We move on and decide to try a different beach close to the NE tip of Puerto Rico and close to the Reserva Natural de Las Cabezas de San Juan. The road is becoming more narrow the closer we get and also curvy so we slow down to ensure we have time to react if somebody is coming at speed from the other direction.
We arrive at the official beach but unfortunately it is closed so we go further and notice a few cars parked close to the road and we assume that it likely is another spot to access the ocean. We walk to the beach and take a few pictures but we do not get far as suddenly it starts to rain hard – we run to the car with all the other families on the beach but even though it is a short distance we arrive drenched at the car.
It is already early afternoon so we drive towards our hotel, the Ceiba Country Inn, so we can check in change in dry clothes and go on the boat tour. The road to the inn is narrow and picturesques as we ascend in altitude through the rainforest. We find the inn easily, it has great views and a very friendly dog and few cats.
We like the inside painting of a flower on the wall and also the fact that we have a hammock outside to relax. Before leaving for the docks we decide to call to ensure everything is fine and are surprised when they tell us that the tour has been cancelled due to rough weather – we decide to try for the next day but now we are without food quite far from civilization and the inn doesn’t have a restaurant.
While deciding where to go we spend some time enjoying the great views of the jungle from the inn, they are quite beautiful.
In the end we decide to drive towards Humacao, a nearby city, that we hope also has some stores where we can buy some provisions. After about 1h drive we get to the city and find that it has a supermarket where we buy provisions and a shopping mall where we buy some fast food from the food court.
Before driving back we explore the area further and find an interesting park dedicated to a local cacique (head of the Tainos/Native Americans) named Jumacao who fought against the Spanish after trying to negotiate with them. The park is quiet and has nice flowers and some sculptures but after a few pictures it starts to rain again so we return to the car and to the inn for the night. With the rain ending there is a chorus of frogs outside and we feel like in a jungle as we go to sleep.
