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Visiting Puerto Rico 20 Years after my First Visit.

It’s been 20 years since my first visit to Puerto Rico to attend my friend’s Ring Dance.  This time there was no all-girls Catholic high school.

Getting Around

When I booked my trip to Puerto Rico it didn’t even occur to me that the island wouldn’t have Uber.  Turns out my trip coincided with the first week of Uber operating in  Puerto Rico.  It’s badly needed here.  Traditional taxi’s cost over twice as much.  They don’t have a grasp of GPS or smartphones still.  You’ll have lots of fun explaining where you want to go especially if you’re staying in an AirBnB instead of name brand hotel which is the limit of their map memory.  It started on a Monday and then died on a Friday night.  That night I walked home in the rain.  Demoralizing to say the least.   


Workcation

Besides a government stuck in 2005, I found Puerto Rico pretty charming.  
Old San Juan and San Juan do possess potential for a “workcation” lifestyle.  I found a great coworking office and entrepreneurship community called Piloto151 seated in the most charming part of Old San Juan.  When you give up on the coffee shop’s 2002 caliber internet and need to have an actual web meeting, you can grab a space at Piloto151 quite easily.  I was impressed with their office, staff and connections to groups and events like Kiva, Million Cups, Founders Instittute.   


Kiteboarding

My kiteboarding classes were about 10 miles East of Old San Juan in a neighborhood called Isla Verde just north of the main airport.  Kiteboarding is a beautiful challenging sport but I find it quite frustrating to submit my plans to the whims of the wind.  15-Knots did a great job helping me relearn all the basics over 2 3-hour lessons and get set up to doing turns without sinking back into the water.  Today’s conditions sucked though. I just rented gear and attempted to practice in practically nonexistent wind.


No Kiza Epidemic

No Zika for me, but I did get a fever.  I think it was from drinking too much ocean the first two lessons.   Between that fever and Uber shutting down, I downsized my adventures and ended up watching way more seasons of Mad Men than one should watch in Puerto Rico.


Food

Puerto Rico loves Burger King, they definitely outnumber McDonald’s by far here.  Starbucks feels exactly like mainland US, except every type of drink is $2 more.
Service here definitely runs on a different clock.   I don’t actually know how long fast food or sit down food is supposed to take but it’s defnitely not as fast.   There were a few restaurants where I thought something was actually wrong or they forgot my order.  Nope, it just takes longer sometimes.
My favorite discovery was probably the coffee at Kasalta a Cuban eatery.  Anything local is more affordable too. :)

Real Estate

Real Estate wise, I got almost nothing done.  There’s definitely some deals down here.  I could probably grab a condo near the beach for a $100k.  The problem is that while real estate is moving towards affordable the electricity is moving up 26% (cnn article).  @SolarCity I found a great island market for you guys!  Also one agent explained that most deals in Puerto Rico require 20% down.

Good news: Uber started back up yesterday.   



Puerto Rico

My first host, Alma (airbnb link), opened my eyes to how much more to Puerto Rico there is than lots of Carribbean beachfront with no passport needed.  There’s tons of nature reserves, river caves and such to explore.  Maybe next time when I have a group of friends to join I’ll do more of those adventures.  Overall it’s charming, warm, running on Latin time.  As long as Uber stays operational, I’d recommend it for the workcation lifestyle especially the area around San Juan and Carolina.  

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