Category Archives: Tropical

San German Adventure to Porta Coeli and Waterfall Charco La Cabra

It had been a long while since we last visited San German and Porta Coeli church. Every time we’ve gone there, it has been closed. But this time, we lucked out! We got to tour the inside and even heard ghost stories. It cost $5 per person which seemed a bit high for how small the church is, but it’s good to help keep it and the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena going. It is one of the oldest churches in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean in general so it was nice to see that it hadn’t been damaged by the recent earthquakes. I learned that Porta Coeli is pronounced Cheli and that it means the door to heaven! As we were there, they were setting up for the jazz night in the plaza that happens pretty regularly on Thursday nights.


Outside the church


Inside the cathedral that is only very rarely used


I loved the arched doorways


Through the arch you can see the old colonial town


We enjoyed walking around downtown to the other church area

Here’s the full video:

Next up in our day trip, we thought we would check out Charco El Pilon in San German. From the map it looked like it was only about 20 minutes from the downtown.  However, once we got on the road, and especially as we entered the natural forest reserve we realized this was going to be a much more difficult drive and require a 4×4 vehicle. So we decided to stop and walk around a bit in the jungle near a river when lo and behold, we found another beautiful waterfall! Later I asked what waterfall it could be and it is called Charco La Cabra, a very unknown little fall and pool. It is always so cool to find the off-the-road waterfalls because places like Gozalandia are now getting WAY too crowded and touristy.


Walking into Charco La Cabra


I didn’t see any cabras (goats) but we did see a cow, a duck and a pig!


Scrambling over rocks in the river


Britton at La Cabra


A cool natural grotto we found


Chillin’ riverside

It was a wonderful day out and we’ll be back to search for Charco El Pilon and Charco La Iglesia in San German soon!

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Cueva Ventana and Much More in Utuado and Arecibo


At the famous spot! Cueva Ventana

It’s hard to believe that we had never been to Cueva Ventana! It is one of the most famous landmarks in all of Puerto Rico and the famous window scene is used in many tourism campaigns and even things like bank website pan screens. But, I suppose there is a first time for everything. Apparently since 2013 it has become a truly “tourist” destination that is only accessible with a paid tour. This isn’t usually our style of adventure, but since it was the only way to see it and we really DID want to see it, we didn’t hesitate when a friend mentioned they were heading up and if we would like to join. We had to make sure it would work out with Aeden’s daycare, but once that was settled, we made arrangements with our friends who are visiting, Petra and Brian to take the trek up there and meet the larger group.

 
Ancient Taino petroglyphs in the cave are said to protect the entrances


Fun in the cave. It was light enough throughout most of it to take pretty good photos without flash


We had to wear safety helmets and the group was huge! Things we’re not used to!

The tour was fun and the caves were super neat, but I yearned for the days before the paid tour. It didn’t cost too much ($11 for PR residents with ID, $22 for non-residents), but it was just so slow and lumbering and very basic. The guide was pointing out things like snails on the trees and tarantula holes in the ground. Things that might be interesting to a visitor, but are daily sightings for us jungle dwellers. So we tried to make the most of the slow moving train taking pictures and looking for cool plants along the way. We found mamey, corazon, seeds that are often used in jewelry and other neat plants.


Lago Dos Bocas

I had researched the area before and found that Lago Dos Bocas is just a hop skip and a jump away. I wasn’t sure how it would be since it had been over a decade since we’d been there! When we arrived, it was obvious that it had not been fully repaired since Hurricane Maria and the ferry boats weren’t running. Apparently on the weekends there are private boats that will take you to a couple of restaurants on the lake, but they weren’t going. It was intermittently rainy, so we just enjoyed the lakeview for a bit and then headed down the road.


Pretty spot, the Lake of Two Mouths


Wouldn’t you stop if you saw this??!

While were were driving along, I spotted a mural that said “La Hamaca”. I had heard of La Hamaca Bridge in Adjuntas, but I didn’t think we were quite that far inland. Still, I encouraged us all to stop and check it out. Sure enough, it was another Hammock or suspension bridge crossing a river in Utuado!


Suspension Bridge La Hamaca Salto Abajo, Utuado


A fun little stop!


Shortly after this picture was taken my hat took sail and Britton had to wade out to get it haha

We had a nice meal of comida criolla by the river and then checked out downtown Utuado. It was an old colonial plaza with some cool architectureand a quiet vibe. There were still some areas cordoned off because of earthquake damage which surprised me this deep in the island’s interior.


