The Ultimate Adjuntas Travel Guide

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Mar 7

Written By Brik

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Located about a two hour drive away from San Juan, Adjuntas is a small town in the midwest side of Puerto Rico near the municipality of Ponce. But, unlike Ponce, which is known for its hot weather, Adjuntas has some of the coldest temperatures in Puerto Rico, even during summer. The quickest way of getting to Adjuntas is to drive through Puerto Rico's southern highway, Route 52, that takes you to Ponce. Once you get close to Ponce, take the exit to Route 10 that crosses the center of Puerto Rico. After about 30 minutes from your exit in Ponce you will be close to the city center of Adjuntas.

Adjuntas is such a fascinating and exciting municipality that if you want to come visit, I suggest you stay for at least one night so that you can take your time to experience everything it has to offer. During our visit to Adjuntas, we stayed two extremely cold nights in Cerro Magico, a campsite situated on top of a mountain with a spectacular view of the city center of Adjuntas. Cerro Magico is a pretty large campsite, but because of COVID, it is being reserved for one group at a time, meaning that whether it's just you camping or a group of ten of your friends, you won't be sharing the campsite with strangers, making it feel both private and secure. Adding to that security is a gated fence and a chain that protect the entrance of the campsite. Cerro Magico offers the convenience of necessary amenities such as an extremely cold outdoor shower that uses rain water, a composting toilet and a sink for brushing your teeth or cleaning dishes. It also offers everything you would wish for in a campsite like a fire pit, a convenient parking spot, an ample and well kept camping area, no light pollution and the tranquility of being surrounded by nature. If you'd like to stay at Cerro Magico during your next adventure, make sure to contact them at 787-315-4662.

So, we begin our first day of adventure in Adjuntas visiting Hacienda Tres Angeles, a breathtaking and award-winning coffee plantation located 30 minutes away from the city center of Adjuntas. There we ate some delicious traditional puertorrican criollo food and drank their very own specialty coffee while enjoying a breathtaking view of the plantation that stretches out for miles and miles, as far as the eyes can see. If you would like to take a closer look at the plantation and get a behind the scenes of their coffee making process you can take the tour that they offer every Saturday starting at 10 in the morning which ends in a delicious coffee tasting. But, even if you don't get a chance to take the tour, Hacienda Tres Angeles is the perfect spot to start any day during your visit to Adjuntas.

Next up on our list is one of the two hanging bridges in Adjuntas called el Punete Colgante Guzman. This beautifully colored bridge was constructed by the family that lives on the opposite side of the river after the passing of Hurricane George in 1998 to connect their family with the community and to help them get food supplies. After the emergency, the family decided to paint the bridge and their house with beautiful art that includes a large scale flag of Adjuntas and Puerto Rico. They have also decorated their yard with murals and other curious, yet equally beautiful sculptures.

UPDATE:

At the time of making this travel guide (2021), the family was kind enough to allows visitors to cross the bridge for a small donation. However, currently (2023) the bridge is no longer there.

Puente Colgante Guzman in Adjuntas

CURRENLTY CLOSED

Our next two stops on our first day at Adjuntas were two breathtaking rivers, Charco el Mango and Charco el Ataud. To visit Charco el Mango you need to park your car near some houses and walk down an unpaved road that can get really muddy if it rains. After walking for a couple of minutes you will see a short trail to your left that lead you down to the river. This river has some of the clearest and most freezing water you can experience in Puerto Rico, but don't let that deter you from jumping in and taking a dip! Even though Charco El Mango is not a large river, it is deep enough for visitors to have a blast by swinging from a rope and into the river.

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Now, if you want something more adventurous, Charco el Ataud is right for your. This river is much larger than Charco el Mango, and it has various ponds and waterfalls that you can enjoy. Driving to Charco el Ataud and walking down its trail is pretty easy, but be extremely careful when climbing down the very slippery rocks that lead you to the large ponds.

