Half way around Puerto Rico

We made it half way around Puerto Rico in 2 days. Five more traveling days on this trip .

It was raining in the area of Gilligan’s Island.  The ferry location is in the small village of Guanica.  It had not opened  for the day when we got there.  Instead of just sitting around, we drove to Ponce.

Ponce is a fairly large city.   There are local sites to visit, but we couldn’t find them.   The bartender at our hotel told us of a Castle to visit.   It is in a bad section of town, so we scratched that visit.   We did travel up to the mountain area to see some  Indian ruins.

Tibes Indian Ceremonial Center site

The Tibes Indian Ceremonial Center site, about three miles from Ponce.  The location pays tribute to the pre-Columbian Igneri and Taíno who originally inhabited the archipelago. The site was discovered in 1975 in the aftermath of Hurricane Eloise.  The indigenous tribes of the Igneri and Taínos lived and played in this area during and before the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the New World. Tibes is the oldest Antillean Indian ceremonial and sports complex yet uncovered in Puerto Rico. Within its boundaries was found the largest indigenous cemetery  – consisting of 186 human skeletons, most from the Igneri and the rest from the pre-Taíno cultures.   You can see the outline of the 3 ball fields with the village.   (Source – Wikipedia)

We walked through the ruins site for approximately one hour.  The three areas marked by large stones for the ball fields are very visible.

Apparently, on this day, a local school had the students on a field trip to learn about the culture.

South end of Ponce

Leaving the ruin site, we drove southward down to the beach area.   We ventured up and down the narrow street through neighborhoods trying to locate an area to step into the water.   Any place we did find near the water was rocky and apparently were trash is dumped at the end of the roads.   It looked like a poor neighborhood area placed on the edge of the beautiful ocean.

We visited the Marina area on the far South end of Ponce.  It’s a park area with a few bars, restaurants and vendors.  If you get there early enough there is a ferry that takes you on a day trip to an island.   It was a nice place to hang around and enjoy the calmness of water and some time out of the car.

Driving in an unknown area

We enjoy doing these trips.  The driving is stressful at times.  It’s all unfamiliar and you are pretty much at the mercy of the GPS to get the places.

Walmart, K-Mart and several other stores were familiar to us.   We made a stop at Walmart to pick up a few more munchies and drink before traveling onward.

The stay in Ponce lasted 1 1/2 days driving around a busy city.

Later the second day in Ponce, we drove to Fajardo which was approximately 1 1/2 hours away.

60plusandfearless,

Dianne

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