Palominos, Fajardo /Frazier Nivens
Attractions & Sights December-2006, By:Travel and Sports Staff
The Best of Puerto Rico Guest™ 2006
As we ring out the old year and ring in the new, the staff at Puerto Rico Guest™, Puerto Rico’s Signature Magazine, would like to share with you our favorite images of 2006. On the pages that follow, you will find photos showcasing the best of our Island, from snorkeling to surfing, beaches to boating. Join us as we explore along – and beyond – Puerto Rico’s shore!
Our February-March issue. Puerto Rico’s most extreme nature adventure is caving. Networks of river caves lie beneath the Island’s karst terrain, a lush landscape of cratered sinkholes and haystack-shaped hills. Cavers rappel down sinkhole walls, scramble over boulders, and swim up rivers in total blackness: experienced tour operators are essential for this. For a less strenuous journey, visit the Río Camuy Cave Park. If you prefer soothing adventure, kayak at night along bioluminescent lagoons, where micro-organisms turn on their lights, or during the day along mangrove-fringed channels. Of course, no nature buff will pass up a visit to a tropical rain forest. For hiking, the Caribbean National Forest – El Yunque – offers the greatest diversity. For views of the island’s highest peaks, visit Toro Negro. In both places you’ll see topsy-turvy layers of rain forest vegetation. Bird-watching is excellent in coastal forests such as Guánica, where migratory and resident birds co-exist.
The April-May issue explored the hundreds of beaches that rim Puerto Rico and the offshore islands. The current favorite of many beach connoisseurs is Flamenco Beach on Culebra Island, a stunning mile-long arc of turquoise sea and bone sand. Culebra has numerous other beaches that are picture-perfect, on a smaller scale, and neighboring Vieques Island has coves and bays that rival any place in the Caribbean. Both islands are protected by nature refuges, making them ideal destinations for nature beach adventurers. Majestic beaches on the main island include the grande dame, Luquillo Public Beach; Seven Seas Public Beach in Fajardo; Gilligan’s Island off Guánica; Cabo Rojo’s Boquerón, and the no-longer-so-secret beach getaway, La Playuela, next to the Cabo Rojo lighthouse. You’ll also find perfectly nice beaches in the metropolitan area.
Our June-July issue took us to the underwater pleasures of Puerto Rico. Experienced scuba divers agree that the two must-see destinations in Puerto Rico are La Parguera Wall and Desecheo Island. The wall is the upper region of the south coast’s continental shelf, where dozens of sites showcase immense coral gardens and multitudes of fish. Uninhabited Desecheo Island in the Mona Passage highlights pristine and abundant marine life. In addition, numerous accessible reefs surround Puerto Rico and the offshore islands. Underwater visibility is good to excellent, waters are warm year-round, and there are dive shops and watersports operators just about everywhere. For snorkelers, day trips from Fajardo to offshore cays and patches of coral reefs make a great way to get to know Puerto Rico’s turquoise kingdom.
In the August-September issue, we discovered Puerto Rico’s “Fishing and Boating Paradise.” Blue marlin reach their greatest size at this time of year, and several tournaments have made San Juan internationally known as a game-fishing mecca. It doesn’t hurt that the Puerto Rico Trench, the deep waters where large fish abound, is a short boat ride from the Island’s north coast. Every coastal region has respectable fishing grounds and operators to take you to them. For those who prefer salt-water fly or reel fishing closer to shore, flat-bottomed boats wind through mangroves and along shallow coastal bays in San Juan and other island sites. If it’s boating you want, your first stop should be Fajardo, the boating capital of Puerto Rico, where boats can be chartered or rented for fishing, snorkeling, or simply cruising.
In our October-November issue, we learned why Puerto Rico is nicknamed “Scotland in the Sun.” Few places in the world offer golfers dependable warm weather, spectacular scenery, and over 20 challenging, championship-caliber golf courses a short drive from each other. Even more impressive, most of these courses have been designed by golf luminaries – Robert Trent Jones, Sr. designed the Dorado Beach courses; Puerto Rico’s Chi Chi Rodríguez is the architect behind the Dorado del Mar course and his own El Legado; a very young Tom Fazio created the ocean-facing course at Río Mar; and Gary Player sculpted Palmas del Mar’s Palm Course. Virtually all golf venues – both resort and public or private courses – are open to public play, and you can make arrangements to play on resort courses even if you are not a guest.
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