The Western Wall
We begin our voyage of discovery in La Parguera, a small seaside village filled with paradores. Out here, big resorts are few and far between, and most accommodations are in the small inns and B&Bs. We find them homey, clean, air-conditioned and delightful.
We check into Posada Porlamar, home of Parguera Divers, which has promised to take us down to explore the famous Parguera Wall. We also encounter the first of a zillion surprises: Posada Porlamar has one hell of a great restaurant, Restaurante La Pared. I'm not a gourmand by any stretch, but I could eat happily and well here for a month.
Capt. Efra Figueroa, owner of Parguera Divers, and his dive master, Capt. Angel Rovira, run one of the most safety-conscious dive operations I've ever encountered in the Caribbean. Our dive on the wall was supported by surface-supplied air with two regulators, a hang line with extra weight and a 200-foot/60-meter safety line.
The wall's coral was healthy and vibrant, and we encountered plenty of barracuda, schools of black durgeon and parrot fish, octopus and one huge moray. The folks we dove with had a rare underwater meeting the day before with a dolphin mom and calf as well as a hawksbill turtle.
The currents were minimal and the water clear: visibility was at least 150 feet/45 meters in all directions. Why don't more divers discover Puerto Rico? One of the unanswerable questions.
Dry Dock
After diving, we decided to get dry in the Guanica State Forest, a reserve said to be one of the finest examples of a subtropical dry forest in the world and home to the United Nations Biosphere Reserve. The Guanica forest gets barely 36 inches/914 millimeters of rain a year compared to the 15 feet/4.5 meters of downpours in the Cordillera mountain range to the north.
Still, the place has an incredibly diverse aviary and insect biomass, and plant life ranges from dry scrub trees and cactus to medicinally and commercially viable deciduous and evergreen trees. Botanists, ornithologists and entomologists flock here to study the Puerto Rican nightjar, the crested toad, the bariaco (an unlikely-looking member of the mahogany family) and other species found in Guanica and nowhere else on earth.
On the way out of the park, we decided to hook down Ruta 333. It's an up-and-down coastal road that passes a big new beach complex, Cana Gorda, the big and beautiful new Copamarina all-inclusive resort, and ends at, depending on which sign you believe, Gilligan, Gulligan or Guilligan Island. We parked at the edge of the ocean at Mary Lee's by the Sea parador and had a cold Medalla at the San Jacinto Restaurante.
Colonial Transito
San German (pronounced air-mahn) has a city center that's been air-lifted in from Andalucma. It was the first settlement in western Puerto Rico, dating back to the late 14th century. The early colonists called it San German del Nuevo in 1573.
The architecture in the heart of the city is classical Spanish. The streets and sidewalks have ornamental brickwork, wrought-iron balconies and a perfect central plaza squeezed between the church and the Porta Coeli (Heaven's Gate) convent.
The convent is now a museum, with 3-foot-/1-meter-thick walls and mahogany beams dating back to 1606. The museum features religious art and has been restored with as much original material as possible. The old church across the plaza was founded in 1622 by two Jesuits who were promptly sent off to Japan and martyrdom.
As in much of Puerto Rico today, anachronisms are the rule. The tiny streets of the old town are horse-wide, yet today's SUVs cram up the 400-year-old plaza at rush hour. Traffic is at a standstill, except for the mountain biker who zooms through the brick streets with all the aplomb of a New York City delivery biker.
Party Time
Boquersn is your classic beach town. Home to Puerto Rico's longest (about a mile/1.6 kilometers) and largest palm-studded beach, the town resembles Key West squeezed into about two blocks. We stopped for a few at Galloway's Bar and Restaurant, where Gladys Galloway, a fixture in town, tells us, Don't expect fancy. We have a T-shirt that sums it up. She pulls one from under the counter. Galloways -- Where All The Missing Pieces Fit. It's nice to be home.
The town offers boat charters, sea kayaking, diving, plenty of restaurants and bars and paradores on the strip and out near the beach.
Into The Woods
For some reason, we decide we've got to see the Maricao Forest northeast of Boquersn. So, following the map, off we go on Route 119, which turns into the usual Puerto Rican mountain road system. Suddenly we're on Route 120, and then 366, and then who knows?
Hairpin after hairpin finally takes us to La Torre de Piedra (the Tower of Stone), a newly erected castle-like structure that provides an incredible view of nearly all of western Puerto Rico. We can see from Santa Isabel round through Mayag|ez, most of the north coast to San Juan and Desecheo Island to the northwest, and we're told on a clear day, one can see Mona Island, some 40 miles/64 kilometers distant. We see the foothills of the Cordillera, serrated across the sky, and the savanna of the coastal plain, the Sabana Grande.
Surf's Up
Time is running short, but I'm lusting to see a place I've only heard about since the World Surfing Championships were held here in 1968: Rincsn, home of the gnarliest waves in the Caribbean.
The waves are as blue as a pretty blonde's eyes and crack just overhead at about 7 feet/2 meters, with some higher sets rolling in. And there are breaks all over the place: Maria's, Indicator, Domes, The Point, Tres Palmas, Steps, Dog Man's. I've been reading about these places for years.
I wish for one of my boards and another afternoon to spend in the water. Instead, I settle for a close-up look at the town. It's beautiful, classic, neat and tidy (trash cans take the form of dolphins). According to tourism head Steve Lantz, despite being the premier surf spot in the eastern U.S., it's also the best place in Puerto Rico for nothing.
Rincsn is not a big party town, although the scene at Calypso and The Landing is usually quite active. For those seeking night life, the run to Aguadilla to the north or Mayag|ez to the south is not that bad. But Rincsn, in addition to the surfing, offers offshore fishing, diving and, well, nothing.
I think about the wild west on the two-hour drive back to San Juan and her crowded, bustling streets. Do nothing or do something. Sounds like the perfect vacation recipe to me.
Posted online 04/01/99.
