San Juan Puerto Rico

[rjwdoc]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I made some Puerto Rican friends while I was there. Every night they'd take me to some or other restaurant on some side street off the tourist track. Often these were little more than someone's front room in their house, with perhaps 4-6 tables inside.
Every night was better than the previous, which I didn't think possible...maybe better is not the right word...different.
I can say without hesitation, the best culinary examples of amazing cooking I've ever experienced in my life was in PR. It's an art form there.

On my last night I was taken " somewhere" in the mountains to a "pig roast" done PR style. I have no idea where I was. The pig was cooking under some corrugated lean-to open wood fire affair. I can't say how long it had been cooking, but obviously for hours. The "chef's" , such as they were, had been imbibing their version of moonshine during all this time and were hammered to the gills, but the final product was sublime. I had tasted anything like it before or since.

All this to tell you, experience PR cooking wherever and whenever you can.

That is La ruta de lechon. Cayey

[sailon46]

I’m in Puerto Real Cabo Rojo. I’ll be coming to San Juan next week thank you all for your heads up about docking in the harbor

[Indolent58]

San Juan is a great city and Puerto Ricans are lovely people. But the anchorage frankly sucks. As mentioned, it’s the only semi protected anchorage in San Juan Bay but it can get very rough and boats regularly drag and collide. Its problems are many - it’s both deep and crowded making swing room a big issue. There are some submerged wrecks that make significant parts unusable, as well as many unattended local boats on scattered private mooring balls. We were there in early December. Because space was so limited we anchored on the far west end furthest away from the marina. But even though we were within the boundaries of the designated anchorage we were chase off by harbor police when a 1000 ft cruise ship that apparently couldn’t fit in the regular cruise ship area came to dock. We heard a rumor from another cruiser that the Port planned to close the anchorage altogether at some point to make room for more cruise ships. I don’t know if that’s true but San Juan really isn’t a terribly accommodating place for cruisers or boaters in general. In the future we will do what the locals do and stick to the east or south coasts of the island for boating activities.

[sailon46]

Indolent thank you for the details that would hamper my 45 Cat from been a comfortable I will try the island of Vequies instead. Do you have info about this island I heard it can be good anchorage.
Thanx Ernest on the Loremar

[rjwdoc]

Sun bay in Esperanza is a great anchoring spot on the south side of Vieques.

[Indolent58]

Originally Posted by sailon46

Indolent thank you for the details that would hamper my 45 Cat from been a comfortable I will try the island of Vequies instead. Do you have info about this island I heard it can be good anchorage.
Thanx Ernest on the Loremar

We really enjoyed Vequies. Esperanza is a charming little anchorage and the bioluminescent bay tour is a must. I wasn’t expecting much but it was really astounding. The west end of the island has some nice snorkeling and a nice anchorage as well. San Juan is worth visiting but if I had to do it again I would stay in Fajardo and take ground transportation there.

[sailon46]

Thank you both I think Esperanza will be on my course . About how far will I be from Cabo Rojo to Vequies will it be one nighter or two Dieseling over the island

[MicHughV]

There had been talk about fixing those old piers adjacent and to the east of the cruise ship terminals to make them suitable for marine dockage, etc, but that never came to pass.
The story I was told, and this is going back a few years, was that the PR guv'mint was not very good with handling money, but that is probably true for most guv'mints.

There seems to be a divisive split amongst the locals whether PR should become an independent nation or become another US State. Currently, it is neither, being an "unincorporate territory". Exactly what that implies, I could not tell you.

Their economy is in a bit of a shambles for a variety of reasons as are their politicians.

But all that aside, PR tops my list of favorite places I've been too.

There are several places besides San Juan where one could go to.

While there is deep water east of the cruise ship terminals, I don't think it's deep enough to handle cruise ships and a dredging operation would likely be necessary before that could or would happen, but as mentioned, finding the $$$ to do so is questionable. I did once see a "smallish" cruise ship tied alongside the southern edge of that channel, but this was some time back.

[SV Coronado]

Lots of information on Noforeignland.