Standing in line at the train station
this evening, El looked at me and said "we are on vacation". While
technically true, since had both logged off of our respective work computers,
we weren't at the point that I like to be at to feel that I am on vacation. But
soon enough, I will.
Growing up in the Morrell family we
were fortunate to have had, for a time, an apartment in San Juan. This allowed
us to take a few family trips to the island of Puerto Rico. All told, I think I
visited the city six times. I recall having fun each time. I know that my
parents, mom especially, would vacation there every year and do a bit of
exploring each time, bringing reports of new places that she had found or
experiences that she thought would be of interest to us- should we ever make it
back. As each of us kids graduated college, mom took us to San Juan for a
weeklong vacation- just the two of us. Somewhat of a congratulatory gesture as
well as a final moment to spend together as we each began our lives, possibly
to have difficulty in our future of getting enough free time to have this
opportunity again. That said, besides that trip where mom and I would decide
what we wanted to do together or alone, most everything we did was with someone
else. In a good way, of course. I have
fond memories of dad taking me to my first casino to show me how to shoot craps
or taking the tour of the Bacardi factory with mom. Side trips to St. Croix and
snorkeling off Fajardo were also highlights. But now that I am older, a bit
more well traveled and more comfortable in exploration of new places, I am
especially interested to see how this vacation with El will compare to the
times I visited San Juan doing, mostly, the things that my parents wanted to
do. El has never been to the Caribbean and this seemed like a good year to
cross that portion of the atlas off the to-visit list. As with every year, we
look to take our winter vacation at the end of February/beginning of March.
Essentially, we have found that this is around the time that we officially
become sick of the New York winter weather and need to get to some place a
little warmer. We booked the trip in December and little did we know just how
trying this winter would be. Today is 2/27 and the news this morning was that
this has been the fifth snowiest Albany February on record and that we are also
.3 degrees off the record for the coldest February in Albany's history. I won't
complain, but it has been a bit of a difficult winter, weatherwise, for many of
the people in the area. We are on a train now headed to NYC. Our flight leaves
tomorrow morning from Newark airport. We will spend the night in New York, but
probably make it an early night since we have to catch the shuttle bus from
Grand Central Station close to 5:00 am.
I have a terrible night's sleep. Not
because of nerves, just a restless evening. I am glad we stayed in last night,
but I am not sure what difference it made. We wake at 4:15 and having gotten
our bags together earlier, after a quick shower and putting away our bedding we
are out the door shortly. We walk up to the bus stop near Grand Central which
is just about 10 blocks. At this hour, even the city that never sleeps is
pretty much in for the night. This makes for an easy walk dragging our rolling
bag behind which can get tricky when the sidewalks are busy. The shuttle
arrives when it is supposed to and we make it to Newark Airport around 5:45. We
are in good shape for our 7:30 flight. A few lines of checking in and security
and we are at our gate at 6:30 waiting for our boarding call.
Although we have made some
arrangements, much of our trip will be figured out on the fly. Instead of a
hotel, we have opted to try the hostel option again. The other thing we have
committed for is a food tour- one that includes a van (taxi) as opposed to just walking.
We were a little concerned at the price, but the amount of rave reviews we saw
made us take a chance. Also, El was able to find a 10K run that she will do
tomorrow. In fact part of our first day agenda is to navigate the public bus
system. Anyone that knows my dad would not be surprised to learn that I have never
once taken a public bus in Puerto Rico. El and I aren't scared to try to figure
it out. I understand the bus to the hostel should run $.75 each which is a far
cry less than any taxi fare. We will see if there is any correlation to price
and sketchiness. I don’t oppose taking taxis, but probably want to wait until
it is necessary- like late night. We will arrive around noon today and will
take the bus to the hostel and then figure out how to get out to the Roberto
Clemente Coliseum where El needs to do her packet pickup for the race.
Hopefully, by then we will figure out if it is practical to get to the race
tomorrow by bus. One thing is that this race is scheduled for the evening, so
we have all day to figure it out. She will dictate the plan tomorrow. By then
we may have a better sense of our week and the things we may do.
