We visited Puerto Rico for a 4 day trip at the beginning of summer. PR is a tiny island in the Caribbean, much closer to West Indies than the United States, but is part of the US. All PR residents are officially US citizens.  It is a 4 hour flight from Washington DC but after surviving the brutal winter we had, we were looking forward to warmer climates, sandy beaches, rainforests, Caribbean cuisine and some much wanted downtime.  Although PR is officially a territory of the US, the fact that Spanish is the main language of communication, makes you feel instantly like you are in a foreign country. Unlike Spanish speaking pockets in main land US, everything here is in Spanish: restaurant menus, street signs and it is the language spoken by street vendors and tradesman. Although almost everybody in the touristy areas spoke English, there were enough folks we interacted with such as the nail technician at the spa, the street vendor selling mangoes, the mother of two adorable girls I bumped into near the pool and the kiosk vendor selling arepas who spoke only Spanish. Nothing makes you feel like you are in a foreign land till you have to resort to hand gestures and sound effects to make yourself understood!
Our resort was located in Fajardo, about a 45 minute drive from the capital city of San Juan near the foothills of the El Yunque rainforest. Annika had been learning about rainforests in her school that week, so we were excited to show her the El Yunque tropical Rain Forest. The rainforest seemed like another world altogether. The sunshine created wonderful light effects as it filtered down through the canopy created by the trees. Orange Gulmohars (or its distant relative) were present on either side of the road. Several types of ferns and various flowering plants with brightly colored flowers provided a visual feast. Sound effects were provided by the whispering Bamboo trees and the sporadic croaking of the invisible Coqui frogs.  These Coqui frogs are a symbol of Puerto Rico and a pictorial representation of these frogs was present on almost all local souvenirs.  Another highlight was the sight of cascading water at the beautiful La Coca Falls, right by the side of the road. We drove through the marked trail but parts of the rainforest were closed due to potential landslides which did cut short our visit.
We had lunch at the much recommended Luquillo Kiosks just outside the El Yunque Forests. These kiosks are a row of shops between the Luquillo Beach and the main road, running parallel to the beach. It reminded me off the beach stalls near Chowpatty or Juhu beach in Bombay. All of the shops were open on either side so you could walk in from either the beach front or the main road entrance. Each shop or kiosk has a different type of cuisine ranging from Italian to Thai to Burgers and local PR food. Some of these shops were causal take out places; some were fancy sit down and eat places. In some of them we shared our space with fat tabby cats sunning themselves and in others local lads seemed to be playing an animated game of pool. Juke boxes blared continuously, vehicles tried to find parking and the place was packed with tourists. We liked it so much that we had most of our meals in PR from these kiosks. We had food from La Parrilla (Argentinian food) , Roca Taina (local cuisine), Ely’s Place (local food) and  a few others. We mostly had local food: mofongo (a sort of a plantain veggie mash served with meat of your choice), beef croquettes, arroz con Fanfules (rice and pigeon peas), tostones (flattened raw plantain crisps), seafood of all kinds and a variety of vegetable and meat fritters. What was startling to me was that the ingredients used were very similar to Kerala cuisine (rice, plantain, pigeon peas, ripe bananas, seafood, beef and the addition of coconut in every dish!) but the resulting dishes turned out to be either extremely familiar (beef croquettes or fritters) or completely novel (mofongo and tostones and an amazing pineapple-coconut candy).
The best experience that we had in Puerto Rico was our excursion to the BioBay in Fajardo. It is one of the few places in the world where you can see and experience natural bioluminescence in water.   The luminescence is caused by micro-organisms called dinoflagellates that thrive in the brackish water of Fajardo’s Laguna Grande. When the water is disturbed, the micro-organisms respond by emitting a bluish light as a natural defense mechanism and thanks to the high concentration of these organisms in the bay, we could experience the magical sight of the bay glowing as if someone has sprinkled fairy dust on the surface of the water. And if you splashed some of this water on your hand, you could even see your hand sparkle for a short incredible second. The most popular way to see this unique phenomenon is via kayak tours. Given that we had a two year old with us, that wasn’t a viable option, so I  had to do some planning before our trip to find a suitable alternative. There were just two companies that offered an approved electric boat ride (they are pretty strict about not allowing any motorboat in the bay to protect the bay) and only one of them worked on Sundays – with just two trips. I am extremely glad I called ahead and booked this trip before we got there because we could see several disappointed tourists at the pier. The one that we booked was BioBay with Captain Suarez, who manned the boat while his son acted as the tour guide. The electric boat ride through the mangrove forest was a pleasure in itself. We started off at sunset when there was still some faint light and moved into the pitch dark narrow waterways caused by the red mangroves lining the shores and meeting in the sky to form a tunnel. The guide was quite knowledgeable and continuously provided information about the various species of mangroves and about the aquatic and bird life present in that habitat. By the time we emerged from the tunnels into the lagoon, it was dark – perfect to see the magic show that the dinoflagellates put on for us!
Seejo & I are novices to resort vacations. Our typical vacation home is a chain hotel: we leave it early in the morning and return late and night to simply crash. Spending time at the hotel itself has never really featured in our itineraries. And we paid the price for not knowing that. The Rio Mar Beach & Resort at PR was beautiful with acres of gardens, a beach front, a couple of swimming pools and an excellent spa.  We had budgeted about a day to relax at the resort itself but it just wasn’t enough to take advantage of all that the resort offered. Annika loved the kiddie swimming pool and watching the iguanas as they ambled among the bushes near the pool. We loved the beach front access with conveniently placed lounge chairs so that we could relax watching the waves and Annika spray sand everywhere. There was a wonderful spa where we both took turns to get manicures and massages.
Eventually, we ended up spending more time at the resort which did cut short the time we had to spend in San Juan. And when we did manage to reach Old San Juan, it was drizzling off and on, so we didn’t get a chance to wander around too much. We browsed the local souvenir stores and spent some time strolling along the narrow cobblestoned lanes between old brightly painted colonial style buildings. By this time the drizzle had turned into a downpour and so we took cover from the rain in a nice restaurant called the Parrot Club. We enjoyed ceviches and plantain chips for lunch while watching locals and tourists getting drenched outside. After lunch, we drove around the city pausing briefly at the Castillo San Felipe del Morro with amazing green lawns, a festive atmosphere and an awesome view of the sea. We wished we could have spent more time there but we were out of time and needed to get back to the airport to catch our flight back home.
