looking for: Snorkeling with sea turtles. $35/person. Come on! How cheap is that!? Until it was time to snorkel, we took a shuttle to Flamenco Beach and enjoyed the sun, sand, and sea. I've been to Miami, to beaches on the Gulf of Mexico, the Bahamas, and Jamaica and NONE of these places had anything on the crystal clear water and smooth white sand of Flamenco Beach. Not to mention the breathtaking view of the mountains. My picture is good, but it doesn't even do it justice. We didn't want to leave! We had mofongo and piñ a coladas for lunch and relaxed a little more until it was turtle time. And then it was.
Snorkeling in Culebra.
A shuttle took us to another part of the island where the white smooth sand was replaced by black smooth rocks. A little painful to walk on but we were literally about to get in the water so that was no big deal. As we were out in the water, I again felt like never leaving this spot! Where we were, the cold Atlantic Ocean mixed with the warm Caribbean Sea which felt nice while swimming for about an hour and a half. But down below was the real treat. Huge sea turtles, sting rays, sea urchins, eels, schools of colorful fish, coral reefs, crabs, and jellyfish (but not the kind with stingers). There were tons of other neat sea creatures that our guide brought to the surface for a closer look. This day was simply magical. After returning to shore, the shuttle returned to Flamenco beach to drop of the tourists and was kind enough to take me and the girls straight back to the ferry. This time we were looking forward to the two hour ride. We were exhausted and needed to nap before our nighttime kayaking in the bio-luminescence bay! Yea, I told you Day 2 was my favorite! Now what is a bio-luminescence bay you ask? Only the coolest thing ever! It is a body of water containing microscopic bacteria (dinoflagellates) that when disturbed illuminates as a defense mechanism to give the illusion to its predator that it is larger than it actually is. Plain and simple, the water glows bright blue when you touch it. Such a beautiful experience at night! Kayaking Puerto Rico was awesome! The tour guides were hilarious and nice and made you feel completely safe and eradicated all fear of kayaking through a canal...at night. But it was so worth it! And for only $50, you can't come to PR without experiencing it. There are three different bays in Puerto Rico. We went to Fajardo.
Day 3: Friday October 31st. Happy Halloween
Toro Verde.
Needless to say, we did NOT wake up bright and early this day. We slept in just a little while longer before getting up for that day's adventure: zip lining (and then a Halloween party)! An hour away from Bayamon was Gato, PR. Home of Toro Verde Nature Adventure Park. Now I am sorry to disappoint, but I am TERRIFIED of heights (which super sucks because I DROVE up this mountain that rarely had barricades to prevent you from careening off to your death). That being said, I did not zip line with the girls but they did say it was amazing. Instead, I sat in their cafe drooling over their Spider-Man (it was Halloween and there was a super cute Andrew Garfield looking Peter Parker dressed in the suit and I liked EVERYTHING I was seeing! ANYWAYS, the girls came back about two hours later, maybe less. Who knows, I was staring at Peter the whole time. Then it was time to depart and only the grace of God carried us down the mountains (because they made me drive again). We had dinner and began to get dressed for the party. None of us really had a specific character in mind, but we all had wings. LOL! Super cute, super sexy. As was this party! It was held at the San Juan Convention Center. There were SOOO many people. Fortunately, the same military friend that took us out the first night was working the event so we got preferential treatment and was able to sit on the audio stage. Thank God, because after two drinks and a little dancing, we wanted our shoes OFF! Those Puerto Rican girls were smart. They knew better than to wear heels. Besides us three, I probably saw a handful more that wore heels. But, that didn't matter! Shoes were off, drinks were in hand, and music was playing. There were a few groups and people I didn't recognize, but the music was great. And The Chainsmokers were there! At the time the only hit song of theirs that was recognized was “Selfie” but it really sparked my interest in them. And they did some good remixes! But the night was great! The costumes were cool! There were even lit up robot guys on stilts. Hard to explain, really cool to look at. But we partied from 10pm to about 2am before we were ready to pass out. Which brings us to
Day 4 November 1st.
Another day we were able to sleep in. Thank God! Our day started about mid-morning. We decided to actually go to San Juan this day. We walked around and bought trinkets from the little stands. We had churros with ice cream, bacalaitos, and alcapurrias (mi favorito)! We watched the cruise ships and jet skis, and just took it all in. I was definitely not ready to leave the island the next day. But after spending a few hours in the city, we returned to the hotel to go get dinner at the mall. We resigned to spending the evening relaxing until my other friend (who also had military buddies) was contacted for us to go out with them that night....so our night began at 1am. This was a very exhausting trip, but extremely rewarding! We went to 2 or 3 bars and drank and talked. The evening had the right amount of warmth and a nice breeze. It was like the island was telling me goodbye (lame, I know). When we got back I was so thankful that I packed my bags earlier so I could pass out and sleep for as longs as possible.
Day 5 November 2nd.
I would remove this day as being a part of the trip because it is the day I left. However, I won $50 at the casino and only spent $20. So, this $30 profit made the day pretty cool. My flight was originally set to leave at 11am but got delayed and pushed back until 1pm. So I had a little wiggle room. After the casino I purchased some liquor to take back home (because there's something special about the Bacardi straight from the factory). And so I journeyed home. Sad and alone. But not totally alone because I had amazing memories to reminisce on.
This trip was absolutely amazing but don't just take my word for it. You HAVE to experience it for yourself. And best of all, if travelling from the U.S., you don't need a passport since the lovely PR is a U.S. territory. Hmm, speaking of which, maybe I should try Guam next...
Here are the links to some of the vendors we used on our trip:
What isn't listed is the vendor we used to snorkel with the sea turtles but we did not go through a website. When we disembarked from the ferry there were tons of vendors offering their tours (Jeep tours around the island, scuba diving, snorkeling, etc.) Obviously, we chose snorkeling.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I would love to be of assistance!