Today Luquillo, Tomorrow Culebra
My ex-roommate, Mom, and I are 24 hours deep in Puerto Rico by now. Yes, our plane was delayed out of Dallas. Yes, we had to get a new car rental since the place we had arranged closed by 10pm, but hey, everything worked out.
I rented my first Airbnb here and we loved it. I may never go back to a hotel. EVER. It’s a 21st floor apartment on the beach in Luquillo and it came in at $95 per night with all the added taxes. Not bad split between two people. Eleni, the apartment owner even left a nice note with a bottle of wine for us, and we all know how I feel about wine. If you want to check out the listing on Airbnb click here, in case you are planning a visit to Puerto Rico (which, you should).
Day one was spent mostly at El Yunque National Forest. It’s a rainforest, and it’s a pretty neat place, but then again I do have a bias for the rainforest because I love it.
However it did cost us a whole $2 to get there. If you follow the signs from Luquillo the first portion of the road after leaving the main freeway (PR 3 Oeste) is under construction. You will then meet a construction worker next to the gas station that will inform you that the road is closed and will tell you it is 3 lefts to get to the rainforest, left after the gas station, left again, and left again then you will stay there until rainforest. He then quickly wipes your windshield down and says $1.50 please. Smart move sir. Because A) you’re lucky I even had cash on me… And I never carry change, ever. And B) you are one hell of an entrepreneur.
The road winds around and around after to you take those thee lefts, and if you’ve ever done the Hana Highway in Maui it’ll definitely give you flashbacks.
Our first stop was the visitor center, which will set you back $4 per person. They have a nice overlook of a little bit of the canopy, and even a path that winds down around the trees. Of course there is a gift shop, a information desk and a few walls of photos of what you may find in the rainforest.
There are several stops beyond the visitor center for waterfalls and trails, and even some small restaurants that have set up shop at most the stops. At one of those I had some pinchos (grilled chicken skewers) and a coconut (which I drank, and then ate).
One of stops led us to a waterfall after climbing down the La Mina trail, and then took the Big Tree trail back up… Which since we didn’t pay attention led to a long walk back up the road to where the car was. I probably needed the exercise anyway.
After blowing most the day playing around in the rainforest, we came back and spent the last couple hours of daylight on Luquillo beach. Peed in the ocean. It was nice (don’t get mad, fish fornicate in the ocean. Pee is the least of concern).
For dinner I googled where to eat in Luquillo and came across the Luquillo Kiosks. Don’t listen to Siri because she couldn’t find it… However there are signs leading you in from route 3, just look for the signs sayin Kioscos Balaneario.
It’s just a line a ramshackle looking restaurants and shops but it’s totally worth it. My Mom did want to do a little shopping so she drug me in the couple stores that were open. One of a which is a place called Monkey Threads, and I actually bought a shirt and it’s soft as f***, and I think I might have to grab another. Which the owner then led us to the Luquillo BBQ a few store fronts down (#25 to be exact). Go there. They serve really good Puerto Rican dishes. I had pig wings (which consists of: pork ribs slow cooked for 6 hours, then deep fried and then covered with their BBQ sauce) with macaroni and cheese. My Mom got the veggie Mofongo, which is a traditional dish and she’s picky. She liked it. This was a win.
And, that was our day. Now we’re just polishing off that bottle of wine and finishing repacking so that I can get us on a little plane at 7am for our 15 minute flight to Culebra.
Have you been to Puerto Rico? Anyone have any stops I should add when we’re back from Culebra??
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