In Search Of The Best Beach In Puerto Rico

After Carolyn flew home - she being saddled with the burden of having a real job - I stayed on for a week in Puerto Rico, ostensibly to go on a personal mission to find the best beach but really just to avoid the snow back home for another 7 days. I also was laying the foundation for a possible return to Puerto Rico in the future. Hey, it's a tough job but someone has to do it!

I found a place to stay on Craig's List. It was cheap and it was a dump. But it was at least clean, kept the rain out and there were no critters running around. Besides, I wasn't there to spend time in the room. I was there to explore the island and that's exactly what I did. I managed to add about 600 miles to the odometer of my rental car doing it.

My weather was in and out that week. But it was 50 degrees warmer than back home even when it was raining, so I couldn't complain. I saw most of the island, although there are still plenty of things left to see if we go back. One thing I saw too much of was traffic. Getting around the island is a nightmare. Don't do it if you don't have to.

My quest is told in more detail at this link: The Best Beach In Puerto Rico

Exploring Old San Juan

Our cruise this year left from San Juan, Puerto Rico, which meant we spent lots more time ashore than we did last year when we left from Ft. Lauderdale. To minimize the hassle of travel, we went a day early and stayed an extra day in San Juan.

San Juan is a typical, bustling modern city with traffic and urban pressures, but Old San Juan is a throwback to the 1600's. Its peaceful and picturesque with lots of history and interesting architecture. We spent a lot of time traipsing around and taking pictures.

The principal characteristic of the city is that it is comprised of several square miles that are totally inside the walls that the Spanish built to protect themselves. It seems the French and the English coveted its large natural harbor astride the Caribbean trade routes.

We had great weather the entire time -certainly far better than the snow happening back home in Rhode Island! We really enjoyed Old San Juan and would welcome a chance to go back again. Maybe next year?

For pictures and further commentary, please click this link:  Old San Juan

Our 2010 Caribbean Cruise

Carolyn's February school vacation is a time when we like to emulate Jimmy Buffett when he says: "I want to go where it's warm!" And there's not much warmer than the Caribbean  Sea, so that's where we headed.

Last year, we went with another couple on a Princess cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale. Cruises are interesting. The ships are gorgeous. The food is sumptuous and plentiful. The ports of call are all lovely - at least from dockside. But we were disappointed in last year's itinerary. There's only so far a ship can travel in a day and leaving from Florida meant we spent a lot of time at sea. So this year, we decided to take a cruise leaving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, which meant we spent more time ashore and less time underway.

Always looking for a chance to explore new places, I elected to stay behind in Puerto Rico for a week after the cruise ended. That adventure is the subject of the following post, which you will read first because of how these blog type thingies are structured.

Our cruise took us to St. Thomas, Dominca (pronounced dome-uh-NEE-ca by the locals), Grenada, Bonaire and Aruba. Of them all, our favorite was Bonaire. Much less well known than its Caribbean cousin, Aruba, we found it especially appealing precisely because of that fact. It is small, neat, tidy, and attractive but most of all, it is NOT overrun with tourists. And it has beaches and breezes and warm Caribbean waters that beg you to stay for another day, another week - or forever!

So we ate and floated our way across many hundreds of miles, but our favorite activity of all was sitting on those wonderful beaches we encountered along the way. So next year, that's precisely what we intend to do - find a beach somewhere and park ourselves next to the waves that lap the shoreline and just soak up the sun. Yeah, we won't get to eat 14 times a day, but our waistlines will be better for it!

Can't wait!

You can view a compendium of pictures from the cruise at this link: Cruise2010