Puerto Nuevo Beach… Vega Baja, Puerto Rico

Puer­to Nue­vo Beach in Vega Baja Puer­to Rico. A beau­ti­ful beach that could be a whole lot more.

Dur­ing the past week I “stopped the press­es”.  I put my pod­cast on hia­tus for 2 weeks, my blog “Pica­dil­lo”, my two YouTube chan­nels and my social media par­tic­i­pa­tion.  Why?  To share some time with a friend from Texas who was vis­it­ing the Island and with my son and his wife, who live in Okla­homa and showed up unex­pect­ed­ly on moth­er’s day.

One of the places where I went with my son and his wife was “Playa Puer­to Nue­vo”, in the lit­tle town of Vega Baja on the north-cen­tral coast of Puer­to Rico.

Vega Baja used to have mul­ti­ple indus­tri­al oper­a­tions a cou­ple of decades back, but today —due in great part to the stu­pid­i­ty of the Island’s cen­tral gov­ern­ment— unem­ploy­ment is sky-high and you can see the eco­nom­ic decay everywhere.

The Cibu­co coast is wild and beau­ti­ful but it’s def­i­nite­ly not for bathing. Click to see it larger.

One of the areas where you’ll see such decay is on your way to Puer­to Nue­vo Beach.  There are indus­tri­al con­cerns closed all along the way.

Now let’s talk about the beach!  Puer­to Nue­vo Beach is beau­ti­ful.  Not because of any gov­ern­men­tal inter­ven­tion but because God just made it that way.

When you reach the beach there’s an ample park­ing area but no park­ing atten­dant.  Only a local free­loader who will approach you, ask for a dol­lar to “watch your car”, and then do noth­ing. Enter­ing the beach area it becomes evi­dent that there are no show­ers, no lock­ers, no life­guards and no recy­cling facil­i­ties.  The place is more or less the way nature made it, only with a lit­tle more wear and tear.

But it’s breathtaking!!!

Puer­to Nue­vo Beach where the pond water returns to the sea. Click to see it larger.

On the west side there’s a huge beach area with hard­ly any surf.  What I also noticed (and this is just a per­son­al pref­er­ence of mine) is that there are hard­ly any palm trees, so shade is at a pre­mi­um.  The sand is clean, tan col­ored and a lit­tle on the coarse side.

Walk­ing north from the entrance there’s a huge break­wa­ter where the fury of the sea is a show in itself.  The water hits against the rocks, rush­es down the inner side and forms a beau­ti­ful crys­tal-clear pond, about 4‑feet deep, that vis­i­tors just love.

Nat­ur­al pond at Puer­to Nue­vo Beach. Clcik to see it larger.

A lit­tle fur­ther to the east there’s anoth­er beach.  But this one is not for bathers.  It’s rocky and dan­ger­ous.  I asked one of the locals what they call that area and he said they called it the “Cibu­co” coast because of the Cibu­co riv­er that rush­es into the sea nearby..

Now, before I went to Puer­to Nue­vo Beach —or Playa Puer­to Nue­vo, like the locals call it— I was told that this is a place where many peo­ple have drowned.  So I asked around to learn why.  It turns out that many peo­ple walk over the break­wa­ter, where the open sea rush­es onto the rocks.  And, as you might imag­ine, if you fall into the water there you’re des­tined for trouble.

Break­wa­ter with gush­ing water at Puer­to Nue­vo Beach. Click to see it larger.,

So here’s my advise, if you decide to vis­it Puer­to Nue­vo Beach: stay away from the break­wa­ter!  The west­ern side of the beach is calm and beau­ti­ful; and the lit­tle pond that forms behind the break­wa­ter is pure heaven!

As for Puer­to Nue­vo Beach in gen­er­al, it’s one of those places that could be a lot bet­ter if the local gov­ern­ment just put a lit­tle mon­ey into it.

Puer­to Rico as a coun­try still insists on being a may­or play­er in the man­u­fac­tur­ing front when tourism is what tru­ly comes nat­u­ral­ly to the Island.  The parade of closed fac­to­ries along the way to Puer­to Nue­vo Beach is proof of this harsh reality.

©2014,Orlando Mer­gal, MA
____________________

Bilin­gual Con­tent Cre­ator, Blog­ger, Pod­cast­er,
Author, Pho­tog­ra­ph­er and New Media Expert
Tel. 787–750-0000, Mobile 787–306-1590

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