The Lechler Crew

Puerto Rico…written while I was in PR (March-April 2021)

I love it here. It’s a great place for those that want beach but also want to be in America. Definitely rent a car. Great kite boarding, surfing, jungle, beaches, party, food, the best sea glass beaches ,etc. it has it all!
Old San Juan is awesome and has great food and bars. Right now they are VERY strict on Covid. We even had to wear mask outside walking around the marinas. They just moved curfew to 9pm so restaurants do their last seating by 7:30 which makes getting into the restaurants very difficult! This is usually a party all night place so it’s a bummer.
The North side has the very high end Dorado Beach resort by Ritz Carlton. Gorg gorg and $$$$. I’ve had honeymooners stay in the West facing, infinity pool private rooms. They are insane for sunset views. The North side is also where San Juan is. The hotels in the Coronado area would be great for guest that want to party in Old San Juan but still be on a beach and have lots of great restaurants to walk to. Numero Uno Beach Club is awesome and they do kiteboard lessons. Great people watching spot. Bean bags in the sand and good cocktails. The waves are pretty rough here. If you’re traveling with kids go to the massive lawn in front of the fort and buy a kite to fly. It’s great fun!
The East side is where the jungle is the El Yunque National Forest. You can drive your rental car through and pull off and hike to several falls and look out points. It’s definitely something to do. Right now you have to get a pass for your car in advance. The day before you go you can log in at either 8am if you want to go between 8A and 11 or at 12 if you want to go between 12-3. Great photos and worth it. I think the car pass is $2. There’s also these cool rock slide you can do before or after you visit the National Forest. It’s around 15 minutes away, you drive back through a residential area and park in a residents driveway. I think it’s around $5 a car. You walk a short way down the path to the rock slides. I didn’t do it because it looked crazy but it was fun people watching and everyone in my family enjoyed it. From this area you can catch the ferry to Culebra or Vieques islands. Covid has made these a bit of a downer. Vieques has the bioluminescent bay that’s awesome. If staying in San Juan area but want a fun day excursion I’d definitely book the party boat to Culebrita. It leaves out of Puerto Del Ray Marina and goes to the most beautiful anchorage. It’s a big catamaran and has a slide off the back. Fun for all ages. There are the “baths” here, awesome swimming holes. At night I’d book a spot for the flamenco dance and guitar show at Triana Tapas & Flamenco. It was really great! A drive to La Casita Blanca restaurant is also worth it, what a cool and unique restaurant.
The South side has a few cool spots but nothing we found spectacular.
The West sides star is Rincon. Super cool awesome surf area. The surfing is legit between October through April. Great sunsets, restaurants, people. I loved it. Make sure to eat at Tamboo Tavern, oh the views and sunset!

Marinas and Anchorages.
We love the Marina at Puerto Real. Simple, small, laundry, bar and very friendly. They gave us the best booklet on their personal favorite restaurants, anchorages and random info about Puerto Rico. I referred to it countless times throughout the trip. The Bodega in the parking lot has the best cocktails and is so fun and eclectic. Marina 307 restaurant is a great place to enjoy the evening and have fish tacos. The marinas manager is the man! We didn’t get to meet him but he was extremely helpful for our arrival in PR during Covid.
Next we sailed South to make our way East. It was extremely windy. Everyday the wind picked up around ten AM and died off around 8pm. We would beat into the wind until we couldn’t handle it anymore and would anchor. That said many of the anchorages that looked like they’d be awesome were a disappointment as the water was turned up and not clear. We anchored at Gilligan’s Island a few nights. Our favorite in the area is Caja de Muertos also known Coffin Island, it was actually beautiful despite the harsh winds. We enjoyed hiking up to the lighthouse and swimming in the pretty waters. We then anchored in Salinas instead of Ponce and we’re happy with that decision. We rented a car and drove to Ponce for our first Walmart trip. The kids were SO excited to go to Walmart, actually we all were. We even ran into some friends there that were also sailing, you can never go to Walmart without seeing someone you know! We also visited downtown Ponce and it was just sad, so many businesses shuttered. It was depressing. We enjoyed the anchorage in Salinas, Derek and I left the kids on the boat and went and had a few drinks and appetizers. We then sailed to Vieques for a few nights. When we arrived the water was still stirred up. We anchored a few places South of Vieques then made our way to Palmas Del Mar. Of course we sailed up to  Cayo Santiago also known as Monkey Island on our way to the marina and watched the funny monkeys swimming and jumping off trees into the water. We were surprised at the smell…yikes! I liked PDM, there’s a restaurant right by the boats and several others you can walk to. On the weekend there’s a fun bar that has live music which is a treat during Covid. There’s a small pool but the restaurant looks over it so it’s a bit weird but still nice and a good place to watch boats go by. There’s also a washer and dryer and a Target car rental in the plaza. Jagger was doing a freedive course in Rincon so we rented a car and drove the 3 hours to our Airbnb we’d rented. We loved Rincon. Super cool surfing vibe area. Although it was pretty packed. Jett surfed all day and we watched from the beach and enjoyed our time there.
After camp we went back to the marina then checked out Vieques again, then Culebra and Culebrita a few nights before heading to Puerto Del Mar Marina for my parents arrival. I didn’t like PDMM, it’s massive, no pool and insanely expensive.
Culebrita was definitely our favorite anchorage in Puerto Rico. Most of what you read say it’s a day anchorage but I guess we got lucky and the 5+ nights we spent there were nice. It does get PACKED so we avoided it on weekends. Some friend said they did have to leave as it was super rolley one night.
After we said goodbye to my parents and sister we spent a few nights relaxing and recovering in Culebrita then headed for San Juan to get our Covid test for the Bahamas and get the boat ready for the four night trip. The marina at San Juan was ok. It was a huge pier but our boat was safe and we were able to play in Old San Juan without worrying over the boat. There are three Costco’s, Walmart’s and many grocery stores here. We were surprised to find most Walmart’s don’t have much produce but you can buy large appliances. Unfortunately our Covid test messed up and we weren’t able to get the results to enter the Bahamas so we decided to go to Punta Cana, check out a few places we missed, shorten the cruise and take new Covid test.
Overall we liked our time in Puerto Rico and saw most of the island.