Colorful Utuado

Finally as we were driving back down the curving back roads we passed the Caguana Ceremonial Park and stopped. My vague memory of this on our honeymoon is so different than what it looks like now. They didn’t even have the little grass replica huts, but they did have the large ceremonial roads and fields and some very impressive huge ceiba trees as well as achiote/annato trees which was used, among other things, as a skin paint for the Tainos. It was beautiful and vast, but the museum was closed, so there wasn’t much else to see. But for $3 it was worth a stop to support them in hopefully fully opening up again.  .


We made it back just in the nick of time to pick up Aeden. It was a wonderful day trip exploration of the interior of the island.

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Valentine’s Day Adventure


Sweet Valentines

For Valentine’s Day, we headed out to Aguadilla during the day since Aeden was in daycare to do some exploring and go out to a late lunch. We checked out the downtown plaza, saw the flag stairs and then stopped to see the inside of an abandoned airplane. It was like we were on the TV show, Lost!


Cool Flag Stairway in Aguadilla


Awesome abandoned airplane!


Inside of the plane

We enjoyed a nice meal together at Khalan Thai of a stuffed pineapple and then headed on home. Unfortunately as we were driving along, the clutch pedal broke with a loud boom like a gunshot. Britton stopped and tried to fix it with the few parts we had in the car, but it wasn’t going to happen quickly.


Broken down!

We were running out of time to get back and pick up Aeden. A nice man stopped and offered to help. First he tried to help fix the clutch, but when we saw the time, he ended up taking me all the way to Rincon in order to get him before they closed! He took his own time away from his family  going out of his way in order to help a complete stranger! I couldn’t believe it!

It was a reminder that love is also found in the kindness of strangers and that we must always pay it forward whenever we can. You just never know when you’ll need help, so always put good karma into the universe! Britton, meanwhile, worked very hard on the car and managed to drive home without a clutch. It took him nearly 4 hours, but he made it! I know I couldn’t have done that. He is so talented. So it was a very exciting Valentine’s Day with a lot of good lessons. Love one another, never quit trying and help out your fellow human! Of course I love Puerto Rico with all the beautiful enticing beaches and sights, but it’s things like this and the people who make it truly special.

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Lares Adventure to Haunted La Rambla and Cafe Lareño

This week for our adventure we headed to Lares. I had heard about a beautiful place that I just had to check out: La Rambla, also known as The Levy Mansion. There are so many legends and stories about this place, but some consensus says that it was at one point in time going to be a hotel/casino, but then became the island’s first bottled water company because of the sweet spring water that came from a blessed source: La Santa Rosa spring. But there is much more to this story, from a wonderful start to complete abandonment. What happened exactly is unclear, but there are some theories including the violent death of a beloved daughter.


At the Famous Original Lares Heladeria

We started our journey traveling with our friend Anthony from Rincon to the Lares Plaza where we stopped in at the Famous Lares Heladeria. It had been MANY years since we stopped in there, but not a whole lot had changed except, that a copy-cat shop opened up just a few doors down selling the strange concoction (rice and bean, garlic, sausage flavor among others) ice creams as well!


With friends at the new El Grito Heladeria also


Fun with friends in Lares!

Then we rambled on down to La Rambla. Even though it is marked as “No Trespassing” we asked around downtown and they said there was a boquete in the fence that everyone uses and no one cares as long as you are respectful of the area. So we walked from downtown a couple of blocks and spotted the beautiful mansion from the road.



Details of the house

The mansion and grounds were themselves amazing, but the area over the spring was something altogether magical! It was a great place for a photoshoot and I am glad I brought along a skirt to add a little elegance to the photos and to honor what an amazing place it is!

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(these two awesome photos above thanks to Anthony Perez)

Finally afterward, we met up with more friends drove up the hills and checked out the Cafe Lareño factory. It was not officially open to customers, but we met the very nice owner, Don Luis Alcover who showed us around and let us eat and drink a picnic lunch at his place. It was very interesting to see that much of the coffee doesn’t come from Puerto Rico, but rather Mexico! It is depulped, roasted, ground and packaged in Puerto Rico mainly. There were some premium bags of purely Puerto Rican coffee, but not many. I hope that the Puerto Rican coffee industry is able to get stronger and stronger over time.


With my friend Berkley and the owner of Cafe Lareño, Luis Alcover


In the rest area below the newly opened coffee shop (that was closed but available to us courtesy the owner)


A beautiful tour of the coffee grounds (haha pun intended)!


A wonderful day in Lares, Puerto Rico!

Check out the video for more about La Rambla and our awesome day!

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