Puerto Rico: Day Trips!

As everyone you meet will tell you “Puerto Rico is not San Juan”, so we decided to hit the road for a few day trips to see what’s out there.

El Yunque and coast towns 

On our first day trip, we started out in El Yunque National Forest.  As we drove up the road into the park, Mr Snacks commented it was like driving into the set of Jurassic Park—heavy green vegetation that goes on for miles and low-lying clouds that created a constant mist.  We were fortunately spared being chased by a velociraptor.  Perhaps they stayed hidden until later in the day when there were more tourists to choose from.

An easy-to-follow paved road takes you through the main accessible area of the park.  It was practically empty when we arrived, and getting more popular as we left—but I’m certain we were quite fortunate as the parking spaces allocated for the tour buses were empty and I’m sure we could have been overwhelmed with tour groups from cruises were it not for COVID.  We did a few trails, but many lead to overlooks.  When the air is as thick as pea soup, there isn’t much of a view.  The one trail we did take was a few minutes of scrambling which took you to a multi-tiered waterfall—each tier having a pool to swim in.  

After a half day at the forest, we drove to the town of Luquillo where there are about 50 family run kiosks serving food near the beach.  We stopped in one (La Parilla) and had a fried whole snapper while looking out over the water and watching bands of rain from Tropical Storm Peter come ashore.

We meandered over to another area on the coast—Soroco in Fajardo entirely based on a restaurant suggestion (which is crazy, because we had just eaten that whole fish lunch).  We sacrificed for the cause, and ate again at Racar—a small, super local place that served cocktails, beers, and seafood just across the street from the water.  In the “this doesn’t happen in the US” moment, a group of 20 men at the table next to us all burst out singing multiple times during our visit.  Even the kitchen staff was impressed and came out to applaud them.

Ruta del Lechón and Charco Azul

For better or for worse, Anthony Bourdain has made it so that we all know to hit the middle of the country for whole roasted pigs.  With it only being a 45 minute drive from San Juan, there was no way I was passing that up, so we made a whole day of it.

Our first stop on the way to the Ruta del Lechón was in the city of Caguas, known for its criollo (Puerto Rican creole) culture and arts appreciation.  The city has smartly come up with a set of self-guided walks to visit museums or art attractions, and has arrows on the sidewalks to keep you headed in the right direction.  We visited the Caguas History Museum which is free admission and one of the staff members give you a guided tour in English or in Spanish.  I would absolutely recommend this small museum–with the guided tour it takes about 30-45 minutes.

We also went to the botanical gardens in the town.  Maybe it was just our visit…but I can’t say you need to run out here to do this.  They seemed to spend a lot more time getting decorations ready for a Halloween event that bothering to put up signs so you didn’t spend the whole time wandering around hot and lost.  

Finally!  Time for some pig!  We drove up the Ruta del Lechón—I’ll estimate it to be about 10 miles long, with about 15-20 lechoneras.  These roadside stands are permanents fixtures, but less structure than what I would consider a restaurant.  Everything is served cafeteria style, so once you have your piece of lechon (or chicken, or sausages) and sides—rice, beans, plantains, bananas, potato salad you head out to a table.

Many of the lechoneras have a large area of tables set up where you could imagine you’d go with the whole family for a long afternoon to escape the heat (it’s in the mountains so notably cooler), eat some great meat, and drink and dance the day away.  

The entire pig is roasting on a spit on full view, so it’s no surprise the pork is amazing—tender meat with skin so crispy it’s like a tortilla chip! We needed to order half portions in order to have enough to do more than one—the plates are generous!  We managed to get to two:  Lechonera El Rancho Original and Lechonera El Mojito.

And, what’s the most fun thing you can do once you have eaten a pile of carbs and meat?  Put on a swim suit and hike through the hot, sweaty jungle, of course!  So we did just that.  We were given a tip by a local that 10 miles past the last lechonera was State Forest, with a swimming hole called Charco Azul.  The facilities (restroom, picnic area, trail) is no longer maintained but its still easily do-able.  It’s a 15 minutes walk/hike—mostly a paved walk, but where the path has washed away you’ll be doing some muddy hiking to a swimming hole.  When we were there a couple was shooting a well-produced looking music video.  So, in addition to a cooling swim we got to hear some good music.  

Then, it was time to head back to San Juan and start our diet.