Puerto Rico.  "La Isla Del Encanto."  To locals, this is "the island of enchantment."  But I found that this island doesn’t quite live up to its name.

I was in Puerto Rico from January 17 to January 24 of 2009, trying to escape the arctic winds that were plaguing Washington, D.C. at the time.  I went with a couple of friends, and our goal was to see and experience as much as we could of this Caribbean American culture.

The temperature during the day was definitely warm.  In fact, it was a bit too warm, and humid.  Just walking around Old San Juan for a couple of hours completely drained us.  But the weather during the evening was perfect.  There were a lot of nights that I wished I had my car so I could go driving with the top down and music blasting.

Other than the nightly weather, the island was a bit disappointing.  I was expecting a well-maintained island catering to tourists and mainland Americans.  Instead, I found an island that was significantly rundown with a large amount of poverty and not many amenities for visitors.  It was very surprising, especially considering the fact that Puerto Rico is part of the U.S., but considering the fact that Puerto Rico is one of the most impoverished parts of the country, I can see how that would happen.

During the first couple of days on the island, we visited Old San Juan, the historic downtown district.  We were fortunate enough to arrive on the island during the last few days of the San Sebastian festival, which was taking place there.  The first night we were in Old San Juan, it was like going through a gigantic block party.  People were partying, drinking, and playing random music all throughout the district.  During the day after the end of the festival, we went to El Castillo del Morro – a fort overlooking the ocean.  It had some great sights and it was generally well kept, but the majority of old San Juan was dirty and unappealing.

Several of the beaches we found were poorly kept.  Luquillo beach, supposedly one of the best on the island, was a below average Caribbean beach with unimpressive sand and water, but it was fun to sleep under the sun and play some makeshift volleyball.  However, the beaches in Aricebo, especially Playa Mar Chiquita, were beautiful.  This beach was almost like a lagoon, with a set of rocks creating a small opening for the water from the ocean to come crashing through.  The sand was well kept and clean, but not purely white.

One of the biggest attractions in Puerto Rico is the bioluminescent bay.  After visiting Luquillo beach, we visited Fajardo, to see the bay.  This was easily one of the most interesting and unique experiences of the island.  After traveling through several small, unkept roads and graffiti-filled ghettos, we arrived at a small little clearing on the water that was our departure point.  After arriving, our group separated into pairs and piled into kayaks, which we used to paddle through a mangrove forest in the complete dark, with only a set of red and green lights on the kayaks in front of us to act as our guides.

Paddling through the mangroves was a very surreal experience, it reminded me of the hongs in Phuket, Thailand.  Imagine a pitch black night with a completely clear sky, with twice as many stars as you’ll ever see in any city in the U.S.  You’re attempting to steer your way through a clearing that’s only twenty feet wide with twisting branches grabbing at you from the left and right, sneaking up on you in the dark without a warning.  You have to do your best to continue moving forward, avoiding getting caught in the trees, while making sure your paddle doesn’t hit the person in front of you.  Water from the bay is splashing on to you, but with each stroke you see your paddles lighting up the water as you push yourself forward.  Some of the water that has spilled into your kayak appears to be sparkling, despite the fact that there’s no light around.  Eventually, you come into a lake that illuminates brightly every time you move your hand or the oar through the water.  You paddle around for ten or twenty minutes, running your hand through the water, watching it light up in a bluish-white glow that resembles the way the water looks after making a big splash.  That was the bioluminescent bay.

On another day we visited El Yunque National Forest.  In El Yunque, we hiked about five hours to the top of the mountain and back.  We were walking over rocks, mud, dirt, grass, and gravel in the heat and humidity, wondering when we’d reach the top.  We eventually made it to the peak of the mountain, and looked out over the tropical forest as the clouds passed right through us.  We ate our lunch there and then made our way back down the trail and then hiked to a waterfall that was also in the forest.  Two of my friends jumped in, swam around, and loved it.

The food in Puerto Rico was generally bland and not very tasty.  It was generally fried, and most entrees were served with mofongo - fried, mashed up plantains.  As good as that may sound, I found it unappealing.  Getting around the island was also a bit difficult.  Toll roads took us the majority of the way to our destination, but we always found ourselves driving through a small village whose roads were filled with potholes just to get where we needed to be.  Many of the locations we visited were rundown and ill-kept.  It wasn’t unusual to see five or ten rusted cars with no wheels in a grassy yard outside of someone’s house.  There were very few signs directing us where to go, and we did get lost a couple of times.  People were relatively friendly, though, and in the end it wasn’t a large hassle to figure out where we needed to be or what there was to do.  We stayed in San Juan, which is in the northeastern part of the island.  If you do go to Puerto Rico and want to explore the entire island, it may be better to stay somewhere in the center of the island to shorten your overall driving time.

In the end, the vacation was fun and the company was good.  I’m never going to complain about being able to get away from the winter cold.  But with that said, I was expecting more.  Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by other islands I’ve gone to, but I think that if those islands can achieve what they did, others can probably do the same.

Recommendation: Save your money and book a trip to Aruba or the Bahamas instead.

Cost: $1,205

• $324 – round trip flight from Dulles to San Juan + the stupid bag check fee
• $400 – hotel for a week ($1,600 total)
• $85 - rental car ($340 total)
• $396 – food, transportation, entertainment, attractions

Best thing about the trip: Kayaking through the mangrove forests with a star-filled night sky above head.

Worst thing about the trip: Having to constantly endure the heat and humidity.

My Itinerary:

Day 1 – Arrive in Puerto Rico
Walk around Old San Juan to see how people celebrated the San Sebastian festival.

Day 2 – Old San Juan
Walk around the daytime festivities for the San Sebastian festival

Day 3 – San Morro
Visit the fort in Old San Juan

Day 4 – Beach and bay
Drive to Luquillo to find a beach
Sleep, swim, and play volleyball on the beach
Visit the bio-luminescent bay

Day 5 - Ponce
Drive to and walk around a small town called Ponce

Day 6 - El Yunque National Forest
Hike up a mountain in the rainforest

Day 7 - Aricebo
Visit the largest radio observatory and radar in the world (better known to the general population as the second Goldeneye)
Visit La Playa Mar Chiquita in Aricebo