A hotel that was not a hotel and a cliff that was actually a mountain…

Wrapping up our Puerto Rico blogs with a quick (but eternal night) little story:

Day 4 of our trip, we were finishing up snorkeling and went to eat at a seafood restaurant in La Parguera. Since there were hotels nearby, we asked about availability but unfortunately everything was booked. After searching and calling multiple hotels, we found an Expedia listing for a hotel about 20 minutes away, without hesitation we booked it. It was around 11pm and we drove to this hotel (“My hut by 3 beaches” — in Spanish). We thought oh cool, this hotel is by the a company called “3 beaches” (No, we did not get it, as we were also very tired after a day of snorkeling). We show up to this hotel, which is not a hotel, it’s literally a house with 13 men drinking and chilling outside. After assessing the situation we decided its probably not in our best interest to stay there.  We find the closest hotel which is about 20 minutes away and start driving. Suddenly, the GPS tells us to turn right into a road into the mountains. We say, “okay only a couple of miles in this mountain.” It is extremely dark, the roads are steep, and Jeremy and I are driving to this hotel in the middle of the rainforest. All of the sudden, we reach a very steep hill. We start driving up the hill and in the middle of the hill, the car starts rolling backwards….DOWN THE MOUNTAIN. We’re able to gain control of the car but have to drive backwards for a good chunk of the mountain until we hit the main road. We then decide to drive to San Jose (at this point its 1:00am) which is about 2 hours away from this mountain. I call every single hotel in the city and one calls me back saying there’s been a last-minute cancellation. We are relieved. We get there at around 4am and pass out.

MORAL OF THIS STORY: Make sure to rent a 4-wheel drive or at least check that the tires in the car are good (the tires in our car, a Nissan Sentra, were wore down and therefore could not make it up the mountain). Also — book everything in advance, it will save you a headache!