Puerto Rico

[DetectorGuy]

Well, it hasn't been a super great trip yet. On Saturday our laptop screen went haywire and I'm sure its shot. Then yesterday we did the bioluminescent bay tour in Fajardo and we lost a camera with a lot of great photos on it. So I'm posting this on my wife's Kindle Fire. I still have the Sealife digital and the GoPro Hero2 but the viz is so bad on the south and east coast because of some low pressure front, that we haven't done much snorkeling. Really its like 2' vis here. The Atlantic side is better but that's a 4 hour drive. I am still hoping to set up a dive or two near Ponce. Today we are going inland to a fresh water lake in the rainforest to snorkel there and go on the zip line... We,we,we,weeeeeeeee! (like the pig in the commercial says). If Hydro is coming to PR in a week, don't plan on shore dives or shore snorkeling on the south or east coast of the main island or the east or south coast of the smaller islands... 6' waves and poor, poor vis for at least 300 yards offshore. I will update later if I get signal.

[DetectorGuy]

Well, I wish I had something to report back to you about on the diving in Puerto Rico... but I didn't get any dives in. Don't let my opinion of Puerto Rico sway your thoughts of visiting Puerto Rico as The diving would have been pretty good if the weather hadn't churned it all up... I tried to set something up a few different times but the dive shops I tried weren't bringing anyone out. 6' to 7' seas most of the time in the South and East coast, higher on the North and West coast. The viz was better for snorkeling on the West and North coast, but the waves hammered you into the rocks pretty hard. In my opinion the people in Puerto Rico were not the friendliest... except in the NW corner near Rincon. Some of the older people near Rincon came to the island for the first Surfing World Championship in 1968 and they liked it so much they never left. Its like a time warp there where all these ex-pats from the states hang out and live at a much slower pace. These people are cool old dudes (literally). The other 98% of the 4 million people living on the island are still pissed about the Spanish/American war. Suffice it to say that I won't be retiring in Puerto Rico. I also think it will be a long, LONG time before Puerto Rico becomes the 51st state. I ended up taking 600 photos (mostly on land) and 100 videos. Some of the videos of driving through the mountains are moderately entertaining with washouts in the blacktop roads coming almost to the centerline (if they had enough ambition to actually paint a centerline). So minus the poor viz, the people, and bringing the mother-in-law with, it was a good trip.

[Hydro]

Thanks for the update, my backup plan is speilunking and rock climbing... my damn gopro is on the fritz, so diving will be less fun.... hopefully the weather calms down for me.

[Terry]

                  I'm just hoping Joe dosent come back, raving about how hospitable it was, that would make me think that Johns experience was just being from, Isanti Co.  :-*

[Hydro]

  :-[  sorry to have to report 8) PR is freaking AWESOME!!!! All the kids at the hostel are friendly, one invited us to her wedding tonight  :o but even better was the caving trip we went on today, it was phenomenal! We had to zipline, viafarrado? And then rappell down about 300 feet total, just to get to the damn entrance! We were swimming through pools and rivers and sumps, and diving into murky pools (all lights out for fun when jumping). For the next 5-6 hours, (k is still complaing about sand in *areas*) yeah It was a walk in the park compared to a day of icediving for sure, but hey I'm on vacation taking it easy.   8)

They let slow people take up the rear (so I'm told) I was totally in the front the entire time having a blast, k and I were done first of course and were ungeared, showered, and changed before the others even got back. They have space open in the tour tomorrow for canyoneering so they gave us a very nice discount.  The guide is also writing a book on rock climbing, so he was gonna take us out on his day off Monday since I had gear.

PR is rough,  I might not have any energy by the time I find a dive shop   ;D

[DetectorGuy]

Good to hear your having a good time. The horseback ride through the El Yunque National Forest is kinda nice too. Its about 2 hours through the rain forest but other ranches have trails that go along the beaches. My wife really liked that but the horse I had must have been rodeo stock. Don't waste your time (and money) on the BIO Bay stuff. The water is so polluted that the bio-luminescence is very dim, Plus we did that on a full moon. There is one BIO bay in Fajardo, one near Ponce, and one in Mosquito bay (Visques) The one we did was in Fajardo. On the SE corner of PR is a town called Patillas and the rocky/sand beaches there are full of sea glass. We brought home 25 pounds of it. There is a dive shop in Rincon called Tiano Divers and one two towns North of there called Puerto Rico Technical Dive Center. They both take divers out to Descho (SP?) Island and Mona Island. I tried to get out there but the boats were shut down for a few days because of wind. Have Fun and keep us posted