The Island Hopping Digital Guide To Puerto Rico - Part IV - The North Coast: Including Punta Borinquen, Arecibo, Puerto Palmas Atlas, San Juan, and Old San Juan

The Island Hopping Digital Guide to Puerto Rico

Part IV

The North Coast

Copyright © 2016 Stephen J. Pavlidis

ISBN 978-1-892399-59-5

Published in the USA by:

Seaworthy Publications, Inc.

2023 N. Atlantic Ave., Unit #226

Cocoa Beach, Florida 32931

Phone 321-610-3634

email [email protected]

www.seaworthy.com - Your Bahamas and Caribbean Cruising Advisory

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or by any storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

CAUTION: The author has taken extreme care to provide the most accurate and reliable charts possible for use in this edition, nevertheless, the charts in this guide are designed to be used in conjunction with DMA, NOAA, and other government charts and publications. The Author and Publisher take no responsibility for their misuse.

The Author wishes to thank the following for their help in this effort: First and foremost, mi hermano, Dr. Juan M. Van Vicens (see the Dedication page); Capt. Lee Bakewell of the S/V Winterlude for his help with the programming; Carlyle Benavent of the S/V Halben II; John and Vivian and the staff at Bluewater Books and Charts in Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Andy Lowe and Star Droshine of the S/V Moria; Captain Bob Gascoine of the M/V Aquanaut; Bob Grieser; Rick Harrison of the S/V Nosirrah; Herman on the S/V Trident; Jose and Trish on the S/V Lethe; Capt. Pat Lerocque of the S/V Instant Karma; Jorge and Isabel Molina of the S/V Pursuit; Angel Perez Morales; Chris and Maria Nielson of the S/V Altamar; Melodye and John Pompa of the S/V Second Millenium; Ken Priskitt and Andrea Jansen of the M/V Ruff Life; Clyde Hancock, Michelle Rexach, and Jake of the S/V Monsita; Filo and Janet Rico; Juan Seda of the M/V Lumar; Jerry Smith and Dee Dee Kincade of the S/V Surprise; Jack and Pat Tyler of the S/V Whoosh; Stuart and Natalya Kaydash of the Vieques Yacht Club; Bruce and Rosa Van Sant; and last, but certainly not least, Colettemarie Wilson. If there is anybody that I have neglected to mention here, rest assured that it is an oversight and I sincerely apologize.

Cover Design by Ken Quant, Broad Reach Marketing & Design, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Dedication

Dr. Juan M. Van Vicens S/V Valkyrie

Doc,

Thanks for all your help, you made my stay here memorable, comfortable, safe, and quite enjoyable. You also taught me to truly appreciate Isla del Encanto, her people, and especially her cuisine. To say gracias is not enough mi hermano...

Introduction

La Isla del Encanto

Enticing Puerto Rico, la Isla del Encanto...the Island of Enchantment! I challenge anybody to deny that this island is enchanted. I challenge you to stand atop El Yunque with the sun just poking its head above the eastern horizon as a thousand coqui sing their morning song and deny that this island is enchanted. I challenge you to gaze into Tres Pueblos Sinkhole in the Rio Camuy Cave Park, the only sound being the Rio Camuy flowing 400’ below you, and deny that Puerto Rico is enchanted. I challenge you to watch the manatees frolicking in La Parguera or Jobos and deny that Puerto Rico is enchanted. I challenge you to meet the people of Puerto Rico. Take a trip through the heart of Puerto Rico, the Cordillera Central and stop and meet the people; the man on horseback, the vender with his roasted pig, the senorita selling empanadillas, and tell me Puerto Rico is not enchanted. Do this and you will find that Puerto Rico is indeed unique and her people most fortunate to live here.

Puerto Rico, is far more beautiful than her name describes. Puerto Rico and her offlying islands offer every bit as much of the scenic beauty as any of the better known Caribbean islands. Her easternmost islands, the Spanish Virgins, have all of the flavor and ambiance of the USVI and the BVI without the crowds, while her mainland offers several excellent hurricane holes and shopping and amenities no different than those found in the U.S.

Lying just a bit over 1,000 miles from Miami, Puerto Rico is the smallest and most easterly of the Greater Antilles. The classification of the islands of the Caribbean can often be confusing; almost everybody you speak to will give you a different description, but the generally accepted definition is that the Caribbean islands are divided into the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. The term Antilles comes from Antilia, a mythical island that Old World Europeans believed existed in the mid-Atlantic. The Greater Antilles consist of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico (including the Spanish Virgins). The Lesser Antilles consist of the smaller islands from the Virgin Islands in the north and following the chain of islands of the eastern Caribbean (The Leewards and The Windwards) as they arc southward to Trinidad and Tobago.

Puerto Rico is approximately 110 miles long by 35 miles wide, and boasts over 300 miles of coastline. Of the island’s over 3,400 square miles, approximately 13% of it is occupied by the U.S. Military while over 33% of the population of Puerto Rico resides in the metropolitan San Juan area. The island itself is ringed by a flat coastal plain with a mountainous interior (there are two primary mountain chains; the Cordillera Central and the Luquillo, and a smaller chain, the Sierra de Cayey in the southeastern part of the island). The highest peak is over 4,400’ and the higher mountains are near the southern and eastern coasts. The northern coast of Puerto Rico is green and lush, while the southern coast tends to be a bit more arid as the northern coast is blessed by a greater amount of rainfall than the southern coastline. The island is surrounded by an irregular shallow submarine shelf, seven miles wide at its widest. However, just two miles north of Puerto Rico the sea floor drops to over a thousand fathoms. Deeper still is the Puerto Rican Trench, sometimes called Bronson’s Deep, where the ocean floor plunges to depths of 28,000’ some 45 miles north of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico has held a commonwealth association with the United States, called Estado Libre Asociado, or free associated state since 1952. Puerto Ricans are American citizens and Puerto Rico has a Resident Commissioner who speaks in the U.S. House of Representatives, but who cannot vote. The people of Puerto Rico do not pay taxes and cannot vote for president. On the political side, the New Progressive Party supports statehood, while the Popular Democratic Party backs the current commonwealth status, and the Puerto Rico Independence Party wants to make the island an independent republic.

Puerto Rico has an excellent roadway system. Her autopistas are similar to the U.S. Interstate Highway System. It doesn’t take long to drive around the island, one could conceivably do it in two days, but that’s not giving yourself enough time to truly savor what Puerto Rico has to offer.

If Puerto Rico were said to have a national animal, it would have to be the