Kayaking in Humacao

This past weekend we took the trip from San Juan to Humacao with the goal of going on a kayaking trip and exploring the nature reserve. Although we did not go through the nature reserve, we did take a kayaking trip through this lagoon.

First I want to say, I highly recommend taking this trip. The drive on RT 30 is beautiful, with green valley landscapes on either side of you and towards the end of the drive, in the distance, you see the Caribbean Sea and Humacao.

Once we reached the end of 30, we turned onto Rt 3 heading north towards Humacoa and the nature reserve. This trip was intended for us to visit both the nature reserve and do kayaking, but it didn't work out that way. For some odd reason, the nature reserve was shut down for renovations. This seems to happen a lot.

So we got there and found out there was a place directly across from the nature reserve that was renting kayaks for $10 per person per hour. It turned out to be the best $10 we have spent in a long time. My fiancee and her friend rented a tandem boat, while me and a friend of ours rented singles. This allowed us to move at our own pace throughout the lagoon.

At first we started through a set of mangroves into the main body of water. This was especially nice because it feels like you are making your way throughout the deep forests of the Amazon. The wildlife is so close you can almost touch them, while the water is murky and bubbling, and you're just making your way along wondering what is underneath there.

After about 5 minutes of paddling we made it into the main lagoon. this tuned out to be spectacular. It was like I was walking into Yankee Stadium for the first time. You make your way through the crowd, the ticket booth, the snack stands, trying to make your way through to your seats. But once your finally hit that narrow corridor between the seats and concession, you open your eyes to this wondrous green open field.

Once we made it out into the lagoon, we all followed each other for a bit until we decided to go out on our own and drift in the open water. I cannot describe how peaceful it was drifting into the open water, where all you hear are birds chirping and iguanas, guanaing"?". We stayed out for about an hour before we headed back in. When we all got back, we each had seen and experienced different things, but we all left really enjoying our time on the water.

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