The Arecibo Lighthouse Museum is a tad over 45-minutes west of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's a bit out of the way for many visitors and maybe that's part of the reason they work so hard to make it a special place. It's common for travelers to go to the famous Camuy Caves or the Arecibo Radio Antennae, but by the end of those days, many don't bother going back in that direction again.

I have to tell you, with my brothers and stuffed bear as my witness, this place is absolutely worth your time. They've got a variety of interesting attractions, but forget all that for a minute, they also have the Pirate's Cave… or is it "Pirate's Cove"… I'm not sure which, the translation seems to get a bit muddled, but either way, it's an exceptional attraction and my personal favorite.

The entrance looks haunted and forbidding, so much so that none of us juniors would go through it. I made an executive decision and assigned the Daddy-Man to take a once-through without us. I figured that if it was safe, he'd let us know, and if it was as scary as it looked, we'd at least still have Mama and each other for the rest of our lives.

Above - In case I wasn't appropriately spooky about it, this is how very scary the creepy entrance to the Pirates Cove at the Arecibo Lighthouse Museum truly is... it's a skull.

Ten-minutes later he came back and was so excited we all had to go through it together.

It's a long, winding maze of dark, animatronic pirates. Some stealing gold, others digging graves and still others zonked out in the veritable rummery that is the darkest bowels of a pirates cave, or cove if you prefer.

There are things that jump out at you for their uniqueness and others that just jump out at you literally, but it's all very interesting and delightfully air conditioned which, on the average day in Puerto Rico, is reason enough to venture inside.

Part way through it though the visitor comes upon a spectacle most unusual. There's an aquarium in there, and I'm not talkin' just a tank with a few fish in it, I mean the real deal. Sure, there are lesser fish tanks at the periphery with all sorts of Nemos and Doras, but the heart of this pirate cave is a 40,000 gallon sunken pirate ship complete with sand sharks, sting rays, puffer fish and an assortment of fish I couldn't have imagined.

Above - From here you can peer in through the rocky port at the sunken vessel, bow-matron still intact, if not a modest bit barnacley, with the terrifying likes of sand sharks et al all around.

The place was so good that, after our whole group went through, Daddy-O went through a third time just to enjoy it for himself. Patrick went through with Mama after that, and Daddy went through yet another time with me, just because I insisted (having nothing to do with the air conditioning, though I certainly did enjoy it.)

The last room before you exit into the gift shop is a large bridge through what I'm told is a typical pirate hidey-cave. To one side you've got pirates burying gold, to the other you can see out towards the ocean, and beneath you in the real water is actual fish that actually swim around all day beneath your feet.

Above - As many pictures as were taken nothing did justice to the final room of the Pirate's Cove attraction. In the center is the "exit" to the cave, which is a projection screen, and below is a large, well stocked live fish pond. Also there's a bunch of gold around the room, and how they can afford that, I'll never know.

Never mind how great it is that all the while you're regaled with conspicuously borrowed theme music from Pirates of the Caribbean. This small, understated portion of the park alone is entirely worth the visit, even if the rest of the amusement park was just so-so, this would be the thing that would sell you on the place.

And maybe the best of all was that in the area around the aquarium was a bilingual fishologist who spends his free time hanging out near tourists to answer any questions you may have. This isn't even on the brochure, he just does it because he's not busy balancing the PH in the tank and because he loves his job that much. He's there, time permitting, to answer any of the many questions you have about his exhibit.

The mood and ambiance are set perfectly, the attraction is molded with Disneyesque perfection, and the overall experience was so singly the highlight of the amusement park that it truly deserves its own article… that and I'm sure my brother Brendan would have got it wrong but don't tell him I said so.

Above - For fun, brother Patrick points out the puffer fish (not pictured) and tells the tall tale of that one from Finding Nemo that was so darn funny.

Above - It's a lousy picture, and I'll admit it, but here you can see us kids checking out the fish as viewed from the far side of the aquarium.

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