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 28
One of the iconic guard towers at El Morro
On the 3.5 hour plane ride, I am able
to spend some time looking through the guidebook and some of my own research to
make a mental outline of what we might want to do for the week. It is looking
more and more like we will have to spend at least a day in Old San Juan. I expect
we should put this closer to the beginning of the week and hold off any further
spots like day trips for closer to the end of the week. Some promising food
places and some out of the way spots give me hope that we will have no problem
filling our time the way we like to travel.
It is still weird to me that of all of
the flights I have ever taken, I cannot think of a single other time (other
than every time we came to or from Puerto Rico) that everyone on the plane
claps upon landing. I mean we have flown to China, Australia, and Israel without
a peep, yet every time to and from San Juan, the pilot gets a round of
applause. After grabbing our baggage we search for the ground transportation
area to try to get a bus map. We have directions on which buses to take, but I
would be more comfortable with a map in hand. We ask and get directed, even
better, to a tourist info center in the airport. We tell her where we want to
go and ask for maps. She shakes her head as she hands me the maps and says,
there is no way we will be able to ride the city buses with our rolling
suitcase in tow. She continues to give us the useful info we are after, but
reiterates a couple of times that a taxi really is our best bet to get to the
hostel. While I wouldn't mind testing if the driver had a heart to let us on
with the bag, I worried about the fact that we knew we would have to change buses
and the last thing I wanted was for driver one to allow it and then have driver
two hold his ground and not let us on. The taxis are flat rate by zone and we
get one from the line of them waiting for the next travelers to exit the
terminal. It costs us $17 plus a bag surcharge and he drops us in front of the
hostel. After seeing the neighborhood, it would have taken us forever to find on
our own. We go to check in around 1pm. The check-in time is technically 3pm
and, naturally, our room is not ready. That said, the people working there seem
helpful and accommodating enough. They give us the keys and let us put our bags
in the room and change from our New York clothes to our vacation clothes. We
ask the staff about getting to Roberto Clemente Coliseum which is where El's
packet pickup is for tomorrow’s race. One tells us he doesn't know how to get
there by bus, one tells us he thinks we might be able to get there by bus, and
tells us where the nearest bus stop is. The third guy tells us he rides his
bike everywhere and cannot help us. That said, we start walking to the closest
main street which is Ponce de Leon and find the bus stop. On Saturday it seems
the buses run a more limited schedule than during the week. After waiting
awhile we look at the map and the way the streets are laid out, it is difficult
to tell if we want the westbound or eastbound bus. I go to a shop and ask which
general direction we want and get pointed to the opposite side of the street-
good thing we asked! We walk along looking for an eastbound bus stop and notice
that the first one (and all others) seem to have no route information on them.
We ask a guy, and I start to recall my days in Ukraine and Lenara saying
"if they want to hear you, they will hear you". I ask telegraphically
"metrobus? Roberto Clemente Coliseum?" and point (as in, am I going
the right way?) I am told that he does not speak English. I reiterate
"Roberto Clemente Coliseum?" I mean he has to have heard of that,
right? I get a half nod which is enough for me to keep walking in this direction.
