Activities in Eastern Puerto Rico
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La Casa del Mar Dive Center
Set inside the grounds of El Conquistador resort, the PADI-certified La Casa del Mar Dive Center is great for all levels. The ‘Bubblemakers for Kids’ appeals to the younger crowd (8 to 15 years; $49); more experienced divers can take the trips to local reefs (one/two tanks $69/99). A two-tank dive over in Culebra is $125.
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Island Adventures
Island Adventures offers 90-minute tours ($30) in an electric boat just about every night, except when there’s a full moon (take the trip to learn why!).
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Sea Ventures Pro Dive Center
Sea Ventures Pro Dive Center has three outlets in Fajardo, Palmas del Mar and Guánica. They’re staffed by very experienced professionals offering one-week PADI certification courses. For those who just want the basics or already know how to dive, there are multiple trips to Palominos and Icacos Cays daily (one/two tanks $65/99), and on Sunday there are trips to Vieques and Culebra.
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Caribbean Fly-fishing Company
Fishing is sublime in Vieques. Imagine Florida Keys with about one-tenth of the fishermen and enough bonefish, tarpon and permit to stock a mini ocean. Fishing boats can also allow you access to isolated stretches of coastline in the former naval zone. Caribbean Fly-fishing Company has received a favorable New York Times review.
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Captain Frank López
Captain Frank López offers fishing or snorkeling trips and sea excursions to Cayo Santiago. Prices are negotiable: start your bidding at about $30. Look for La Paseadora boat at Playa Naguabo.
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CORALations
Two of Culebra's most isolated beaches - Resaca and Brava - are nesting sites for the endangered leatherback sea turtle, the largest living sea turtle in the world. The nesting season runs April through early June and each year small groups of volunteers are recruited by the US Fish & Wildlife Refuge to oversee the delicate egg-laying process.
Volunteers meet at sunset before traveling out to the beaches where they are required to count eggs, measure turtles, and document the event for environmental records. At the same time, participants are able to witness one of nature's most transfixing and timeless events in stunning close-up. Volunteer postings are understandably li…
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La Coca Trail
This popular 1.8-mile hike will take you a little over an hour each way. The trailhead is just up the road past the falls of the same name - just before the Yokahú Tower - and there is a small parking lot here. It's a fairly benign, low-altitude trail following streams through tabonuco forest.
La Coca made its mark on El Yunque history when a US college professor disappeared here for 12 days in 1997, claiming after his rescue that he got off the trail and was lost. The Forest Service, which had enlisted a search party of 60 volunteers and aircraft, was hardly amused. If you follow La Coca to its end, you can go left (east) along Carrillo Trail to the eastern part of the …
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El Yunque Trail
This is the big enchilada for most visitors and takes you to the top of El Yunque (3496ft, 1049m) in 1½ hours or longer. Starting on Rte 191 Km 12.2 opposite the Palo Colorado Visitor's Center, the 2.4 mile trail is mostly paved or maintained gravel as you ascend through cloud forest to the observation deck, which is surrounded by microwave communication towers that transmit to the islands of Culebra and Vieques.
If you want a rock scramble from here, take Los Picachos Trail (0.17 miles) to another old observation tower and feel as if you have crested a tropical Everest. You can return via a different route by descending down the Mt Britton Spur/Mt Britton Trail and the…
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Mt Britton Trail
If you are short on time and want to feel as if you have really 'summited,' take the 0.8-mile, 45-minute climb up through the midlevel types of vegetation into the cloud forest that surrounds this peak, which is named after a famous botanist who worked here. This is a continuous climb on paved surfaces to the Mt Britton Tower, built in the 1930s. The trailhead is at the side of Hwy 9938, which veers off Hwy 191 south of Palo Colorado.
The more adventurous and fit can connect to El Yunque Trail via the 0.86 mile Mt Britton Spur.
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La Mina Trail
The forest's newest trail was opened in 1992 as an extension of the Big Tree trail, although it can be done in isolation from its starting point at the Palo Colorado Visitors Center. The trail heads downhill through palo colorado forest to La Mina Falls and an old mine tunnel. Mostly paved, it's an easy 0.7 mile walk down, but a bit of a hike back up. The La Mina trail connects with the Carrillo trail at La Mina Falls and with La Coca soon after.
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Hacienda Carabaldi
Hacienda Carabaldi is a 600-acre eco-adventure ranch southwest of town, does trail rides on Paso Fino horses along the Río Mameyes and into the foothills of the rainforest, with time out for swimming and a picnic. Beach rides and simple jaunts around the ranch are also offered, as well as two-hour mountain-biking tours along rainforest trails. Aluminum bikes, with helmet and gloves, are provided for $40 per person.
