Puerto Rico now feels like a “welcome to poverty” experience. Normally, it’s like Thailand but with a Spanish flair. Currently, several factors have converged: school holidays, people desperate to travel. For Americans, Puerto Rico offers all the conveniences of domestic travel with features of an international trip. American dollars are accepted, there’s mobile service without roaming, all the usual retail chains are present, the language is understandable to half the country (plus everyone speaks some English).
Puerto Rico is almost the 51st state. Moreover, you don’t have to retest for COVID when returning to the US, which would otherwise add up to a plus $360 for three people. To come here, PCR tests are mandatory. Had we gone to another country, the same costs for returning to the US would apply, making the set of travel paperwork to somewhere like the Dominican Republic cost us $720.
We bought our tickets here for over $400 per person, whereas the typical price for this destination is $190. We could have postponed a few days to save almost half, but it was inconvenient for us. Oh well, such are tickets, not too big a deal.
Hotels. The typical price is from $160 per night. We booked a week before and there were literally three hotels at $150. A week earlier there were more options around $120, but we missed that. The hotel had a construction site view 😉 needless to say, there’s no breakfast in the hotel, no free water, but there is a microwave on the first floor.
Car rental. We realized too late that a car is a necessity here. There’s virtually no public transport outside the city. Renting “just anything” now costs from $180 per day, plus about $25 for parking. And there are no tours either, so leaving the city is not an option. It seems like they’ve run out of cars, and companies are pricing based on the need to bring in vehicles from other places.
Taxis. Uber could have been an option to get somewhere far, if not for the prices. A 4km ride to the city almost always costs around $22. Sometimes, when the roads are clear, the price drops to $12. That’s fine for 4 km, not 40.
To the old town, you can ride an electric scooter. A dollar to start and fifty cents for each minute of the ride. Those same four kilometers take about 15 minutes, so a taxi might even be cheaper. But we’ll still ride the scooters, just for fun.
We had plans to travel to the islands with the white sand, but the ferry was sold out until April 12 (we’re here till the 3rd). Plus, you can’t get to the ferry without a car, it’s a one and a half or two-hour drive.
The restaurants here are neither cheap nor spectacularly delicious. That is, you can find some very decent ones, but the bill will surprise you. I somewhat expected an island in the Caribbean should be rich with seafood, fresh vegetables, and fruits. Somehow, it’s not quite that.
Probably should have booked everything well in advance, but for various reasons, it was not possible. There’s a high chance we could have canceled the trip on the day of departure. “So now you pay,” the Puerto Ricans say.
Last November, all restaurants and shops were closed here, and now, under the threat of fines, authorities have strictly enforced certain measures among sellers, residents, and tourists. Unlike many other places, compliance here is strict. In each shop, they squirt gel on your hands and take your temperature. Given that there are stores every five meters, you end up with kilograms of gel. Masks are mandatory everywhere except the beach. It’s almost impossible to find stubborn anti-maskers on the streets. Not wearing one incurs a $100 fine. At night there’s a curfew. Violating it results in either a $5000 fine or six months in jail.
On the bright side — very nice weather, warm sea, really blue skies, and a very cool old town. The local shops aren’t entirely made up of Chinese whitelabel knockoffs, there’s a lot of handmade stuff.
We’ll try to still make it to the islands, forests, and caves, or find a car in small companies for reasonable money.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 