zelatore
01-18-2011, 07:58 PM
Sitting in ATL waiting on my connection back home to SFO on the way back from San Juan.
Afraid I don't have a lot to report compared to Canada. Michele's afraid I've stopped being a boat guy and have become a Jeep guy. I beg to differ...no reason a guy can't have both!
Only got in a little boating - took a 13' RIB out for some snorkeling off the east end of the island. While I was there I spotted a couple of ZF's, one dry-stored and one at anchor. The RIB hardly qualifies as high performance boating, but there were plenty of wind waves to make it interesting running the little boat on plane. Air time was readily available. :wink:
I did spot a couple of nice Bertram 31s in the harbor. Pretty tasty.
Lots of sport fishing boats of course. Primarily walk arounds and center consoles.
I don't often do the sand/surf/bar sort of vacation. I just can't lay around and do nothing like that. Some people call it relaxing. I call it boring. Plus almost none of the bars had anything on tap, and if they did it was the local brew which was...uh...not great. What do you expect from the rum capital?
We did get out to the rain forest for a day, and spent another day driving the 'panoramic highway' down the east/west central mountain range. Highway would be a bit of an overstatement. Although it's paved, the quality is pretty suspect in many places. It's also so narrow and hilly that at times I wasn't sure if I was on the road or somebody's driveway. Seriously - put it in 1st and foot to the floor trying to climb some of those hills! Another couple % and we'd have put her in low range!
The rental was a brand new '11 Wrangler. Only about 1500 miles on it; still had the window sticker in the glove box. A good choice for the island as even on the 'big' road with a 65 mph speed limit most traffic was running well below that.
Things I learned:
Saint Sebastian must be the saint of f#cked up traffic. There was a big street festival in his honor in Old Town San Juan - made it impossible to get back to the hotel in the evenings without sitting in traffic for a couple hours.
While sitting in said traffic, you will gain a new appreciation for Latin rap music. Although the big stereo thing has come and gone in CA, it's in full swing in PR.
PR still fully embraces the 2-stroke. In the mountains packs of 10-20 quads and/or dirt bikes would come screaming up the road, WOT and on the (aftermarket) pipe. Crazy loud!
Speaking of loud...if you have a generic 80s or 90s Japanese economy/family sedan and you want to turn it into a high performance vehicle all you need is a hack saw to cut the exhaust off. The closer to the engine, apparently the better judging from the sound. Mind you, I actually LIKE a good sounding engine. But these were just plain irritating.
PR seems to LOVE Jeeps. I don't know if there was a special event or if it's a regular weekend occurrence, but we passed several clubs out in full force Sunday. Probably 150+ Jeeps, mostly Wranglers. Also, it seems that every last Suzuki Samurai ever build is now on the island. I saw more Sammies in an hour here than I've seen in my life back home!
All in all it wasn't a bad trip but I don't think I'll be coming back. Perhaps if we'd put a little more time into researching the trip, or if we hadn't been forced to stay in San Juan for the conference it would have been a better fit for us. I don't think we'll be back in the Caribbean any time soon, but if we do I think we'll try St. Croix or another spot next time.
I could go on, but gotta catch a plane!
http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/DonziZFatanchor.jpg
http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/DonziZFdrystored.jpg
http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Bertram31.jpg
http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Sammie.jpg
Afraid I don't have a lot to report compared to Canada. Michele's afraid I've stopped being a boat guy and have become a Jeep guy. I beg to differ...no reason a guy can't have both!
Only got in a little boating - took a 13' RIB out for some snorkeling off the east end of the island. While I was there I spotted a couple of ZF's, one dry-stored and one at anchor. The RIB hardly qualifies as high performance boating, but there were plenty of wind waves to make it interesting running the little boat on plane. Air time was readily available. :wink:
I did spot a couple of nice Bertram 31s in the harbor. Pretty tasty.
Lots of sport fishing boats of course. Primarily walk arounds and center consoles.
I don't often do the sand/surf/bar sort of vacation. I just can't lay around and do nothing like that. Some people call it relaxing. I call it boring. Plus almost none of the bars had anything on tap, and if they did it was the local brew which was...uh...not great. What do you expect from the rum capital?
We did get out to the rain forest for a day, and spent another day driving the 'panoramic highway' down the east/west central mountain range. Highway would be a bit of an overstatement. Although it's paved, the quality is pretty suspect in many places. It's also so narrow and hilly that at times I wasn't sure if I was on the road or somebody's driveway. Seriously - put it in 1st and foot to the floor trying to climb some of those hills! Another couple % and we'd have put her in low range!
The rental was a brand new '11 Wrangler. Only about 1500 miles on it; still had the window sticker in the glove box. A good choice for the island as even on the 'big' road with a 65 mph speed limit most traffic was running well below that.
Things I learned:
Saint Sebastian must be the saint of f#cked up traffic. There was a big street festival in his honor in Old Town San Juan - made it impossible to get back to the hotel in the evenings without sitting in traffic for a couple hours.
While sitting in said traffic, you will gain a new appreciation for Latin rap music. Although the big stereo thing has come and gone in CA, it's in full swing in PR.
PR still fully embraces the 2-stroke. In the mountains packs of 10-20 quads and/or dirt bikes would come screaming up the road, WOT and on the (aftermarket) pipe. Crazy loud!
Speaking of loud...if you have a generic 80s or 90s Japanese economy/family sedan and you want to turn it into a high performance vehicle all you need is a hack saw to cut the exhaust off. The closer to the engine, apparently the better judging from the sound. Mind you, I actually LIKE a good sounding engine. But these were just plain irritating.
PR seems to LOVE Jeeps. I don't know if there was a special event or if it's a regular weekend occurrence, but we passed several clubs out in full force Sunday. Probably 150+ Jeeps, mostly Wranglers. Also, it seems that every last Suzuki Samurai ever build is now on the island. I saw more Sammies in an hour here than I've seen in my life back home!
All in all it wasn't a bad trip but I don't think I'll be coming back. Perhaps if we'd put a little more time into researching the trip, or if we hadn't been forced to stay in San Juan for the conference it would have been a better fit for us. I don't think we'll be back in the Caribbean any time soon, but if we do I think we'll try St. Croix or another spot next time.
I could go on, but gotta catch a plane!
http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/DonziZFatanchor.jpg
http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/DonziZFdrystored.jpg
http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Bertram31.jpg
http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Sammie.jpg