Isla North Region, Puerto Rico

Quebradillas, The Pirate’s Hideout.. Arrg!

On to Quebradillas from Isabela..

This is part 2 of a 4 part series regarding the towns of the northwest coast of PR. Our first stop was Isabela. We left off by covering the old train tunnel where Rio Guajataca empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Though the tunnel and beach are on the Isabela side of the river, it’s actually much closer to Quebradillas.

On the Quebradillas side of the Guajataca River is a beautiful Parador with gorgeous views of the Atlantic Coast. We did not stop to check it out.

A word or two About Puerto Rico’s Paradores

Paradores are as close to Motels as ‘mainlanders’ will ever get, here on the island. There ARE a few motels, but they are used by the locals for ‘quickie getaways’. Paradores are more like country Inns with a tropical twist and can vary in size from quaint to massive. Many of them have pools, bars and restaurants.

They are privately owned, but must meet a certain set of requirements to receive Parador certification by the Government of Puerto Rico.

If you visit the See Puerto Rico Website’s Accommodations page, you may click on the Paradores category to see where some are located. All are outside of San Juan with most located on the west end of the island. [Read more…] about Quebradillas, The Pirate’s Hideout.. Arrg!

Isabela, Garden of the Northwest

In our continuing effort to eventually visit all of the towns of Puerto Rico, we took a run to the northwest part of the island.

It is about as far from where we live in Coamo as you can get.

In one marathon photo shoot, we covered the highlights of Isabela, Quebradillas, Camuy and Hatillo. Each town will be featured in a separate post, starting with Isabela. The weather for the day was perfect.. sunny with broken clouds.

My feet were killing me by the time we finished!

Since we were coming from the south side of PR, we took Tollway 52 to Ponce, then Highway 2 past Mayaguez on the west shore, continuing on past Aguadilla.

The ‘retired’ Ramey Air Force Base at the very far northwest corner of PR now provides commercial passenger service as the Rafael Hernández Airport. Though most people don’t know it, Puerto Rico has 3 commercial airports. The one in San Juan is the busiest and most popular, followed by the airport in Ponce. [Read more…] about Isabela, Garden of the Northwest

The Ruins of Hacienda Santa Elena, Toa Baja

As most of you know, photographing the old sugar mill ruins of Puerto Rico is one of my most favorite things to do. Especially now that I have a pretty decent camera.

Well… Santa Elena is by far, the best site I’ve been to yet.

I stumbled onto this place while studying a collection of material I downloaded from a Department of Interior’s Website. It is host to the American Engineering Record archives which is part of the (US) National Park Service. The main list simply breaks down by the State 2 letter postal ID. I downloaded almost everything under ‘PR’. It turned out to be a treasure-trove of images, drawings, maps and data.

All of it is available to the public at large… Your tax dollars at work!

Other than giving credit where credit is due, you are pretty much free to use the material as well. So I will be featuring bits and pieces of it that complement the story, just as I did when I featured Isla de Cabras a few weeks back.

If this interests you, you might want to check out the National Register of Historic Places listings in Puerto Rico found on Wikipedia. It’s a great place to start.

[Read more…] about The Ruins of Hacienda Santa Elena, Toa Baja

Dorado- The Golden City of Puerto Rico

Our exploration of Highway 165 continues..

I’ve covered Catano, Isla de Cabras, Balneario Punta Salinas and Toa Baja to date.

As the story goes, some folks from Toa Baja got tired of losing their homes to alluvial flood plains flooding, so they relocated to nearby higher ground, later naming it Dorado.

In fact, the plaza of Dorado rests on the top of a small steep hill.

About 34,000 folks call Dorado home.

Dorado is easy to find. The main exit for Hwy 693 is off Hwy 165 (after it leaves the coast and makes a long loop to the south). Highway 693 is also called Calle (street) Méndez Vigo.

It will take you straight up the hill to the main plaza, after crossing over the La Plata (Toa) River…

which by the way, is the longest river on the island.

There are good views, up and down the river from here.

Old Town, Dorado Central

The plaza of Dorado is very picturesque. [Read more…] about Dorado- The Golden City of Puerto Rico

Cataño, Gate Keeper to San Juan

This is the first of a series of Posts from the North side of the island… an area I don’t get out to very often. So here we go.

I’ve mentioned Cataño in several of my stories over the last 2 years, but never addressed it directly. Today, I will.

From a tourist’s perspective, the most outstanding thing about Cataño is that this is where the Bacardi Distillery is located. Cataño maintains the only ferry shuttle service to Old San Juan. The ferry terminal (La Lancha de Cataño) in Cataño is undergoing a major update so I expect they will be able to accommodate larger crowds soon. The current version of the service was launched in the 1950’s. It runs from 5AM to 10PM most days and runs 7 days a week. It only takes a few minutes to make the crossing from Cataño to Old San Juan.

The Bacardi tour itself is free so it is worth the cost of the ferry ride and shuttle bus fee to get there and back. The Bacardi tour is in my top 10 list of things to do in Old San Juan.

That said, there is more to Cataño than just Bacardi.

Cataño is located across the bay from Old San Juan, off Highway 165. It happens to be the smallest ‘municipio’ (municipality) in Puerto Rico… half the size of the next smallest town. About 30,000 folks live here. [Read more…] about Cataño, Gate Keeper to San Juan