Next we come upon some kids at the next bus stop and one tell us that we can
take the M3, but that we will have to switch at the train/bus terminal at the
end of the road. We wait for an M3 and I realize that if we will be taking
multiple buses, we will need enough change for each trip as dollar bills are
not accepted and each ride is $.75. As I get on the bus I confirm that this bus
route. "Roberto Clemente Coliseum?" to which the driver replies
"no English". So I slow it down for him and over enunciate
"ro-ber-toe cle-men-tay col-o-see-umm" and all of the sudden he
understands my Spanish! He tells me “yes”, this is the direction, though I can't
get more than that. We take the bus several blocks- a few miles I guess and all
of the sudden everyone stands up and exits the bus, so we figure this is the
end of the line and get off too. We realize that we are at the rail station
that we had read about called Segrado Corazon. We go in to see that there is an
information desk and the worker is very interested in getting us where we need
to go. We tell him Roberto Clemente Coliseum and he asks which one?! El knows that
it is the one near the mall and now we are lucky though that his English is
good enough to direct us properly and shortly we are on our way. We take the M2
bus to the mall Plaza Las Americas which is across the street from the
coliseum. As is common at packet pickups there is a showcase of companies
selling running related items. Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) there is
an entrance fee for non-runners. This gives me a few minutes to update my
journal outside while El goes to get her packet. When she comes out we are both
hungry and thirsty and standing right in front of us is a cart with a guy
selling Caribe Ice- a cross between ice cream and snow cones. Like creamy ice
or gelato. We each get a coconut flavored and enjoy it in the shade. After the packet
pick up we head back towards the hostel. I want to know that I can find the
hostel from the bus route. We again find ourselves at the same train station
where everybody on the bus gets off and not knowing any better we follow suit. Our
friend at the info desk is still working and now we ask for directions to get
to the hostel from the train station. He tells us that our bus/route map is
seriously outdated and gets us on our way, again. While we are in the train
station a rainstorm barrels through. It does not last long, but it comes down
in sheets. Really heavy and really brief. We head out to the bus stop and wait
for the next M3 bus. Our evening plan is to head to the Condado which is kind
of the touristy area and has a lot of restaurants and shops...and, oh yeah,
there's a beach there too. We take the bus to the hostel and pick up our rain
gear that we didn't think we'd need when we left a couple hours ago. There is an
expressway that runs between the hostel and Condado and we need find a place to
cross it either with a pedestrian tunnel or an overpass. We find a street
called Calle Condado which takes us right into the heart of the area. On the
walk we discuss our mutual need for food and decide to get some beer and maybe
some appetizers and then decide where to head for dinner. As we get to Condado
near Ashford Avenue we see a place with a sign that reads "ceviche
bar". Well, that fits the bill! We will go in for a ceviche and a beer and
see where the evening takes us. We are seated and appear to be the only two in
the place (though I think there may have been an area around the bar with
people that I couldn't see when we came in). Our waitress recommends the chef
special which is a cold seafood salad on top of a curry sauce and a grilled
beef skewer. We get both, a couple of beers and a dish of red snapper ceviche.
Although I prefer my ceviche with a little bit of a jalapeno bite, these dishes
were a bit mild, but tasted really great. There is way more food than we
expected when we ordered, but this is a great way to be welcomed to the food of
San Juan. During dinner we read about a bar in the area called Small Bar. On
the way out from the restaurant we ask if anyone knows this place and one of
the waiters says he knows it and that it has closed. We press on with no
destination. We walk around the corner and see a rooftop bar advertising cheap
beers as well as a place with a British flag on the awning. There is no sign
indicting if it is a bar or what, but it looks closed whatever it is. We press
on and stroll around the Condado beach area. As we walk along the sidewalk we
take a couple of the passages down to the beach to remind ourselves what it is
like to stand on a beach in the tropics. As we head towards Old San Juan it
starts to mist and eventually it turns to downright rain. I have my rain gear
with me but am either too lazy to put it on or am relishing the glory that I am
walking in rain at 75 degrees vs. the sub-freezing temps we left at home. We
get to a point though that it looks like we are making a real commitment to
stay on this route towards the old city. We opt to turn around and head back to
