Four things you will not love about Puerto Rico

As I have previously written, I really enjoyed my visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico. But there are four things that were negatives that travelers should avoid.

The first is the unreliable public transportation. I have talked about this on a previous post, so I won’t beat it to death, but the bus system is pretty hit or miss. No schedules, no trip planner, no real time updating: we ain’t in Portland, Toto.

Secondarily and related, the traffic in San Juan is epic. The town was built before cars, and a traffic jam is a bumper-to-bumper parking lot for miles. It’s pretty impressive. People seem relatively chill, but still…

Also, crossing the street: be very careful. People are pretty annoyed from being stalled in huge traffic jams all week and have kind of a macho attitude, so really have your eyes out when crossing the street. I saw several close calls, including my taxi driver when we were going from the airport to the hotel on arrival.

Our taxi driver floored it at a guy crossing the street at 2:00 am. He had probably been drinking and gave her a macho stare like, “Run me over, bitch, I dare you!” She wasn’t playing and didn’t even tap the brakes. The whole group in the taxi gasped as we went right at the guy. Somehow, we barely missed him and everyone laughed from relief. I was honestly surprised the dude didn’t chase her and punch her, but in Puerto Rico people tend to be mellow.

Lastly, dude, watch out for the sand fleas! My wife and I enjoyed a couple of romantic evenings laying underneath the stars on the beach. Unfortunately, there was a huge price to be paid: we are covered in bites from sand fleas. And they itch like crazy! We both have dozens. So if you go there, stay on a recliner on or near the beach, not the beach itself.