Saturday 13 Apr, Puerto Rico day 9: Drive through Karst Country, visit San Sebastián town and the rest of the beaches along north-west coast.
We enjoy this north-west side of Puerto Rico so much that we decided to extend our road trip by another day. So we booked another AirBnB for tonight. After two nights in this awful accommodation in Arecibo, fingers crossed next one will be clean.

First, we head south towards the karst country, and on a beautiful bright morning like today we should see the hills in their full splendor. It is a wonderful drive on a road (a10) that is cut through the rocks, and we have very nice views as the road winds its way up and down. So beautiful that we feel inspired to fly the drone.
And when we were in the middle of the footage, beside the highway, recording a nice pano at 250m altitude, a police car with blue flashing lights pulls up next to us. Oops, we are going to get into trouble, was the immediate thought.
As the police officer asks if we are flying a drone and what we are looking for to record, Oana explains to him, in Spanish, what we are doing while I bring the drone back down and quickly pack it away. The officer insists we are not allowed to fly it there but Oana managed to sweet-talk the officer and we got away with it. Apparently they had some accidents in the past with drones falling on the road due to high winds. We can’t believe our luck when we drive off without paying a fine or having the drone confiscated. Phew… once the heat is off us, I really wished that I’d landed the drone right there on the hood of his police car!

We continue the very pleasant drive on some smaller roads through the karst country, then head for the mountains where some caves are supposed to be. A slow and winding road, which again makes us think how wonderful it would be to ride it on a motorcycle. The sky gets darker and darker and soon it starts raining too. Great weather for hiking…not.
But we shouldn’t have worried about the weather, as when we arrive at the Rio Camuy Caves National Park, the road is closed by large padlocked gates. Hm… bummer. We really wanted to see these caves and underground rivers. Turns out that this site has been closed since the hurricane.

Regroup we do. Next objective, the Salto Colazo Waterfalls, towards which we continue on same small winding country roads. Nice panoramic views here and there. Once at the waterfall it is all a bit disappointing. It is located right next to the road, and only a small stream of water comes down on the waterfall. Nothing like what we saw in the google pictures.

We next drive through San Sebastián town which is the second oldest town after San Juan. The town itself is nothing much, but the buildings surrounding the town square are very beautiful. One hosts the history museum, another the historical archives and another the town hall. All very well maintained. Since I don’t want Oana to fall asleep before lunch, we skip the visit to the history museum.

The day is still dull and rainy so we decide to head straight for Aguadilla where we are booked for tonight. We find our next AirBnB in a large modern looking house. Looks like we are the only ones in the 3 bedroom set up. Much cleaner than the last one and also very peacefully in the countryside with no traffic and no gas stations around!

From Aguadilla we venture to the NW corner of the island, to Crash Boat Beach. An odd place crammed with locals, jet skis, noisy music and food stalls. Compared to other beaches we have seen this one is not pretty so we really wonder just why it’s so popular. Anyway, certainly not our scene so we head off.
Next beach is the mecca for surfers, aptly named Surfers Beach. Only a couple of people surfing though. We chat to some locals who inform us this year is really disappointing, very little Atlantic swell coming in, plus it rains every afternoon. They weren’t happy!
We briefly stop on few other beaches, but with the dark sky none looked attractive enough.

Surrounding this corner of Puerto Rico is an old air force base plus all the military accommodation. A bit of a weird place. But apparently there is still a lot of military, coast guard, anti human trafficking and anti-drugs personnel sites here. Puerto Rico being a prime place where drugs are trafficked into the USA.

Exhausted again from driving and site seeing we land back in Uma’s bar for an evening drink. But second time around it’s not so interesting except for a couple of guys playing very nice Spanish music.
Before heading to the AirBnB we walk the strip but find no other place that interests us. Most are sports bars with their large TV screens being the focus of entertainment. A concept we really can’t fathom. Clearly we grew up in a different country!

In Aguadilla we have one last attempt to the Saturday night local scene, which seems to be concentrated along the seafront promenade. We do pace it up and down, but sadly not for us. Lots of restaurants smelling of deep fried food, very loud music and the locals gathering next to the loudest bars not seeming to do much.

So it’s an early night in our new accommodation. We both seem to be suffering from car-travel exhaustion and we are looking forward to getting back to Cloudy Bay tomorrow. But this AirB&B is very pleasant. No need for air-con, just the cool night breeze blowing through and the sound of the tree frogs sends us quickly to sleep.