Weekend excursion ideas?

Definitely check out the Taino park off of Rte 10 en route to Utuado. It has some excellent ceremonial grounds and petroglyphs. I'd also check out the Taino park near Ponce although I do not think it is as good as the one near Utuado.

I also like the part of Lajas on the coast. It's a good place to go, grab a meal and saunter around awhile on the docks.  You could combine a trip to Lajas with an earlier stop in San German to check out the 500 year old church Porta Coeli. San German also has a historic house in its center (a very short walk from Porta Coeli) that you can enter and explore how the landed gentry lived at the turn of the 20th Century.

Of course, you should check out the lighthouse in Cabo Rojo. That's a must.

There's also the cave tour in Parque las Cavernas, Rio Camuy. Having visited some caves in Virginia, I was a bit disappointed with this cave but it's still worth a visit.

An infrequently visited place that I highly recommend is the Parque Forestal la Marquesa in Guaynabo. They have a butterfly sanctuary and an exotic tropical bird sanctuary, both of which you can enter (and are actually side-by-side), as well as a cool teleferico that offers excellent views of the lush hills of the park all the way down to San Juan proper and the coast.

Wow, this is EXACTLY the type of stuff I was looking for, thanks a bunch! Hey, I saw in your profile that your into BJJ, do you know of any good BJJ or MMA places on the island? My roommate trained back in the States and is looking...

You're very welcome. Yeah, San Juan has a good choice of both BJJ and MMA schools. For BJJ, there are I believe 7 black belts on the island (all in the San Juan area). Most of the schools have sites on facebook but not independent sites. Here are a few I'd recommend:

For BJJ, there's:

http://jiujitsupr.com/ - Run by Luis Santiago, a nice guy and good instructor. Luis was the first BJJ black belt in PR. He has a good school (I believe the biggest in PR by student-count) with the greatest range of belt levels. His school is off of Plazita Roosevelt in Hato Rey.

Luis recently (in the last one or two years) promoted three guys to black belt who teach at his school and two also teach at their own schools. One teaches in Caguas (Pedro Silva: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carlson- … 3048591554 Carlson Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu PR Velociraptor Team) and one is in Guaynabo (young guy named Gaby Guijarro who is also a black belt in Judo I believe: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cavalo-C … k=timeline Cavalo Club Brazilian Jiu Jitsu). They're both bilingual. Pedro in particular is a very good instructor. I've never taken a class with Gaby but I've rolled with him when he was a purple belt. You can find all of these guys off of the same main facebook page of Luis's school

https://www.facebook.com/BehringWolfpack - Run by a black belt named Eduardo Ortiz. He's a very nice guy and good instructor. He's bilingual (he's also a notary and a lawyer). His school is located in a squash court area right next to the Natatorio de San Juan (a very nice pool stadium in a park complex off of Rte 1: https://www.facebook.com/SJNatatorium). Keep in mind you have to pay something like $2 to drive into this park so have cash ready.

http://brazilianjiujitsupr.com/ - Run by a brown belt named Carlos. This is a smaller team. His gym is in Hato Rey right near Rio Piedras center (to the north of UPR). It's air conditioned, unlike the other gyms I've trained in in PR. However, his team is a bit isolated from the other's in PR.

For MMA, there's:

Training Zone in Guaynabo (they also have gi BJJ classes) https://www.facebook.com/trainingzonepr

Sparta MMA Training Center (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sparta-M … 9081581014). Run by Abraham Galva. Located in Cupey Alto.

https://www.facebook.com/KarateKungFuMM … _internal. This is in Carolina. I may have been there once but I cannot remember if it was run by the same guys or not or if it was a different school altogether.

There's a few other places but I haven't been to them so I won't recommend them.

Check out puertoricodaytrips.com , they have more weekend excursion ideas than you'll know what to do with. It's a GREAT site with lots of invaluable information and tips. Actually it's the best PR website out there. The couple who run it live for off the beaten path adventures, snorkeling and general exploration, right up your alley.

Great! Thank you!!!

OK, once you've done the beaches and the tourist spots, it's time to head to the mountains for something to eat. You should plan on adding a trip up the pork highway (184) to Guavate. First, it's a fun ride with lots of twisties and scenic views along the way. You are not going fast (you can't) so plan for the time. The weekends brings everyone out and it's party time, with local bands, etc. Our favorite place is El Rancho Original, in Guavate but there are so many lechoneras to try that I am sure that there are others just as good. Eat! Enjoy!

El Cuñado in Aibonito is superb for pork as well - and very good value.