The 2015 Puerto Rico was born out of a desire to escape Michigan’s winter and do some warm weather fishing in Florida, and then discovering flights to San Juan were an even cheaper option. Why not travel further south and enjoy some island life while brushing up on our Spanish? Joy and I booked this trip on pretty short notice, and off we went!
We spent the first couple days getting our bearings and recovering from travel by exploring the streets and sights of Old San Juan. First up was a good dinner and tropical beverages on the outdoor patio of a restaurant near a town square.
We took a seaside stroll in the dark to wrap up our first day in Puerto Rico. The juxtaposition of old fortress walls and modern architecture was pretty cool.
We saw more of the waterfront the next morning, along with lots of neat statues.
The highlight of Old San Juan was touring the historic El Morro fortification.
The next day, we took a shuttle van to the east side of the main island and caught a ferry from there to Isla Vieques. The pace was slower there, and there were lots of opportunities to fish from shore, which was the primary motivator for going there. There were some really scenic beaches there.
We spent a lot of time fishing this dilapidated old pier. Fortunately, access wasn’t barred so we were free to fish around the underwater structure created by the concrete pilings, which attracted lots of fish.
My first new species of the trip was this Keeltail Needlefish.
We also caught Bluefish, Spotlight Parrotfish, Bigeye Scad, Puddingwife, Caesar Grunt, Mahogany Snapper, and Blackear Wrasse from that pier in Esperanzo, Isla Vieques.
A handsome White Grunt:
Living the fisherman’s life on the Esperanzo pier:
Blue Runner (and a trail runner)
Beautiful beaches!
While on Isla Vieques, we did a half day of charter fishing from a boat, with the hopes of finding fish species we wouldn’t be able to get from shore. Joy and I both caught some fun fish, but alas they were species we had already caught before (in Belize). I also hooked and lost something larger, but I will never know what that was.
Horse-eye Jack (not a new species, but it was my largest one)
Joy pulled in this barracuda. They always put up a good fight!
We fished some other spots inshore after trolling and caught a variety of grunts and snappers – species we had been catching from the pier. Unfortunately, the charter fishing didn’t yield any lifers but it was still a fun time.
On our last morning on Vieques we adventured along the coast and found a rocky shoreline. I added the Hairy Blenny to my lifelist, and it was a very fine male specimen, colored up in its spawning pattern.
Joy caught a female Hairy Blenny. Such a difference in color and pattern!
Later that morning we caught a cab back to the ferry port and played Yahtzi under a covered restaurant pavilion and watched the rain until the boat came. Once on the mainland, we caught a (very expensive) cab to our final lodging reservation, El Escondido. This was a beautiful guesthouse and gardens perched on a hillside near El Yunque National Forest.
Our cab driver dropped us off and left, and we were greeted by the proprietors. They were alarmed that we didn’t have a rental car, though, and mentioned that there was nowhere within walking range to get food or supplies or really see anything interesting outside of the property. They provided fruit and bread for breakfast, but did not do lunch and dinner and so we arrived, hungry, in mid afternoon without anything to eat for dinner. The only thing we had was some Cheetos and a half of a 1L bottle of rum.
Regrettably, Joy and I drank all of the rum. I’ve never been sicker. It hit me especially hard on the empty stomach and I spent a miserable night in the bathroom, world spinning, hurling my insides out. The next morning wasn’t much better, with the splitting headache of the hangover added to the vertigo and nausea. The morning sunlight caught the mist and created rainbows over paradise, but I was in rough shape.
The owner was super generous and drove Joy to a rental car center, and she came back with a vehicle and big Cuban sub sandwich. After nibbling on the food I started feeling better and by the afternoon I was finally able to get out of bed and walk around a little bit and swim in the pool. We did an evening hike to look at the orchids and other plants in the impressive gardens.
The next morning I was back to normal. I was able to enjoy the fresh fruit and coffee at breakfast, and we wandered the trails on the property and took pictures of birds, insects, and lizards we don’t see at home.
With the rental car, we were free to drive to El Yunque for a nice hike to a waterfall. I brought my snorkel gear and swam around in some of the river pools, too. I didn’t see any fish but there were some sort of freshwater crustaceans that looked like shrimp.
Angling is prohibited in El Yunque National Forest, but we did see mountain mullet at a larger river crossing on the drive out. That would have been a new species, but I wasn’t going to poach them, so we settled for watching the fish for a while before moving on.
We got dinner before heading back to El Escondido. There were small frogs chirping all around. We took a photo with the science-minded proprietors and then had to get back to the airport early the next morning to return the car and fly home. Puerto Rico was a fun little adventure!