After all this hiking and exploring you'll be calorie depleted so I suggest you stopped by the restaurant La Terraza located a couple of minutes down the street from Charco el Ataud. This open aired restaurant offers a varied menu ranging from traditional criollo food to some seriously amazing burgers which you can pair with some delicious mojitos. With a full stomach and feeling a little bit sleepy we can now drive back to our campsite, but before getting there we need to stop by the center plaza of Adjutnas. Every municipality in Puerto Rico has a center plaza which acts as the heart of the municipality, but unfortunately in many cases these city center are not welcoming or well kept. However, this is not the case of Adjunta's center plaza which is lively at night, well illuminated and so charming that you'll want to sit down and enjoy the chilly night while slurping on a delicious shake from the plaza's main kiosk.

Fountain in the Center Plaza of Adjuntas

We begin our second day of adventure in Adjuntas by visiting Re-Creos, a charming coffee shop and bistro near the city center. I suggest that if you visit Re-Creos in the morning, you take a look at their amazing brunch menu of beautifully presented plates that include omelettes, french toasts, waffles, and coffee with some glitter magic.

Feeling recharged and full of energy we head over to Bosque Guilarte, a large protected forest that is home to Pico Guilarte, the fifth highest peak in Puerto Rico. When you arrive to Bosque Guilarte there are two main areas you can visit, a lookout tower that is located a short and easy walk up a paved road that starts at a large wooden gate, and Pico Guilarte. Finding the beginning of the trail up to Pico Guilarte can be a bit confusing if you don't know where to look. The most logical way to the peak looks like it would be somewhere on the other side of the wooden gate, but in reality the beginning of the trail is located near the entrance of a house that is to the right of the main road.

Getting to the top of Pico Guilarte is about a 35 to 45 minute hike that is moderately difficult. I suggest that if you want to hike all the way up you wear a good pair of hiking boots or sneakers. During your hike up to Pico Guilarte you'll be surrounded by incredible flora and fauna such as this small garden snake we found. And don't worry, there are no venomous or extremely dangerous animals in Puerto Rico. Once you start seeing hand rails in the trail, you've basically arrived to the peak. If you time it right or are lucky enough to go on a sunny day, you'll get a 360 degree view of the beautiful mountain range that's surrounding you. But, if you're like us, you'll be surrounded by a huge cloud that is blocking half the view.

After finishing our hike and jumping back into our car we drive over to the second hanging bridge in Adjuntas called el Puente Colgante la Hamaca which hangs over the Lago Garza. Unfortunately, during our trip we were not able to visit the bridge because it started raining, but we did get a chance to see the Lago Garza Dam which is incredibly breathtaking and peaceful.

And that concludes our two day trip! Adjuntas is such an amazing place with so many things to see and do that unfortunately we were not able to do everything we had planned, but that just means we'll have to come back to visit! However, if you've stayed up to this point I'm gonna reward you by including these places in the bonus tips!

Bonus Tips

Adjuntas is a very important and unique municipality with a strong sense of community. This has helped organizations such as Casa Pueblo to develop and help the community with many important initiatives such as creating and maintaining several forests such as el Bosque Escuela and el Bosque del Pueblo. If you stay in Cerro Magico during your trip to Adjuntas, you need to visit Bosque Escuela, which is located an extremely short 3 minute drive from the camp site. At this moment, Bosque del Pueblo is not officially open, but visitors can find ways to go in and explore the area.
Wherever you go, ask for their natural orange juice. Because of Adjuntas' chilly weather, it is the perfect place to grow oranges, and this means that when you ask for a glass of natural orange juice you'll be getting 100% locally grown and freshly squeezed incredibly delicious orange juice from Adjuntas.
And my final bonus tip is to be prepared. Be prepared and plan accordingly to drive about 20-30 minutes between all the places you visit. Be prepared for the rain that will most likely fall on you during your visit. And be prepared to have an unforgettable adventure!

And that’s it! I hope you found this travel guide helpful. Make sure to check out my YouTube channel, Brik’s Travel Guides, to see the full video of this and other Puerto Rico travel guides.

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