Puerto Rico: Tourism After Hurricane Maria – Rincon and Aguadilla

When Skylar initially threw out the idea of visiting Puerto Rico in 2018, my first thought was “is Puerto Rico ready for tourism”? We researched a bit online and found the areas we wanted to stay had power and the roads were cleared. We knew the island was slowly recovering and some activities would still be closed, but we decided to book our trip for October 2018 and go on an adventure.

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I was nervous about what Puerto Rico was going to be like. After the hurricane the devastation was all over the news. What we found on the island and among the people was love and resilience. Here was our experience staying on the west coast of Puerto Rico for three days.

We flew in to Aguadilla, a small airport in the northwest corner of the island. I will be writing more about this experience in a later post. We had booked three nights close to Rincon, which was a 30 min drive along Hwy 115. The highway road was in good shape, better than I had expected. Overall driving on this Hwy was easy. When we arrived in Rincon the driving required more attention. The roads were narrow and winding, at times only allowing enough room for one car to pass. As long as we were careful the driving was fine. We didn’t need a 4×4 at any point during our trip. Google maps worked well for navigation, and we arrived safely to our Airbnb. In the morning we woke up to this wonderful view.

We started the day checking out a few beaches. We took a stroll along Sandy Beach in Rincon. The parking lot was small and the beach was not crowded. The sand was nice and soft for walking. We were able to watch a few surfers. We were hoping to check out Tamboo. It is a restaurant on Sandy beach with an excellent view. It happened to be closed the week were were visiting, but was reopening the following week. Video footage of all the beaches we visited in Puerto Rico is located on our YouTube Channel Explorcation.

Our next stop was Surfer’s Beach in Aguadilla. This beach was a little more challenging to find for the first time. Google gets you pretty close, but there is a road by a chain link fence that you have to drive down to actually get to the beach. The parking lot was quite bumpy but our rental car was fine driving slow. This beach was busier than Sandy Beach. Most people were at this beach to surf. The sand was soft and there were quite a few giant rocks around this beach. The hike to Survival Beach starts here and I talk more about that hike later on.

Rain started rolling in while we were at Surfer’s Beach so we decided to head toward Jobos. Here we found several open restaurants and bars. We ended up stopping in for a snack at Sonido del Mar. It overlooked Jobos Beach and offered cheap beer. This beach was beautiful and had something for everyone- surfing, swimming, hiking or lounging. We were told the Jobos area tends to be a vacation spot for locals. This made sense to us as it seemed we were some of the only primary English speakers where we visited. It was nice to experience the culture outside of the tourist spots.

At this point the radar wasn’t working in our favor, it was likely going to rain in the area for hours. We decided it would be a good night to drive to La Parguera and swim in the bioluminescent bay. It was about a 90 minute drive that took us through rural areas of Puerto Rico. We had hoped to stop by Cabo Rojo on the way but didn’t have enough time. We called Paradise Scuba & Snorkeling on the way and reserved our Bio Bay Tour.

After the sun set we boarded the boat and ate delicious empanadillas. Once it was quite dark we began the short ride to the bioluminescent bay. We visited when there was practically no moon. As we approached the bay the boat lights were turned off and the water looked black. I was nervous about getting in the water at first, but once I experienced the glowing water I didn’t want to get out. We ended up swimming in the bay for at least 30 minutes and it was magical. Cameras couldn’t capture the bioluminescence, so here is a pic of a house on the water on the way back from the bay.

The next day we planned to make the hike to Survival Beach. Along the way we stopped at Cielo Mar Bakery in Aguada. The cafe con leche and pastries were delicious. We tried a pastry that had cream cheese and pineapple in the middle. We also took a piece of pistachio cake to go. We enjoyed this bakery so much we returned the following day for lunch.

We drove back to Surfer’s Beach to start the hike to Survival Beach. This hike was peaceful and beautiful. The hike starts out nice and easy, but becomes steep and uneven. Eventually there are areas that require some climbing over rocks if you visit during high tide, which we did. We enjoyed the rock climbing. Supposedly you can walk along the beach and avoid the climbing during low tide.

When we finally made it to Survival Beach it was clear the twenty minute hike was worth it. A few others visited while we were there, but you could always find peace and quite if you wanted to.

We spent some time in the caves at the beach before hiking back. Video footage of the hike to Survival Beach is located on our YouTube Channel Explorcation.

We worked up an appetite and stopped for dinner at Red Flamboyan in Rincon. The atmosphere was unique. We sat in the open air bar which is surrounded by trees on the side of a mountain. As the sun set we could hear the coqui frogs in the trees. Here we had to try mofongo – plantains that are fried and mashed, then served with meat and a broth soup. I really enjoyed the mofongo. We also tried a dish called pinon. It was also made with plantains but had mushrooms and a delicious rich cream sauce.

The next morning was our last morning at the Breeze House. We hadn’t been around during the day to use the pool. Skylar had to get in at least once.

Then it was time to leave the Rincon area to stay in Luquillo for a few days. Along the way we again stopped at Cielo Mar Bakery for sandwiches. They did not disappoint. They were reasonably priced pressed sandwiches that were delicious. I don’t quite know what made them so delicious but they were. I would make a point to return to this bakery if we ever find ourselves close to Aguada.

Our last stop on the west side of Puerto Rico was Gozalandia in San Sebastian. This was another stop where Google got us pretty close. Google had us follow Sec Luchuza to the right when we needed to go straight on an unidentified road to the Gozalandia parking lot. If you are following along on Google maps you can tell where this occurs and easily make the adjustment to get to the parking lot.

There are two different waterfall areas at Gozalandia, along with a bar/restaruant at the top of the trail to the falls. We began the hike to the smaller waterfall with the rope swing first. The trail is paved, but does require climbing steps and could be slippery when wet. To access the fall one does need to walk down a very uneven area to get to the water.

We had fun swinging into the pool of water and exploring behind the waterfall.

Next up was the larger waterfall. This requires walking down quite steep steps.

What you find at the bottom of the steps is breathtaking.

We swam in the pool, saw the underwater cave, climbed on the waterfall and jumped into the pool from various points. The water was chilly, but felt good when the sun was out. Video footage of our time at Gozalandia is located on our YouTube Channel Explorcation.

At times the waterfalls were busy, but if you are willing to hang out for a while you might catch a few moments to yourself. After climbing around we tried a mojito at the bar and continued on our way to Luquillo. Gozalandia concluded our time spent on the west side of Puerto Rico.

Our time on the west side of Puerto Rico was minimally impacted by the aftermath of Maria – roads were fine, plenty of restaurants/stores re opened and the people of Puerto Rico were so welcoming. Everyone we spoke with was kind and wanted to ensure we enjoyed Puerto Rico. We could sense the love for their island and the pride for Puerto Rico.

We did see buildings from time to time that were destroyed by Maria and had not been cleaned up since the hurricane – this was not the norm by far. There was one attraction we couldn’t visit due to it not being cleared for safety after Maria – Camuy Caves. Even if the caves were open I don’t know that we would have had time to visit this trip.

While there are people still picking up the pieces, the consistent message we received from local establishments was: Puerto Rico is ready to welcome back tourism. If anyone is considering visiting, I hope sharing our experiences helps to paint a better picture of what to expect after Maria. We did create a vacation video that includes our time on the west side around Rincon, and also our time on the east side around Luquillo. You can check it out below. I will be writing more about our time around Luquillo in a later post.

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Thank you to Diane and Jerry for accompanying Skylar and I on this trip and helping us document the beauty of Puerto Rico.