San Juan traffic edging east out of the city toward the beauty and adventure of Puerto Rico's eastern coast.
Travis loves the northern coast of Puerto Rico. Its rocky arches and juts of eroded karst; the wild fury of its waves, and the thundering crash of the breakers appeals to him. For me, the subtle sweep of mountains meeting bays on the eastern coast is more appealing; for me its like a bit of the Rivera has been magically transported to the Caribbean.
There are many practical reason for going east from San Juan. A major one being access to the Spanish Virgin Islands of Viequez and Culebra (which are now very popular with mainland visitors). To reach these islands by water, one must travel via the ferries out of Ceiba, and that means a drive on the eastern coast. Beyond practicality however, the east coast is a lovely destination in its own right. Even if you never make it to Viequez and Culebra, Luquillo, Fajardo, Naguabo and Humacao are all wonderful destinations and each have unique attractions and charms.
There is one problem however. Access.
Unfortunately El Yunque, the Olympus of the Tainos (since that's where their gods lived) sits squarely between the east coast and the rest of the island, making access to the ports of the Viequez Passage a trial via either the northern or the southern routes, but a trial certainly worth enduring.
Recently we had guests visiting from New York who were headed to Culebra for the day. Their instinct was to leave Casa Clara Vista at 6:00 AM (an instinct I strongly discouraged). Leaving at 9:30 AM they avoided most of the rush hour traffic, and within 2 hours, were able to make their ferry with nary a problem. I suggested (and they followed) the same advice when heading to El Yunque the next day. The point being, when traveling to the east coast with its limited road options during the business week, earlier will not necessarily get you there any faster. Actually, oftentimes its exactly the opposite effect. This is especially important if you are planning a trip on the Ceiba Ferries, since the rush hour ferries are very crowded and local residents take priority over non residents.
However, if you are going east during the weekend all bets are off. Between folks doing their normal shopping and errands, to the parade of regular Sunday day-trippers, the eastern roads get clogged beyond imagination. Your best option is to prepare yourself accordingly (at least mentally) and not get upset when what you thought was a 35 minute drive turns out to be 90 minutes. If I have one overriding rule when planning a trip on this island its this: mileage means nothing and route means everything.
Its also worth considering that if you were a Taino god, would you set up the topography to make it easy for people to clutter your prime beach front?
I didn't think so.
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