Going Home

They don’t call it the continent of Puerto Rico for nothing—there’s a lot to do on this little island. Casinos, fine dining, luxurious beaches, 5-star hotels, world-class golf courses and resorts. Then there’s El Yunque, the Caribbean National Rainforest; La Parguera, the bioluminescent bay; and, of course, Old San Juan, the fortressed city.

Quick Tips:

• Use sunscreen-always. It’s amazing how quickly a person can get burned. The one day on our trip that we didn’t use sunblock, when we went to El Yunque, we came back tanned—and we had been shaded by trees practically the entire time.
• The street vendors provide delicious food and drinks, a must-try, but they will usually overcharge tourists. Wait and see what natives are paying before you start buying.
• Puerto Rico has some great alcoholic beverages (It’s the birthplace of the pina colada and home of several rum distilleries, after all.) Just remember that alcohol and sun are a dangerous combination.
• There’s safety in numbers. Enough said.

Best Way To Get Around:

While you’re in the metropolitan area, use taxis or, for the more daring types, buses. D4riving a car in the city is a nightmare for the uninitiated—Puerto Ricans pay little attention to traffic laws, streets are often unmarked, and parking is a hassle.

Some hotels and charter buses will take you to the rain forest and a few other places. However, if you are planning on roaming the island a lot, you may want to rent a car. Be forewarned: Puerto Rico uses a confusing mix of the American and metric systems.

Ever since I first stepped inside this restaurant, it has been my favorite in Puerto Rico. Located in Old San Juan, halfway between Fort San Cristobal and the docks, Café Berlin boosts a bohemian spirit and an eclectic menu. In an island where people sneak meat into almost every item, this place is a true vegetarian’s delight: tofu sandwiches delicious enough to please the most skeptic eater, vegetarian quiche, eggplant sandwiches, the list goes on and on. Most of it is served with a side of blue corn chips. They provide breakfast items, fancy desserts, and plenty of food for omnivores, too.

If you go to Café Berlin—a great place to escape the noontime heat and relax—ignore the price and order a fruit frappe. You are almost guaranteed to start a chain reaction throughout the eatery as patrons say "I want whatever that person’s having." The mango frappe is particularly heavenly.

During the day, La Parguera is a sleepy village on the southwestern side of the island. At night, however, the place is festive and full of life. Something to look forward to, perhaps, when you come back from your boating trip. Several boats take nightly trips to the bioluminescent bay, with its beautiful glowing creatures. These microorganisms, called dinoflagellates, are harmless, unless you happen to be plankton.

Try to get a seat in the back of the boat—you will have the best view of its glowing, foaming wake. Also, take note of where the life jackets are. This will almost certainly be an unnecessary precaution, but it could help save valuable time during an emergency.

The boats travel without lights to help the passengers get their night vision. Little happens during the long minutes it takes a boat to reach its destination; perhaps a bright flicker here and there. Then suddenly, the water around the craft will start glowing – greeted, most likely, by collective oohs and aahs. The glow gets stronger and stronger yet: a delicate neon breaking the monotony of the night. Finally, the ship will stop in the secluded bay where the bioluminescent organisms live. Any little movement will make the water glow; otherwise—darkness.

The majority of ships make passengers stay on board. If you have the opportunity to charter a boat that will let you swim in the bay, do so. The extra expense will be well worth the memory of this trip.

Tip: Please resist the urge to take some of the dinoflagellates home with you. Even if kept in a bottle with salt water, they will die within a few hours. There are very few bioluminescent bays in the world; please help preserve them.

It would almost be sacreligious to visit Puerto Rico without going to the Caribbean National Rainforest. If you’re not going on a chartered bus, be sure to get very detailed directions—the entrance roads are easy to miss.

When you go, be sure to dress sensibly; bring sturdy shoes and a raincoat. Even if guided tours aren’t your thing, you should go on a short one for the wealth of information you will get—about the climate of the rainforest; the plant diversity (the forest is home to over 240 species, 26 found nowhere else on Earth); the legends and beliefs of the Tainos, the original Puerto Ricans; the endangered Puerto Rican parrot, and more.

There are about 24 miles of recreational trails. Ask a Park employee at the Interpretive Service Center to recommend some trails to you, given your time limit and fitness level. Here are a few suggestions:

• Bano de Oro and Caimitillo are short and sweet.
• La Mina ends at a waterfall—the perfect place for a picnic.
• Mount Britton is a fairly rigorous hike that leads you to a tower atop a peek. It’s a great view.

As you walk, listen carefully to the sounds of the rainforest. With a little luck, you should be able to hear the call of Puerto Rico’s most vocal—but tiny—amphibian: co-qui, co-qui!

If you love to hike and want to avoid the crowds, El Yunque is definitely the trail to take. It’s a 2-4 hour roundtrip hike (depending on your ability) that takes you from the lush tropical canopy to the stunted, mossy trees of the Cloud Forest. You will climb to a height of nearly 3,500 feet where, depressingly, you will find a service road. Be sure to take the trail behind the radio tower. It will lead you to El Yunque rock, which offers one of the most magnificent views of the island.

Even up here on the 14th floor, I can hardly sleep from the perpetual barrage of honking horns, screeching wheels, and droning sirens. Then there’s the heat. Even if it were quiet, I still couldn’t sleep. Why couldn’t this apartment come with air conditioning? But, no matter. I’ll be used to it by tomorrow. And for now, it’s a small price to pay for being home.

Home! I haven’t lived here in 5 years, since I went off to college. Now I have a home of my own in the States with my loving husband and wayward pets. But I suspect that part of me will always consider Puerto Rico home, no matter where the fates lead me. This is where my roots are or, more appropriately, mis raices.

On the plane coming here, I became a giddy child. To see the beach, la playa and the mountains, las montanas again – and to share it all with my husband! "Look, there’s Plaza Las Americas, the shopping mecca of the island." Square foot for square foot, no mall in the US is more profitable. "And there’s Plaza Aquatica, the metropolitan water park my friends and I used to go to in middle school. That’s Hato Rey, the financial district. And that’s the lagoon, with its tin-roofed houses on one side and the snaking Teodoro Moscoso Bridge." Then, after having been forced to wait too many hours, too many days, too many years to come back, we were hitting the landing field of Luis Munoz Marin International Airport all too soon. I wanted to float above the island a little longer, soaking in the sites that were so familiar, yet tinged with novelty.

People without tickets are not allowed in the terminals. The airport was quiet and vacant, almost eerily so, until you stepped outside and that explosion of life and sound hit you. It’s that very thing that is keeping me awake now; the same vibrant force that engulfs San Juan, stretching as far as Isla Verde, where I am staying.

In the morning, this will all be worth it.