Trip: Puerto Rico – Day 2
Attractions: Gozalandia Waterfalls & Steps Beach
Date: February 27th, 2022

Around 1:00 AM I awoke to the feeling of falling, followed by a lot of pain on the right side of my body. I gathered myself from the bottom of the stairs outside our room and limped to the bathroom. As far as I could tell, I was half-awake trying to make it to the bathroom and picked the wrong door. I must have missed the first step and tumbled down the other 3. My pride was moderately damaged but I felt pretty lucky that I only had a few bruises and scrapes. We shut and locked the door from our bedroom for the rest of the trip.

When the morning rolled around, I double-checked my wounds and shared my late-night experience and a laugh with the rest of my roommates. We made scrambled eggs with cheese and toast then grabbed our cups of coffee and headed up to the roof to enjoy the view of the ocean as we sipped our coffee. After some relaxing, we decided to check out a nearby waterfall/swimming hole that we heard was cool. I tried to fire up my GoPro for the trip but realized it must have been left on and was dead. Only dry photos/videos for this portion of the trip. We threw on our swimming suits and sunscreen and headed to Gozalandia Falls.

On the way there we kept smelling wonderful smoked chicken and each time we passed another roadside food truck grilling chicken, we wanted it more. It was a bit early for lunch so we kept the course to the waterfall. Parking was $10 at a nearby restaurant but if you eat at the restaurant, they give you a $10 credit. We paid our fee, parked our rental vehicle, and started down the path to the waterfall.

The first view we had of the falls was from above. Water rushed over a large cliff into a deep pool of water where a dozen or more people were swimming. We made it the rest of the way down to the pool and I didn’t hesitate to jump in. The water was clear and cool, but the air was hot and humid so it felt super refreshing. It was easy to see fish swimming around in the water because it was that clear. After swimming around for a while, I decided I would try jumping off the cliff that few others were jumping off of. Some areas of the rock were slimy so I took my time climbing to the jumping point. Splash! …no problem. Jason took a turn jumping as well. Later, I mustered up enough courage to climb to the higher cliff and jumped from it too.

We talked for a while with others that were swimming and another tourist from the states commented how weird it was that people didn’t stop at red lights at night. We also learned that police always drive with their lights on in Puerto Rico. Even if they are not pulling someone over. I guess you only stop if they have a siren on. They also told us there was another waterfall a bit further up the trail that had a rope swing.

We all thought that sounded worth checking out and hiked the muddy trail upriver to find another waterfall and pool. The pool was smaller, but there weren’t as many people. This pool came complete with a bearded man with a long stick that helped get the rope swing for people and provide words of encouragement before you jump. It was a lot of fun so I did it twice. Lisa even joined in on the fun.

When we had enough of the cool, freshwater we packed up our things and headed back to our vehicle. On the drive home, we agreed that we were getting some of that chicken we smelled on our morning drive. But before we got that far we found a place selling frappes and slushies and thought that would be a good snack to tide us over until we found the chicken trucks. Jason wasn’t impressed with his slushy, but the rest of us liked what we got. Somehow we ended up taking a different route home and missed the chicken trucks. No problem. We had turkey sandwiches at our Airbnb instead.

Our next stop was to rent snorkel gear. We had scheduled an excursion the next day and needed it for that trip. The snorkel shop recommended that we try out Steps Beach for some great snorkeling. Since it we early in the day and not far from where we were, we checked it out.

As soon as we got in the water we saw colorful fish. Man, I wished my GoPro wasn’t back at the house charging. Beautiful coral, all kinds of brightly colored fish, and the water was clear and warm. I swam out to the edge of the coral reef where there was a dropoff and you can no longer see much action. As I swam along the cliff line, I saw a hawksbill sea turtle. It’s shell had an incredibly cool pattern and it’s presence was simply calming. I hung out with it for a few minutes, kicking myself for not having a way to catch the experience on camera. On my swim back in, I saw a guy checking out a school of squid and followed them around for a while before climbing out of the ocean. We watched the sunset over Steps Beach before heading back to the house.

When we pulled up the house the gate wouldn’t open. After messing with the remote for a while, we noticed there were generators running at the neighboring houses. We had heard there are often power outages in Puerto Rico, and it dawned on us what was going on. I jumped the wall, flipped the gate to manual, and pulled it open. Jill and Lisa cut up some veggies while I doctored up the steaks and Jason figured out how to fire up the generator. We didn’t need it long, however. The power was back on right as we finished making dinner. We played another game of Pepper (cards) before turning in for the night. We had a 3-hour drive to the other side of the island for our Culebra Cateraman Excursion. We’d need to leave by 4:00 AM to make it in time. That’s 2:00 AM Iowa-time.