The west coast

On Saturday morning we headed down the mountain for our final 5 days on the island to visit the Caribbean and the west coast of Puerto Rico. It took us about 1 hour to drive the winding roads to the main highway. When we stopped for gas we saw a couple of guys on motorcycles.

Our first stop was the beautiful colonial town of San Germán. 

This church below is one oldest in all of the America's. It was constructed in 1608. Today it is a religious museum. 

We  discovered a little Mexican restaurant across from the church  that we decided to have lunch at. A man that we both thought was a gringo tourist came over to talk with us. It turned out he, Frederick was Puerto Rican from the big city of Ponce down he road. He was a wonderful person and and very proud of Puerto  Rico. He gave us several tips of things to see and do. He also gave us his phone number if we had questions. When I meet some Puerto Ricans or  I speak spanish a lot of them automatically speak English back to me. Because Frederick and I have similar characteristics we asked him If this ever happened to him. He said all the time. He always catches them off guard by speaking his Puerto Rican rapid spanish. 

After lunch we headed to the Caribbean beach town of Parguera. Our hotel La Jamaca was just up the hiil right outside of town. I have to admit it was a pretty funky little place but the staff was fantastic. We discovered a decent tapas restaurant in town for dinner. We liked it so much we ate there two nights.  Sunday we explored the country roads.

We ended up at a lighthouse at the southern most western end of the island.

We then took a drive to the town of Joyuda in search for a fish lunch. We discovered the restaurant named Island View. 

I asked the waitress if the island was private. She said it was owned and protected by the government. She also said we could go out there,  just go to the house next door and ask the man living there to take you. We finished our lunch and headed to the house. Unfortunately, the man was busy but he told us to go to the gas station about two blocks down the road and we should find someone to take us. Elenita walked in and was waiting behind someone when she asked the guy behind counter about going to the island. The guy pointed to the man in front of her and said he is the man you need to ask. So we went over to a dock next to his house to inquire more. It was only the two us and he had a big boat. When he was deciding, a family of four came waking in who also wanted to go. So for $5 we got to spend about 2 hours on La isla de ratons. The family by the way was Puerto Rican living in San Francisco.  The island got its name hundreds of years go when men would go out there and leave their trash. The locals said the men lived like rats on the island. 

This day was totally unplanned. We wanted to rent a boat but it was way to windy and unsafe. It is great when wonderful things happen that are unplanned. Tomorrow we head north.