Central Puerto Rico

I had been reading in my Puerto Rico guide book about Ruta Panoramica, and it sounded like it was right up our alley - a scenic drive on back roads across the length of the island. In the book, it was described as well maintained and well marked. Well… even though this was a very recent edition of the book, I don’t think the author had driven or ridden along the route herself in the last several years. We were dismayed, horrified and awestruck in equal measures.

That was indicative of the vistas I could see, but not Steve. He was white-knuckling it for over 2 hours around hairpin turns, dodging broken pavement and potholes, as well as oncoming cars and trucks that acted like they owned the center of the road. The angles of incline of the road were just amazing. There were numerous tracks of at least 45 degrees. If we were going up, both of us would lean forward at the crest trying to see where the road went before the car kept rolling forward. Unfortunately, there’s no way I could document this roller coaster ride. Hopefully, you can ride along with my words.

The central mountains are very lush, and that above is a “flame tree”, with banana plants in front of it. At one point, I asked Steve to stop so I could get a close up picture of the flowers.

As I got out of the car, he rolled forward, ostensibly to get somewhat off the road, not realizing there was at least a foot drop off at the edge of the pavement. The right front wheel was spinning freely in space, while the front bumper hung on the asphalt. He had me get behind the wheel, and before I knew what he was doing, the car was rolling forward, even though it was in park! As I stomped on the brake, he explained that he had lifted the front end, dislodging the frame from the edge of the road, allowing us to move it to a place where all 4 wheels had traction. Whew. That picture above will be seared into our memories of a very close call on a twisty road in the middle of Puerto Rico.

Alongside the road there would be random groups of, or single, granite boulders.

In the overgrown areas, there were bamboo, fern trees, palms, banana plants, flame trees, hibiscus, elephant ears and numerous unnamed plants, that I was marveling at, while Steve studied the asphalt -

The lushness covering the rolling hills was amazing -

In the small town of Jayuya, we stayed at a hotel that was first built as a mansion in 1858.

Hacienda Gripinas

I wanted to visit a nearby coffee plantation, so off we headed up some more very narrow, curvy and steep roads. At the top we were greeted by a locked gate, after climbing a steep one lane road. There was no place to turn around nor back safely down to, so we proceeded to complete not a 3-point turn, but rather a 12 or 14-point one. Aarrggh! After arriving safely back at the hotel, we spent the afternoon reading and swimming.

I was able to get some beautiful pictures of our surroundings on our ill fated trek -

Before I close, I want to share some beach pictures (you can never have too many, can you?) from our explorations on the east coast, before we headed to the highlands.

Playa Colora (reached by a mile walk from the end of Seven Seas beach in Fajardo) -

Unnamed beach on the SE corner -

I’ll be keeping my eye on you…