We (the rest of the abroad teachers and I) left Guayama a little past 8am with a full itinerary: see two caves, hit up the Bacardi Factory, then we'd split into two groups as half the group had a baby shower to attend. Divided into two cars, we began our adventure. And all was well until I noticed the meter on my car was well above the red zone.
Both cars pulled over at a conveniently located bar, and put oil and water into my car and waited for it to cool off. Roughly 20 minutes later we were on the road again, heading to Cueva Ventana. My car began overheating again when we encountered hills, but we made it to the first cave.
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| The Entrance of Cueva Ventana |
The walk up to the cave was easy; in fact, someone had made steps. We came to an opening which was somewhat covered in tree roots, and some of us (myself included) decided to go in that way, since it was a short-cut to Cueva Ventana and seemed like an excellent adventure. While the rest carried on around the path, we pulled out flashlights and held on to overhead roots to avoid sliding down the slippery sides inside the cave. There was a drop of about five feet, but a rope attached to the ceiling allowed us to repel down and continue into the center. Bats occupied the ceiling of the cave, but for the most part it was just a dark expanse of mud. Still pretty cool. As soon as we clambered up the side, we were outside the entrance of Cueva Ventana ("Window Cave").
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| The Ventana |
Cueva Ventana was significantly larger (and more exciting) than the little shortcut cave. The stalactites and stalagmites formed intricate labyrinths on the walls that made you feel like you were inside a coral reef; they were also the perfect size for a child to move an action figure through a stone "forest". Flashlights helped us navigate the muddy cave, annoy some of the bats (on accident), and muse over the graffiti as we wondered if Orlando and Laura are still together, despite their heart-shaped declaration in the cave. And then we reached the ventana ("window"). Absolutely beautiful.
We were on our way to the second cave, when my car overheated for the millionth time and we concluded that it probably wasn't a great idea for me to keep driving the car. The other car continued on and the rest of us in my car stopped at an Advanced Auto Parts where they sold me a new cap (I'm not sure for what exactly) and put water-- a ton of water-- in the car. Seemingly fixed, we made our way to San Juan to try and meet up with the others at the Bacardi Factory, their destination after the second cave which my group skipped.
After many wrong turns, because directions are never easy in Puerto Rico and Google Maps clearly likes to mess with people, we made it to the welcomed commercialism that was the Bacardi Factory. We signed up for the tour and immediately used our free drink coupons (we had to shut off the air conditioning in my car to keep it from overheating). Accidentally, we wound up on the Spanish tour, which I looked at as more opportunity to practice. For the most part, I could only understand snippets of what the guide was saying, but the videos which used clearly annonicated Spanish were much easier.
Fun facts from the Bacardi tour:
-There is a law that rum in Puerto Rico must be aged for at least one year
-Bacardi started in Cuba
-Coca Cola and Bacardi joined forces to create a drink called Cuba Libre ("Free Cuba") which is basically a rum and coke, but with a lemon. Without the lemon, they call it rum and coke.
-Once the founder of Bacardi was exiled, he traveled around and created Bacardi distilleries in other countries.
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| On the Bacardi tour |
Post-tour my group went to Caguas and found a Chili's. Ironically, the first Chili's I've ever been to. After a nice dinner break, we began the trek back to Guayama, with a seemingly functioning car. About 30 minutes away from home, the meter was well above red again, the check engine light (usually on) began flashing, the oil light came on, and the car emitted an impressive cloud of smoke. Figuring it was best to just keep going instead of worrying about a tow-truck and staying on the shoulder of the road in the dark with no streetlights (Puerto Rico doesn't really have them), we carried on and had the misfortune of hitting every red light possible. As I pulled into the driveway, the car died. Still half in the road, it had to be pushed the rest of the way into the driveway. That's pretty lucky.
Today turned out to be a little more of an adventure than I was expecting, but it was great to see more of the island. We essentially drove all over the island and the view, let alone the cave, was amazing. And hey, now I'm officially a teacher in Puerto Rico!
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