the British flag and cheap beer places to get out of the rain and see if we can
find some wifi. As we walk we are getting soaked and before we know it we are
drenched. We get to the cheap beer place first and the door is locked, so we go
a few more doors down to the British flag place. As we walk up the stairs the
stench of urine is strong and pretty much guarantees diviness. Though the door
says they open at 8:00, at 7:00 the owner opens the door and welcomes us into
his place. They have wifi and beer. All is good. The owner gives us the iPad
and tells us to choose the music we like as we drink our first beers. We chat
with the owner as we are the only people here now. He tells us they are only
recently opened and that they used to be opened next door. When we ask him for
the wifi key he tells us it is "smallbarpr"! That's right, they used
to be Small Bar, but now they are London Bar. We stay here for a couple of
beers and discuss our plans for tomorrow and the rest of tonight. We leave
around 9pm and decide to head back towards the hostel. We understand the hostel
is not in what is considered the best of neighborhoods and don’t want to walk
through after midnight, just the two of us. It is not too late, so we figure having
seen a couple of bars in the area of the hostel we would head back there and
either stay out for more beers or call it a night- either way we would be close
to the room. As we get within a block of the hostel we spot a food truck
offering fried foods. The menu: fried chicken wings, fried "meat",
some unidentified fried vegetable-like substance. El guesses taro and I guess
some sort of fried dumpling. Nonetheless, not drunk, but having been drinking,
we are both ready for a shot of food. El gets the chicken and I take the
"meat", both are served with a side of the mystery ingredient that turns
out to be mashed plantains that are breaded and fried called tostones. It is a
little more expensive than I expect for street food ($7 per plate) and I get
the sense that it tastes better the more beer you have had. We press on up the block
to an open front bar on the corner called El Royalito.

El Royalito - not sure if it is scarier during the day or night
The Latin music is
excruciatingly loud inside and dulls to just obnoxiously loud once you are on
the street. We grab a table on the sidewalk and order two beers while we eat
our fried vittles. Thankfully, El had the forethought to grab some Pepcid. With
every bite I realize I won't be sleeping well if this goes undigested before I
call it a night- hell, it is already sitting uneasy. As I watch our waitress
make her way to us through the crowd to serve our cans of beer she endures an
unwanted hand from an overly friendly, overly drunk patron and the look on her
face is not exactly one of giddiness. I tip her a couple of dollars for her
service of a couple of cheap beers, assuming this joint does not bring out the
high tippers- strictly the local domino playing crowd. She smiles and retreats
towards the crowd- probably not knowing where the next unwanted pinch might
come from. As we sit eating, drinking and joking at the volume of the music,
one of the patrons can’t seem to be bothered with the formality of a bathroom
and uses a car parked out front as his cover to relieve himself. El points out
that she thinks some of the waitresses are "selling a little more than the
beer." During our second beer El confides she is fading and at this point
I think I have probably seen all I care to see as well. I finish my beer and
call it a night. Luckily- we don’t have far to go. Our walk back does not leave
us feeling uneasy and we probably will keep doing it until it does.

the entire expanse of our hostel room
SUNDAY MARCH 1
The hostel told us when we checked in
that we were going to have to move rooms today. This means we will have to pack
all of our stuff into the bags again and leave them at the desk until the
people in our new room are checked out and the room cleaned. As we pack our
bags, we find a trail of ants has infiltrated some of our luggage. El does what
she can to segregate the contaminated from the non. An overnight windstorm
blowing our metal shutters and an obnoxious barking dog ensured we both got
somewhat lousy sleep. Regardless, we do our duty and are on the road by 9:30. Not
sure if we will come back, we pack all of El’s race gear in our packs so we can
just head to the race if we need to. We walk down to Condado and then towards Ocean
Park which is the next section of the city from where we are. Because of the
race, El is dictating our food schedule today. She spots a Starbucks so that
she can get her breakfast. The line is significant and I don't really want
Starbucks, so we decide to just find a breakfast place nearby. In the next
block we see a Crepemaker shop and decide that is what we want. Crepes and
coffees are exactly what we both needed. After breakfast we walk down to where
my parent's apartment was. We walk down to the beach and discuss what if they still
owned the place.

