PandemicTravel:Puerto Rico: Part 1: Arrival

in TravelFeed3 years ago

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Hello Hiveians!

I first want to thank you all for the amazing reception to my last post, it was really amazing to see so much engagement and interaction!

Today I wanted to share my other notable adventure of the Pandemic, so far, Puerto Rico.

At this point it had been a couple of months since my last trip, Oregon, and I was starting to get back into the pandemic slump. I was looking around for other trips that could make sense, both restrictions wise and money wise. I started browsing the Kayak explore feature and saw that there were flights to Puerto Rico for as low as 60$. Well, how could I say no?

I looked into their Covid situation and as most places, it wasn't great, but also they were doing pretty good compared to the States. I also planned to mainly only being doing outside and nature adventures, so the risks weren't too high.

I planned to go solo, but I ended up inviting a friend and making a bigger adventure out of it. We planned to rent a car, go to the island of Culebra, and drive the entire coast of Puerto Rico. This is the story of that adventure. Enjoy.


I didn't really know what to expect going to Puerto Rico. I know it's been kind of part of the US for a long time, but it's also pretty much its own country in a lot of ways. I also know they've been hurting financially for quite some time and they're still recovering from the devastating hurricane Maria.

After a bit of a flight delay, we were now coming in for a landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I wasn't sure what to expect. I had read you need a covid test to leave the airport, so i submitted my form online and I got a QR code, they scanned it, and out the door I go.

My friend was there waiting for me with the rental car, since they arrived before me. We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to the hostel to get things settled as it was getting late.

After driving around a bit, it definitely felt quite European to me, from the road layouts to the infrastructure designs. Our first night was in San Juan, and was pretty much the worst place we'd be staying on the trip, since it was just for 1 night, and we wanted something cheap in the city. And boy did we get what we paid.

We parked the car, and went in to check in. The check in guy wasn't there, so someone had to call him down, he was upstairs smoking weed on the balcony. So we waited in the "lobby" for him to come down

He checked us in and gave us our key and room number. We got to the room only to notice, the door doesn't lock. Not that there isn't a lock on it, but rather the wall where the door knob catches was pretty much busted. Interesting.

This was the room.

After settling in, we decided to take a walk around the area and try to get a feel for things. 

The part of the city we were in felt like an inner city area, you could see it wasn't a very wealthy area and that there was still a lot damage from Maria and just piles of debris on the streets in some areas.

After a quick walk around, we headed back to turn in for the night, as we had a busy day the next day. We "locked" our door, put on the AC and hit the sheets.

We woke up early the next day, as we had to make it to the ferry for Culebra by around 2pm, and we were taking a jungle road to get there because it looked pretty scenic. I got up and walked around the hostel for a bit, to check it out, it was actually pretty cool.

While walking around I also made a new friend.

The most adorable little kitten was wandering around the hostel.

I spoke to a girl who worked there and apparently she's been taking care of the little guy, which made me feel better. It's sad, but there's an enormous amount of stray animals, dogs and cats in Puerto Rico, that we'll touch on later, but a lot places seem to feed them and do what they can so that's nice.

After that we packed up our stuff and began our drive towards the port in Ceiba. But first, had to say bye to my new little friend.

It was mostly just a scenic drive, on some very sketchy jungle roads roads, and fun fact, we swerved into some bushes a bit since the road is so small, just clipping them, and apparently there were bees on that bush and I ended up getting stung in the neck. Puerto Rico-1 Sean-0. Nice

After a bit of driving we found a cool little area to explore and I decided to throw my drone up for some shots, and wow, what a waterfall!

There was also a little trail to explore to, so of course I took a selfie.

After that, we pretty much shot straight to the ferry terminal to be sure we made our boat to Culebra.

And that's where we'll end this part and pick up on the journey and my time in Culebra on the next installment! But FYI, Culebra was AMAZING, so be sure to check back for that one!

And let me know, have you traveled much during the pandemic? What were your experiences?

And in the meantime, you can see more of my work and support me on www.instagram.com/SeanGoldphotos and my website at www.SeanGold.com

See you on the next one!


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