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Golden Heron Ecotours
Golden Heron Ecotours offers excellent snorkeling trips to almost virgin reefs that are reachable only by motorboat. The company only uses the boats of local fishermen and has a strong environmental ethos (helping people protect rather than exploit their local landscapes). Boats for up to six people can be chartered and the trip with a qualified guide lasts all day. Children are welcome.
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Big Tree Trail
This short 0.86-mile trail of moderate difficulty gets its name from the size of the vegetation along the way. The walk takes about a half-hour each way, and it has interpretive signs along its route through tabonuco forest before ending at La Mina Falls. All these attractions make this probably the most popular trail in the park. The trailhead is at Km 10.4 on Hwy 191.
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Caribbean School of Aquatics
Operating since 1963, the Caribbean School of Aquatics has National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) and Professional Association of Dive Instructors (PADI) scuba classes, and Captain Greg Korwek will take you on all-day boat trips to the best spots around La Cordillera and elsewhere; two-tank dives start from $119 per person.
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East Island Excursions
East Island Excursions has glass-bottomed catamarans that are in high demand, so book early. All kinds of day trips to La Cordillera islands are offered, and it even does quick runs over to St Thomas. One of the catamarans has a water slide that launches you right into the ocean. Day trips start at $69 per person (10am to 3:30pm).
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Culebra Bike Shop
Culebra Bike Shop is sometimes open, sometimes not. If no one answers your hollering, try yer man, Steve, on the phone. Still no luck, look him up in the Dinghy Dock next door. If you do manage to pin him down, Steve rents decent mountain bikes like Diamondbacks for approximately $25 a day, with discounts for longer rents.
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Culebra Dive Shop
The Culebra Dive Shop in Dewey offers similar services and prices, and are generally open during normal business hours. You can rent snorkel gear for about $10 to $12 or arrange a day trip for adult/child $50/35. The same vendors also offer dive instruction and trips. One-/two-tank dives cost around $65/90.
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Blackbeard Sports
The island’s biggest and best dive shop is Blackbeard Sports. Based out of Isabel Segunda, these guys offer two-tank scuba dives from $100 and Professional Association of Dive Instructors (PADI) certified basic open-water courses from $350. You can also rent your own snorkel/scuba gear for $15/50 a day.
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Culebra Boats
Culebra Boats rents fast inflatable dinghies with motors to get around Ensenada Honda. Alternatively you can join Captain Luis and his crew for the water taxi out to Culebrita. Longer day excursions with kayaking and a lobster lunch are also available. Pick up and drop off is from the Club Seaborne dock.
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Eco-Action Tours
A good ecosensitive operator is Eco-Action Tours, which offers half-/full day tours, depending on size of group, for hikes to Mt Britton and La Mina Falls. Guides are knowledgeable, environmentally conscious, and eager to talk about the rainforest ecosystem. They'll pick you up from your San Juan hotel.
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Erin Go Bragh Charters
Erin Go Bragh Charters offers ecofriendly sunset trips, dinner trips, daily trips (with BBQ and other lunches provided) and overnight charters to Vieques and Culebra. Captain Bill and his wife Ingrid visit various islands in the cordillera where you can swim, fish and snorkel.
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La Selva Surf Shop
La Selva Surf Shop has been around for more than 25 years. Well-stocked and friendly, it rents out surfboards and body boards and offers the latest on surf conditions at La Pared (literally two blocks away), La Selva (further east) and around the Humacao area to the south.
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Eco Xcursion Aquatica
Although technically located in Río Grande, Eco Xcursion Aquatica is a mobile operation with guided flotilla trips to La Cordillera cays for snorkeling, and a sunset trip around Las Cabezas and into the bioluminescent Laguna Grande, where micro-organisms glow in the dark water.
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Palmas Dive Center
At the Palmas del Mar Resort you can organize diving and snorkeling trips through the Palmas Dive Center, which will take you to Cayo Santiago and the deeper sites offshore (there are 35 within a 5-mile radius). Prices start at $60/89 for a half-day snorkel/dive.
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Yokahú Kayaks
Yokahú Kayaks provides equipment, and guides are very professional. Children under seven aren't allowed on the night trips, which leave at 19:00 and generally last two hours. Their nonpolluting kayaks are one of the most environmentally friendly ways of seeing the Laguna.
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