Capital: San Juan

Language: Spanish

Currency: US Dollar

Do Indians need visa pre-arrival: Yes (Need US visa to enter)

Places I Visited:
• San Juan- Best Beaches, Amazing Nightlife, Visiting Bacardi Distillery, Walking in the old town, learning Salsa.
• Arecibo- Window Cave around 2 hours’ drive from San Juan.
• El Yunque National Forest- Waterfalls, Nature, Hiking.
• Vieques- Black beach, bio luminous bay, other good beaches.

I flew from Baltimore to San Juan. I took a public bus to the hostel, checked in and went out for a casual walk in the neighborhood. After few hours i was sitting alone in the front yard of the hostel then I met 3 Canadians, and American after few conversations we walked down to the bar which was four blocks away we went to a crazy stage in the bar then after 4 hours we got back to hostel and went to sleep.

Next morning, I was having breakfast in the dining room of the hostel then a girl came to me and said hi I thought who the hell she is. She was that American girl who i met the previous day the reason I couldn’t recognize her because she didn’t have her makeup on. After taking a shower, I rented a car for a day since myself, American and Canadians had no plans for what to do. We went for a long drive like 100km, visited the famous cave called Ventana and famous waterfall of the island by evening we were back to the hostel. Then we met a bunch of people in the hostel French, Portuguese, Italian, Peruvians. After few drinks in the hostel, we went to Party Street where every Thursday there is salsa night.

Window cave near Arecibo

After a few drinks, I had a small fight with my Canadian friend, I came back to the hostel. Next day I was upset about what happened last night, I returned my rented car, then myself and few other people from the hostel went to the beach in a taxi and spent half the day in the beach playing soccer. After the beach, I rented a car online and requested my Peru friends (they had a car) to give me a ride to the car place. I entered the rental center to get my car, but after two hours of waiting, I was unlucky to get a car.

With Friends at Beach in San juan

My friends from Peru were waiting outside, and others were waiting on the beach hoping I get the car but I couldn’t so I went back to the beach.

I saw the disappointment on their faces which I tried to manage on the way back to the hostel. There was a small picnic arranged in the hostel by the staff.

After picnic, we all went to old town for partying hereafter, I booked an Taxi to old town, it was like 7 km away. After walking around the old town, me and 2 Germans friends got a taxi and came back to the hostel.

The following day, I rented this beautiful 4x4 Jeep Wrangler. I planned to visit Vieques and Its like 3 hour drive from San Juan, none of my friends in the hostel were interested, and I didn’t even want to go alone.

There is this information board in the hostel where you can write your plans what to do if someone is interested they will join you, I wrote it down there and was waiting for a reply then myself, and the French guy went for self-tour in old town we came back that very evening. Later, I saw a response on the board by one Canadian wanted to go to Vieques with me.

Finally, I got a partner to go along with me, and we started our journey early via my rented jeep to the Fajardo. In where Fajardo we visited El Yunque national park for few hours and parked our car at Fajardo ferry stand and were ferried to Vieques.

El Yunque national park in Puerto Rico

We arrived at our hostel in Vieques, in the evening; we went kayaking in the bio luminous beach. Trust me that was one of the most significant things I ever did in my whole life.

As we got back to my hostel, I met a new set of people. We busted into a conversation. After a few talks, one of the English guy rented a car in Vieques, and we decided to go out for a ride. We toured downtown and ended up on a beach. Its 11 pm everywhere was quiet as we listened to the ocean waves and looked at the galaxy of stars. till now I am yet to see something of such nature. It was fun.

After the beach, we went to a resort where we enjoyed ourselves in the swimming pool for few hours before we set back to the hostel.

Next day I couldn't locate my Canadian who came with me because we were supposed to go back to San Juan. I was little worried searched for hours but all to no avail. And at 11 am, The Canadian walks into the hostel. I felt relaxed; we headed for the ferry stand in Vieques and traveled back to San Juan. We arrived that evening, I returned my car and took a flight back home the next day.