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Feb. 17 – Old San Juan, PR

By on February 21, 2023 in The Pearl
“Travel has a way of stretching the mind. The stretch comes not from travel’s immediate rewards, the inevitable myriad of new sights, smells and sounds, but with experiencing firsthand how others do differently what we believed to be the right and only way.” —Ralph Crawshaw
Like yesterday, we tried to visit places we didn’t see on our first visit. We wandered through town taking in the sights and history of the town. Today’s post is some of the history we learned.

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Feb. 16 – Old San Juan, PR

By on February 20, 2023 in The Pearl
“It is not the destination where you end up, but the mishaps and memories you create along the way.” ~Penelope Riley 

Old San Juan has a lot to see and do, and we covered a lot of it on our first trip in 2020. This time we’re wandering, at a slower pace, taking in some of the sites we didn’t see then.

This was our favorite place for breakfast on our first trip. It’s a little kiosk in Plaza de Armas just a block from the apartment.

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Feb 15 – Old San Juan, PR

By on February 16, 2023 in The Pearl
“Travel…the best way to be lost and found at the same time.” ~Brenna Smith

Today we left the mountains and returned to the coast. We’ll spend the next three days in Old San Juan. It was one of our favorite places we visited in 2020. We just loved this old walled city. So many beautiful buildings and so much history. OSJ is actually an island connected to the main island by bridges on the eastern side and is the oldest city in the US and its territories. The Spanish built two huge forts and walled-in the city to protect it from the French, Dutch, and English. San Juan became Spain’s fortified door to the Americas. Today Old San Juan is a busy hub for tourism. We love to walk the city taking in the beauty of the century old buildings that are now used for museums, restaurants, stores and interesting places to stay.

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Feb. 14 – Jayuya, PR

By on February 15, 2023 in The Pearl
“Those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it.”  —Rick Watson

We traveled east out of Jayuya today to explore some popular tourist places and to find some pretty waterfalls. Our first stop was at La Piedra Escrita (the written stone). This beautiful park offers wonderful views of the mountains and a great place to swim in the tranquil water. But it’s best known for the large granite boulder that is covered in pictographs. The site was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places in 2003 due to its importance as a prime example of prehistoric rock art in Puerto Rico. 

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Feb. 13 – Cañon Blanco

By on February 14, 2023 in The Pearl
“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.” -Babs Hoffman 
There’s a saying that the journey is better than the destination or something like that. Our true adventure today was getting to the destination. If you travel to Puerto Rico I suggest not counting on Google to get you where you want to go. Yesterday and today it took us on some pretty out of the way roads that ended up at a dead end or turned into a river bottom. We could see we were so close but we just couldn’t get there. If Stan hadn’t been so determined to find our intended destination I would have given up and gone home. Some of the roads were a little scary. We were right on the edge of a mountain on roads that were no wider than our car, but the views were amazing. 

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Feb. 12 – Jayuya, PR

By on February 13, 2023 in The Pearl
“Travel doesn’t become adventure until you leave yourself behind.” –Anonymous  

Today we left the beach and headed inland to Jayuya (hah-YOO-yah). The town is known as the “Town of The Three Peaks” and is located high in the central mountain region of the island, north of Ponce. It’s the site of the highest mountains in Puerto Rico, surrounded by the Cerro La Punta and Los Tres Picachos mountains. We plan to do a little hiking and explore the mountains and waterfalls in the area.

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Feb. 11 – Aguadilla, PR

By on February 12, 2023 in The Pearl

“To find a seashell is to discover a world of imagination.” –Michelle Held

Today was our last day at the beach. The weather was  wonderful and the surf was down, so we were able to truly enjoy the beach in front of our house. It’s been a fun week…mostly relaxing and taking in the view of the ocean and watching the power of the water. When the tide, wind and waves allowed I did a lot of beach combing for amazing sea glass. I found an unbelievable amount of great glass and some amazing shells.

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Feb. 9 – Hike to Charco El Pilon Waterfall

By on February 10, 2023 in The Pearl
“To the tourist, travel is a means to an end; to the traveler, it’s an end in itself.” — Marty Rubin
Yesterday we took it easy. We hung out around the house and enjoyed our beach. I’m glad we did because the wind picked up today and the waves were so large they completely took over the beach. The water literally was up to the house. It has been fun to see how much our beach changes from day to day. 

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Feb. 6 – Beach Day

By on February 8, 2023 in The Pearl
“It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire.” –Robert Louis Stevenson

The beach that our house is on in Aquadilla is an incredible glass beach. The tide goes out twice a day and leaves an unbelievable amount of beautiful sea polished treasures behind. People come from all over the world to collect these bits of old glass. You would think it would all disappear but the ocean keeps being more in…day after day, year after year. Beautiful polished pieces of the past. 

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Feb. 6 – Aquadilla, PR

By on February 7, 2023 in The Pearl
“Let’s collect shells as we walk down the beach. Our treasures are many, and all within reach. Sand dollars, scallops, and snails we will find. The starfish we share for it’s one of a kind.” —Lee Nemmers 
We started our day with coffee on our patio overlooking the ocean and a full moon that hadn’t set yet. The ocean was drastically different this morning than it was yesterday. The surf was up and we watched surfers along the waterfront of Aquadilla all day. 

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