Puerto Rico - Jan 23, 2008 - Day 12
Day 12 - Puerto Rico - Mayaguez, Holiday Inn Tropical Casino, Caguana Ceremonial Site
Up around 10:30am, spent the rest of the morning getting in contact with all of the people who have called or emailed me about jobs. That’s 18 different people so far. I’m feeling like there is indeed some hope that I can get another job.
We took a hard run up to Guanica, which is where we’ll be spending next week. We were trying to find our way up from Ponce to the center of the island. Trouble is, there is no direct route through there, so we ended up on some lovely one lane, one way roads that went to almost nowhere. We finally managed to get back onto highway 123 after nearly an hour after being trapped in little back roads. A shame, because Ponce is very pretty, like New Orleans to San Juan’s NYC. We’ll be back …
We were heading for Adjuntas, which was over the back of the hills, the cordillera. Now, I mentioned the other day how twisty the road was going back to Mayaguez from Arecibo, but this was *crazy*. We averaged 30mph for three solid hours driving once we left the main highway. There were several 270 degree switchbacks that went steeply down, several more that had far less pavement than would allow two cars to pass.
I had redjo take a few videos of this. It reminded me of times at the carnival where we had a big dome and there was a wide screen film. You had to stand, and they took you on a ride through a very twisty road or down a very steep drop. Sometimes in tacky 3D. But, this was very real.
The hills, steep, covered in lush green vegetation. Houses, hanging on to the edge of nothing; you fall off your back porch and go down a thousand feet in places. Rock falls, near mechanical cuts in the earth. Emerging to little towns out of the 1940s. Or little towns full of shiny franchises. Giant concrete beams from the Ghost of Highways Yet to Come. Little wild banana plants. Bikes.
We got lost again several times on the cutback to Jayuya. I don’t think I’ve seen that many abandoned cars by the side of the road for some years. This is the Taino native area, and we were headed for a site that has stones similar to Stonehenge, arranged according to some celestial tradition. I was following a tricked up Corvette, big spoiler on top, at one point, but he didn’t know how to find his way either.
We got lost again on the other side of Utuado. The basic problem is that some roads have several numbers, and the signage can be a little … sparse. Since most folks here are locals, it’s like Boston, you don’t need signs if you know where you’re going. Fortunately, Ms SuperNavigator found the right path nearly every time and I sniffed my way to the right road with my special DrivingFu.
By the time we got near the [Caguana Ceremonial Site], it was almost 4pm, and the place was closing. We had figured that, since we took about two more hours than we expected traveling. We are coming back on Saturday, as we move to our final stop for this holiday, now that we know the fastest route (see below).
Dinner was a small Italian El Family restaurant, simple, nothing fancy food, really cheap $14 including soda. Very tasty! There was a boy there, maybe eight, who made the loudest screeching sounds you can imagine. It was like having a human parrot in another part of the house that you were constantly concerned was being strangled. But he wasn’t.
Found a much quicker way back, 90 minutes on highways through Arecibo. The maps totally don’t help. A four lane highway from Utuado to Arecibo was barely documented. The ox cart track we took from Ponce to Utuado was noted as an equivalent road. It way totally wasn’t. Dude. Wish I had my STi on those roads today, following that ‘Vette though. Would have ripped it up, hard. The Dodge Lancer rental was … ok.
Home to a quiet evening watching Sex in the City, ice cream at Baskin Robbins and quick chat with xmelancholia before curling up with my lovely lady for the night. Hmmm, frustrating day at times, six hours driving and we didn’t get to our destination before it closed. But, I feel like I’ve seen a part of Puerto Rico that most tourists don’t bother with, and they’ve missed out, I know it now.
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Up around 10:30am, spent the rest of the morning getting in contact with all of the people who have called or emailed me about jobs. That’s 18 different people so far. I’m feeling like there is indeed some hope that I can get another job.
We took a hard run up to Guanica, which is where we’ll be spending next week. We were trying to find our way up from Ponce to the center of the island. Trouble is, there is no direct route through there, so we ended up on some lovely one lane, one way roads that went to almost nowhere. We finally managed to get back onto highway 123 after nearly an hour after being trapped in little back roads. A shame, because Ponce is very pretty, like New Orleans to San Juan’s NYC. We’ll be back …
We were heading for Adjuntas, which was over the back of the hills, the cordillera. Now, I mentioned the other day how twisty the road was going back to Mayaguez from Arecibo, but this was *crazy*. We averaged 30mph for three solid hours driving once we left the main highway. There were several 270 degree switchbacks that went steeply down, several more that had far less pavement than would allow two cars to pass.
I had redjo take a few videos of this. It reminded me of times at the carnival where we had a big dome and there was a wide screen film. You had to stand, and they took you on a ride through a very twisty road or down a very steep drop. Sometimes in tacky 3D. But, this was very real.
The hills, steep, covered in lush green vegetation. Houses, hanging on to the edge of nothing; you fall off your back porch and go down a thousand feet in places. Rock falls, near mechanical cuts in the earth. Emerging to little towns out of the 1940s. Or little towns full of shiny franchises. Giant concrete beams from the Ghost of Highways Yet to Come. Little wild banana plants. Bikes.
We got lost again several times on the cutback to Jayuya. I don’t think I’ve seen that many abandoned cars by the side of the road for some years. This is the Taino native area, and we were headed for a site that has stones similar to Stonehenge, arranged according to some celestial tradition. I was following a tricked up Corvette, big spoiler on top, at one point, but he didn’t know how to find his way either.
We got lost again on the other side of Utuado. The basic problem is that some roads have several numbers, and the signage can be a little … sparse. Since most folks here are locals, it’s like Boston, you don’t need signs if you know where you’re going. Fortunately, Ms SuperNavigator found the right path nearly every time and I sniffed my way to the right road with my special DrivingFu.
By the time we got near the [Caguana Ceremonial Site], it was almost 4pm, and the place was closing. We had figured that, since we took about two more hours than we expected traveling. We are coming back on Saturday, as we move to our final stop for this holiday, now that we know the fastest route (see below).
Dinner was a small Italian El Family restaurant, simple, nothing fancy food, really cheap $14 including soda. Very tasty! There was a boy there, maybe eight, who made the loudest screeching sounds you can imagine. It was like having a human parrot in another part of the house that you were constantly concerned was being strangled. But he wasn’t.
Found a much quicker way back, 90 minutes on highways through Arecibo. The maps totally don’t help. A four lane highway from Utuado to Arecibo was barely documented. The ox cart track we took from Ponce to Utuado was noted as an equivalent road. It way totally wasn’t. Dude. Wish I had my STi on those roads today, following that ‘Vette though. Would have ripped it up, hard. The Dodge Lancer rental was … ok.
Home to a quiet evening watching Sex in the City, ice cream at Baskin Robbins and quick chat with xmelancholia before curling up with my lovely lady for the night. Hmmm, frustrating day at times, six hours driving and we didn’t get to our destination before it closed. But, I feel like I’ve seen a part of Puerto Rico that most tourists don’t bother with, and they’ve missed out, I know it now.
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