Puerto Rican Honeymoon: Day Trip to Arecibo

Map tiles by Stamen Design, under CC BY 3.0. Data by OpenStreetMap, under CC BY SA. Stars and text my own.

Beau and I arrived back home late late late the evening of April 6th, and honestly, the first few days back at work were ROUGH. We each took off 12 days from work for our wedding, our honeymoon, and our first wedding reception. It's nice being home again, but I miss our lazy days in Puerto Rico. Then again, our day trips from San Juan were far from lazy occasions...

While we spent most of our honeymoon in Puerto Rico enjoying the beach, the pool, and each other wink wink, Beau and I also took two day trips outside of San Juan to see other parts of the island. After spending the second full day of our honeymoon in Old San Juan, and relaxing the third day, the fourth day was the perfect time for an adventure! Beau carefully mapped out our trip to include four highlights:

• Parque de las Cavernas del Río Camuy
• The Arecibo Observatory
• Chorros del Río la Planta
• Puerto Rico Premium Outlets

Beau is a better photographer than I am

I am not an outdoorsy person. My idea of an adventure is going to a new museum or walking aimlessly through the streets of a big city. But Beau really wanted to see the cave system with the third-largest underground river in the world, and who was I to deny my new husband anything? Luckily for me, the paths in the cave are wide with gentle inclines, just right for caving novices, children, or people who have physical disabilities. 

We showed up to the Rio Camuy Caves Park around 10am. Unfortunately, we arrived at about the same time as a large school group who was given priority over other tourists. We waited more than half an hour before we were finally escorted into the small cinema. After watching the short film on the history and science of the cave system, the underground river, and the sinkhole, everyone lined up to board the trams.

We waited a good 15 minutes before we could board a tram. Then on the tram, we waited another 15 or so minutes before the second tram arrived for the rest of the group. I'm not sure if there was a mechanical error, or if they were trying to place extra distance between us and the school group, but I don't think all this waiting is normal for tourists. 

The tram ride was quite terrifying, and I thought I was going to die, but at least all the trees and plants were pretty. 

The caves were so much cooler than I thought they would be. The beauty and magnitude of the first cavern made me wonder aloud if we should have just gotten married there. 

Puerto Rican Honeymoon: Old San Juan

I write this as Beau and I sit in the San Juan airport, waiting for our flight to take us back to the mainland U.S. We have five bottles of duty-free rum for the two of us, quite possibly a lifetime supply considering how little liquor we drink. Puerto Rico was honestly the perfect choice for our honeymoon. While I’m sad to be leaving, I’m looking forward to the first of our three wedding receptions this Saturday (not to mention the in-network capabilities of my iPhone!). We did so much during our week in Puerto Rico that this will be just the first of several posts describing our honeymoon!

On our second day in Puerto Rico, we decided to venture into Old San Juan. This is the historic—and touristy—part of the city.

Beau researched the bus system and discovered that while cheap, it’s confusing and unreliable. We took a taxi into San Juan, which is a flat rate of $15 from Condado, where we were staying.

We first visited Fort San Cristóbal, which dates back to the early 17^th century. It is the largest Spanish fortification in the New World.

From a historian’s perspective, it was AWESOME. The dungeons featured historic graffiti, beautiful carvings of ships thought to have been carved by an imprisoned captain. The fort itself was in pretty good condition, especially considering it was used by the U.S. military during World War II. The views were stunning, and it was very easy to understand why the Spanish built their fort in that location.

Fort San Cristóbal

From a feminist’s perspective, it was depressing. The exhibits barely mentioned the Taíno natives who had lived on the island before the Spanish conquistadors. One exhibit casually mentioned the need to pay day laborers for construction because there was a lack of slaves. Ugh, the inconvenience!

Yet, from a public historian’s perspective, having interned in a museum and having taken a college course on public history, I understand why museums and historic attractions gloss over the evil parts of history. The average person is more interested in heritage, which is quite different from history. Heritage is how a society feels about its past and thus how a society chooses to remember its past.

Beau did not seem to experience the same moral conundrums that I felt during our entire visit to Fort San Cristóbal. He quite enjoyed playing with his fancy camera and taking beautiful panoramic photos.