Sapphire

Yesterday, I asked the receptionist at the Hotel Melia about publicos and how to get to Fajardo. He promised to have the guy during the morning shift give them a call and reserve a place for me. He asked me "When do you want to go" and I told him no later than six. The reasoning for that was so I could catch a ferry out to Culebra. Unfortunately, I reverted to civilian time, rather than say 18:00 so I think he confused 6 PM for 6 AM.

This sucked because at 5:58 in the morning the phone starts ringing and I hear someone talking about the publico and how he reserved it for me and that it would likely take an hour for the driver to get ready, so I asked if I had time to take a shower and the caller (receptionist) said yes.

I did a quick shower, then hopped out so I could begin packing when the phone rang again. Now, the receptionist was telling me the driver was coming in five minutes. I tried to bargain so I could get some extra time, but it didn't work. I knocked on Evan and Maj's door and told them what was happening then fled down the stairs. I got into the publico and it took nearly three hours for us to arrive at Rio Piedras, at which time I then got onto another publico and headed out to Fajardo. When we arrived at the station another girl and I managed to talk the driver into taking us to the ferry for a combined total of $7, which is much better than the $20 he wanted to charge me for being dropped off at the ferry. In total trip from Rio Piedras to the ferry cost $12, but the trip from Ponce to the Fajardo ferry cost a grand total of $32, which isn't bad compared to the $100+ fare I would have been looking at for a taxi from Ponce, or even from San Juan which was quoted at around $80 one way.

At the ferry I decided against Culebra, for the simple fact that I wanted to cover both Culebra and Vieques, but couldn't do so if I spent two days on Culebra.

Now, I wait until tomorrow when I venture over to Culebra.