26 THE JOURNAL NOVEMBER <strong>2012</strong> Ican’t stop thinking about Puerto Rico since we returned from our first vacation there last month. The images, impressions, adventures, and experiences swirl into a kaleidoscope of contradictions wrapped in enigmas. The bottom line is - we would return. While there were extremes of positive and negative, Puerto Rico beckons you back. Everyone we met, from tourism professionals to average citizens, could not have been nicer or more helpful. Despite occasional language barriers, we managed to communicate, punctuated by warm smiles and many utterances of “gracias.” Examining our timeshare options during the only week we could escape, I recalled hearing that Puerto Rico is rarely considered for Caribbean vacations, “which is a shame because it has such beautiful beaches.” After ample research, we booked a week at Club Cala de Palmas in Palmas del Mar, on the east coast near Humacao. Many web searches and three phone calls to the resort later, we still couldn’t get a handle on exactly what to expect. Having a rental car to travel the highways and byways was essential in getting immersive. Juggling maps on our way out of the airport, immerse we did. Look at those mountains! The palm trees! The flowers and birds! The colorful dwellings! Wow, the rum is cheap. Man, they eat a lot of fried food here. They have a Walmart! What’s with all the stray cats and dogs? People here don’t use their blinkers. Where’s the sign that leads to Route 3? These were only the start of our Puerto Rican revelations. One must not need a liquor license to sell booze, because it was available in every gas station, market, in-home tavern, and even by the side of the road. Outside the resorts, beers start at 78 cents. We spent most of our time away from resorts, choosing eco-tourist spots and popular local beaches to sightsee. We quickly learned there is so much to see and do in Puerto Rico, it would take several weeks to everything on our list. Club Cala was fab. Our renovated, comfortable, functional unit faced a marina; the beach was a minute’s stroll away. Palmas del Mar is a massive gated community occupying a mountain rising from the beach. It included our timeshare and a large rectangular plaza with stores, restaurants, post office, mini-market, and retail shops topped by apartments. Within Palmas, there are numerous smaller gated communities, each with its own name, abode style, security guard, and amenities. Condos, townhouses, and freestanding homes get more elaborate as you scale the community’s heights. The compound includes a country club, golf courses, tennis center, school, and a Wyndham Hotel with a small casino. At the boatyard, a picturesque cove area has more shops and three quaint restaurants run by a French chef. Everyone gets around Palmas on golf carts. Security abounds. The beach was phenomenal and except for Labor Day weekend, sparsely populated. Our first night was the last for many Palmas homeowners preparing to leave. We were invited to a blow-out fiesta with a live band in the plaza. Judging by that first night, we thought the whole week would be one big fiesta, but by the end of Sunday, most regulars were gone, things got quiet, and we decided to venture forth. Traveling around was a sometimes daunting challenge, but we dove into local life with the same fervor we dove into snorkeling on the small island of Culebra, over a coral reef in a national park. Culebra and its famous Flamenco Beach are known for their exqui- We Will Never Forget site natural beauty. It took a 50-minute car trip, a 45-minute ferry voyage and a tenminute bumpy van ride to get there, but as Hubby proclaimed, “We found paradise.” A young guide on the ferry provided helpful tips. He told us about a place we want to return to see, the larger out-island of Vieques. There are only a handful of bioluminescent bays in the world. Puerto Rico has three of them and one of the largest is on Vieques. Best viewed on a moonless evening, a bioluminescent bay houses millions of organisms that emit a neon-like glow. Scenes from “Pirates of the Caribbean” were filmed on a small pristine beach nearby. Back on the mainland, we toured the beaches of Luquillo near the Yunque rainforest, where the local version of a boardwalk is a string of open-air eateries, most with pool tables, some more graciously appointed than others. At Gringos Bar & Grill, Maria let us tastetest their colorful signature original drinks (sans alcohol). Hubby settled on a local favorite, a fresh coconut cut in front of us with rum added to the water inside. Two thumbs up. Back at Palmas, we countered Yogi from Connecticut at the Wyndham’s Beach Bohio (cabana). He moved to the island 17 years ago “because of the weather.” A retired electrician who now augments his retirement by repairing vacation villas when he feels like it, Yogi was an invaluable source of information. He introduced us to Rey, who has run the snack shack for 37 years. A few days later, Rey stayed open late so we could enjoy another serving of their fabulous Churrasco beef – an ample slab with sides for $12.75 – a common luscious island menu item. While the food/drink value everywhere was fantastic, like most vacations, it’s the people you meet who enhance your experience and your memories. Puerto Rico was no exception. Shoutout to John at the Palmas Beach Club Country Club, who created an original concoction before our eyes and named it the “Laura” after overhearing me utter, “I don’t know what I feel like having, but something with mango would be nice.” We now understand why some here say they would not return there. As one woman we met vacationing from Kentucky said, “It’s very third-worldy.” Vacant storefronts, dilapidated homes, uncollected trash, and sometimes primitive conditions can’t be ignored. We only toured in daylight and spent our evenings in the Palmas del Mar compound. On departure day, our flight was bumped up 40 minutes. At the airport, we learned it was instead moved back 2 ½ hours. It was our only chance to step on San Juan proper. We hopped in a cab and asked the driver to take us to the closest beachfront hotel. We stepped out in front of the Ritz Carlton and into an entirely different Puerto Rican experience. Ensconced throughout the posh lobby, pool, and beach area were the wellheeled beautiful people. Buffed boasting men mingled with bejeweled women wrapped in white plush hotel robes. I almost bumped into one hot blonde who stopped abruptly to adjust her false eyelash. As we surveyed the scene, a friendly young server struck up a conversation, eager to hear where we had been. After exclaiming approvingly that we had indeed experienced some of the island’s gems, he made the statement that best summed up our Puerto Rican adventure. “I watch people come here for seven days and they walk from their room to the pool to the beach to the bar and back to their room. They get on their phones and say, ‘I love Puerto Rico.’ They haven’t even seen Puerto Rico.” We’re glad we did.
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