The Road to Rincon
After having one last breakfast at the fabulous Café Café CocinaCriolla Espresso Bar we checked out of Hotel Melia and headed west on Highway 2 for the drive to
Rincon. The southern coast of PR is very
dry compared to the rest of the island, and it was very interesting how much
different it looked. Nothing like a
desert by any means, but you could certainly tell it was dryer.
We stopped for a bit in the little town of San German which has a very cute town square, which comprises the San German Historic District.
We also walked through the small religious museum in the
main church on the square Iglesia Porta
Coeli, which is supposed to be one of the oldest churches in the
Americas.
After walking around for a while, we were hungry, although
it was only about 11:30. We could not
find anywhere in town to eat, since restaurants in PR seem to open right at 12
for lunch. We had planned on driving
part of the Ruta Panoramica (Panoramic Route) through the mountains, but we weren’t sure we wanted to do the whole western section, which can take 5
or 6 hours. Instead, we backtracked a
bit to a town called Sabada Grande to get on the route there. While in Sabada Grande we had a fantastic
lunch at a little lechonera where I had the traditional Puerto Rican meal of
meatloaf and rice and beans. Everything
was delicious, and very affordable. It sometimes
seemed like in PR the less you spent on a meal the better the food was!
After eating, we headed up Highway 120 into the central
mountains. We got on the panoramic route
and proceeded to slowly wind our way west.
This was a lot of fun, but the hour and a half or so we did was plenty,
particularly since it rained a lot of the time.
It was a beautiful drive even with the rain. Small two lane roads winding through the
mountains to a degree that we were usually going under 20 miles per hour. The rain was washing purple flower pedals
onto the road, so that we were often driving on a carpet of purple. It was really nice. This road winds though some small towns, and
is very scenic and rural. We often had to
wait for chickens to get out of the road so we could pass.
One funny event occurred when we saw a horse half standing
in the road at an intersection. He had
been tied up to a power pole next to the road and was happily grazing on the
grass on the side of the road. No one
was around, so I assume someone planned to pick him up later.
A word on the roads and driving: the roads in PR are
great. The signs are, of course, in Spanish,
but they are the same shape and the signs here, so if you can’t figure out that
the octagonal red sign reading “PARE” means “STOP,” then you probably shouldn’t
be running around unsupervised anyway.
Much was made on the forums about how crazy the drivers in PR are, but I
did not find this to be the case at all.
When on the interstate going the speed limit, I was passing many more
people than were passing me. They will
just stop in the middle of the road in rural areas, though. Of course we didn’t have to drive that much
in San Juan, but what we did was not bad either. Like most things of this sort, people have
made way too much of it. If you have
ever driven in a larger city you will have no problems at all. The roads are well marked and in good
shape. Learn a few simple traffic terms
in Spanish and you’re good to go. One
slightly weird thing is that while speed limits (and again, you should probably
be able to figure out that Velocidad Maxima means Speed Limit) are in miles per
hour, distances are listed in kilometers.
The effect of this (for me at least) was that it was hard to estimate
how long it is going to take to get places.
After that we continued on to Mayaguez. After
driving around in various neighborhoods for a while, we finally found our way
back to the main roads and headed north towards our ultimate destination on the
west coast, the charming town of Rincon
We drove into town and quickly found our hotel, the
extremely nice Blue Boy Inn. I really cannot say enough nice things about
this place. It was truly fantastic. The rooms were nice, large and clean, the
grounds were beautiful, and the breakfast was terrific. Marc is a wonderful host and (along with
Sara) runs a great place. Also, there
are crocodiles. No, seriously.
Also less dangerous animals (although he looked like he had been in a scrap or two).
They also have everything you need: free snorkeling gear,
beach chairs, coolers, etc. They also
have an area which functions as an honor bar.
Guests are free to use whatever is in the fridge, and if they have some
left over when they leave, they can leave it for future guests. There was beer, wine, etc. There is also a grill for the use of guests. This is one of the nicest places we have
stayed at, and considering how great it was, I think the price (about $155 a
night) was very reasonable.
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