Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sleeping
Centro Vacacional Punta Guilarte
PUBLIC
CAMPGROUND,
CABINS $
( 787-839-3565; Hwy 3 Km 126; campsites/cabins/villas $10/65/109; )
About 2 miles east of Arroyo, this well-maintained government facility has rustic cabins
and slightly more refined (read: hot water and air-con) villas, 40 basic campsites and a
pool. The cabins sleep six. The place bustles during the summer months, when you should
reserve a room well in advance through the San Juan office of the
Compañía de Parques
Nacionales (CPN; National Park Company; 787-622-5200)
. In winter, you might
have it mostly to yourself.
Information
Arroyo Tourist Office (87 Morse)
During peak season in summer, you might get lucky
and find someone here, but don't count on it; the hours are erratic.
Getting There & Away
Most públicos bound for Guayama will take you the few extra miles into Arroyo for a nom-
inal charge, leaving you at the terminal near the town hall on Calle Morse. It might take a
while to get a público back to Guayama ($4), but from there you can find a connecting ride
to Río Piedras in San Juan or back to Ponce.
Guayama
A few miles up the hill from the coast is Guayama, Arroyo's bigger, less attractive older
sister. The two cities have been linked since colonial days when the shadowy brokering
of Arroyo's ports fattened the wallets of Guayama's society families. In the century since,
these sisters have grown apart, with the sprawling asphalt parking lots of big box stores and
commercial development offering evidence of how Guayama has left ragged little Arroyo
behind.
Today, Guayama's 45,000 residents pay the rent with jobs at pharmaceutical factories
that lie west of town, and the place once called the 'City of Witches' (a result of Santería
worship brought here by African laborers) suffers from the contemporary spells of hasty
