So I absolutely love Puerto Rico. We are here for the weekend
and this is our third time visiting.
So we don't usually come back to the same place very often except for maybe Mexico,
but we've been here three times. This time we're going to explore the North of Puerto Rico.
I like to look at tours to get an idea for itineraries. Since we're on a budget we don't usually book tours,
but it's nice to get an idea of what they're seeing so that you can kind of plan your own.
So we're going to show you four different activities that you can do in the North of Puerto Rico.
This is Mar Chiquita it is about 40 minutes outside of San Juan
and the rocks along the outside form a bay and the water is super clear
and the rocks on the shore make it a good place for snorkeling and so you can see a bunch of different fish
and you don't have to swim that far out. I just kind of floated there and watched a bunch of the fish. It was super fun.
So we definitely recommend this beach.
We just finished at the beach and we're super hungry, so we came to this food truck that's just up the road called L'Pilonazo.
And they specialize in Mofongo, so Mofongo is a Puerto Rican food. They use a lot of plantains in Puerto Rican food.
And Mofongo is mashed plantain and it's a pile of mashed plantain and they put meat on the inside.
So I got L'Pilonazo which is chicken and steak and Nefi got mariscada
which is shrimp, octopus, and crab. So we're excited to give it a try.
So it was really good. Probably the best mofongo, plantain mofongo that I've had.
I've had yuca mofongo in Isabella that was really good. This was amazing.
They add salsa that keeps it from getting too dry. It wasn't super cheap necessarily. Mine was fourteen dollars
and Nefi's was eighteen cause of all the seafood. But definitely come earlier in the evening
because right now the wiat time is forty minutes and they start to sell out of stuff.
So our first stop today is the Gozalandia waterfall. It is an hour and forty minutes outside of San Juan.
It is a really windy curvy narrow road to get out of here though for like the second half
so just be aware of that it takes a little bit longer than maybe you might think it would.
We're excited to check out this waterfall. There is a lower falls, an upper falls, and a rope swing.
So we found the upper falls and this is where the rope swing is. It's like a 10 minute walk
up a concrete path. it's not labeled or anything though, so we almost missed it.
If you go down the stairs to the lower falls when you come back up just to the left
there's a path that goes up. It's concrete and like a ten minute walk up here to the upper falls.
It's actually less crowded here and there's a fun rope swing.
So we just stopped on the side of the road for lunch at this stand. They are selling Alcapurrias.
Which are fried yuca with meat inside or fried green plantains with meat inside.
I tried the yuca and green plantain with ground beef inside
and Nefi tried one with crab and ground beef. They're really good, super affordable and easy and quick
when you're traveling around. It's in between where we went to the waterfall in San Sebastian and Arecibo.
We'll add the direct link in the description if you want to check it out. It was super delicious and we would highly recommend it.
We're at El Cueva del Indio which is a cave that has petroglyphs.
We paid five dollars to park and get in and now we are walking around trying to find the petroglyphs.
We found this cave here behind us and there is also a view of an arch
and window out into the ocean, so it's really pretty.
We are still hunting for the petroglyphs though, so we will let you know if we find those.
We walked up the other side on the right and we found these arches
which are really cool. The water is super blue, the arches are super pretty.
But it turns out I think the petroglyphs were in the first cave we found
and it's kind of hard to distinguish what is petroglyph and what is just what some kid scratched in there.
So there used to be a ladder it looks like that you could actually go down into the cave and now there isn't so that's kind of a bummer.
I think we found some petroglyphs. I don't know. For the ten dollars for both of us the waterfalls were definitely a better deal,
because we could have spent all day there and here it's kind of like maybe an hour max.
But it's still really pretty views and the petroglyphs if we actually found them are kind of cool...so.
Our last stop of the day is Playa La Boca
we were trying to go to Playa La Esperanza. They are both two of the black sand beaches
that are in Puerto Rico that are on the mainland. Playa La Esperanza is in a nature reserve though
so it closes at 6 and it's only open on weekends. We were not going to make it there in time,
so we made a quick change of plans and we are at Playa la Boca. So it has black sand
it's pretty rocky though, so it's not really a swimming beach, but it's nice to just sit here and enjoy the ocean breeze
and the black sand is kind of cool. It gives it like a nice Hawaii volcanic feel.
But we've had a great day today we had to change a few plans you know always being flexible,
but it was a great trip and we're glad we could show you some of the wonderful places in Northern Puerto Rico.
If you have been here and we missed something be sure to let us know in the comments so we can check it out next time we come back.