Thought I'd try to drum up some tourist business for the locals while telling you just how great it is to be in Puerto Rico in the winter time. I live in the Northwest point of the island and we have a major airport (code BQN) just a few miles from the beach, local hotels, casino and golf course overlooking the sea. Our beaches are very clean as is the water, in fact you can easily see fish at 85 feet depth below your boat. A few miles from here is a town named Rincon where you can hire a boat for trophy deep sea fishing....or you can rent jet skis or schedule a catamaran tour. About an hour and a half drive you will find the longest zip line in the Western Hemisphere with offerings of repelling, mountain biking and hiking. The place can be found on web search of Toro Verde. We have some excellent restaurants and every fast food American restaurant you generally find on the mainland. Our average temps this time of year are 72F nights and 85F days. This end of the island is very quiet with churches way outnumbering bars, but there are a few spots you and search out and beer, wine and liquiors are available in the local supermarkets. We also have some great national forest with tropical rain forest, caves and many other attractions from camping to picnicking. The locals speak Spanish but I don't all that much since there are no shortage of people that speak English. Get on something with smoke coming out and come on down...a short 6 hr ride from NY major airports (Newark offers great fares to BQN).
That's pretty warm, how's the humidity. I do need to practice my Spanish, is it closer to the Mexican or Castilian Spanish?
The norm is Castilian Spanish but you are very likely to find half the population intermixed language influenced by NY, Chicago or Miami versions. I've lived here for 22 years and never bothered to master the language because if you even try to speak any Spanish the locals then volunteer to speak English because almost all have some exposure to English from watching TV or visiting relatives in the states. The weather here moves from east to west so this end of the island routinely picks up late afternoon clouds from evaporation over the land mass. There's a relatively large mountain range down the center of the island so the weather varies according to how close you are to the mountains. Most of the rain falls on the mountains but occasional late afternoon showers are the norm as are daily blue skies. Temperatures vary 10 to 12 degrees according to elevation. We have a great surfing beach and the water is warm 80's or better year round. For an idea do a search on Jocobs Beach, PR, in fact there are surf board sponsored professional surfers living on my street. Here's a link to the NOAA weather and you can select different cities from the map to get an idea about weather variations and historical weather data... http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=&state=PR&site=SJU&lat=18.4925&lon=-67.0976
Check this February beach fun from 2010...this beach is 15 minutes from the airport... [video=youtube;wZBG7c7SP_Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZBG7c7SP_Q[/video]
I go away with a big group of mates every Autumn. Berlin, Riga, this year Madrid... We learned out lessons from Both Berlin and Riga - freakin freezing at that time of year!
Winter isn't always best served in the tropics, some people like to ski, snowboard, snowmobile and so on. The aerial tram rides are fun, and a drink by the fire in the cabin or lodge at night can be stimulating. The 4 seasons are fine with me. The ocean and its sharks appeal to me about as much as taking a night hike, unarmed, in the jungle. No thanks. Camping with big bears doesn't really float my boat, either. Being bait for lions, tigers, bears, and sharks isn't much of a living. There has to be less stressful ways to spend your time.