A windy morning at mom's old stomping grounds
We keep walking on expecting to see De Diego St. so that I can
show her the first apartment the family had in San Juan. But, we miss it and
wind up walking well into Ocean Park. At some point we think it might be best
to just grab a bus to take us out to Playa Piniones and we walk to the nearest
stop to wait for the bus. I had read about Playa Piniones having some of the
best, authentic island food and wanted to try to get there by bus. Since my mind
changes like the ocean breeze, we are only standing there waiting about two
minutes before I think the better of the plan. Since El is not able to eat much
until her race is over, it dawns on me that she will not be able to eat any of
the food that we are heading out to the beach for (our guidebook recommends a specific
place at a specific beach). Within a matter seconds we have a new plan. We will
continue to walk around Ocean Park and make our way back to De Diego that we
missed earlier. It takes us a good 15 minutes to get back to De Diego and we
are able to see the first apartment that my parents bought. I was a little
surprised at how little of the neighborhood I recognized. I know I hadn’t spent
all that much time there and it was over 25 years ago, but still, the rate of
development in this part of town was enough to make me start to question if I
remembered what I thought I did. Once I saw the building I was sure I was in
the right place and that is when I mentally remarked on the development. We
kept walking once we passed the apartment and made our way all the way up to
Ponce de Leon to catch the bus to Segrado Corazon train station. El thinks it
is better to try to get to the race earlier than later and that we can spend
some time exploring the neighborhood near the race. We are able to take the
commuter rail train down to Pinon. The cars and stations alike are really clean
and new. The ride only lasts about 10 minutes and we exit the station. We are
starting to see other people wearing their race tshirts and hats, and follow
them. Once we see the shuttle buses, we just jump the first that will take us
to the race. They have actually closed off and expressway and runners will run
right down the highway. It is entirely too early for El to line up (I cannot go
into the corrals) so we walk around together to try to determine the best place
to meet after she is done. There is not much in this area in terms of cafés or
eateries. A couple of guys peddling the "caribe ice" go by and I grab
one for myself. It turns out we got here so early that it is bordering on
painful to kill the 5 hours before the race. It is not like we could really
grab a shuttle bus back to the train station and hang there. And unless you
want to try to win a jeep or eat some fried food, there is not much in the way
of offerings to either runners or spectators here. At about 4:30 El heads to
her corral leaving me to the spot where we will meet after the race. At this
point in the day we can really see how the midday heat would make running any
distance a bit dangerous. Now, closer to the 5:30 start time, it is much more
comfortable for both runners and their support teams. After the race, the plan
is to head back to Condado for some dinner. Our plan is to get up early to head
to Old San Juan for the day tomorrow. I think after dinner, we may head back to
our sketchy $1.50 beer joint on the corner to try to catch some of the sleaze
we saw last night. After the run is done, we meet at the agreed upon spot.
Though I did try to get to the street to see the runners (El) run by, there
were just too many people cheering their runners on for me to get even a
glimpse of her. I went back to the parking garage and waited. She did great and
met me just a little over an hour after she started the race.

El, right after finishing the "worlds best 10K"
Knowing that we
had the competition of thousands of other runners and their supporters, we
tried to get to the shuttle bus line as soon as we could. As we got to the
shuttle line we heard an announcement that hotel shuttles would be at the end
of the line. A quick discussion and we decide that instead of taking the
shuttle to the train, the train to the bus, and the bus to the hostel and then
walking to Condado for food, we would just take the hotel shuttle that would
leave us off at one of the downtown hotels- for free. It was a no-brainer. What
we didn't count on was that the train shuttle ran about every 30 seconds and that
the hotel shuttle only ran once an hour. If we knew then what we know now, we
totally would have taken the bus/train/bus option. We get off the shuttle near
the Marriott since we know there is food in that area. We find and Argentinian
steakhouse called Buenos Ayres. El gets the asado and I get a cheeseburger. Not
sure why I am not as hungry as I should be, but I can’t even finish the fries. The
burger is really pretty good and El likes her steak. After dinner we walk back
to the hostel and get checked into our new room. It looks the same but is another
flight of stairs up, otherwise, I am not sure why they moved us at all. We take
another stab at El Royalito the place with the questionable...everything
really. We drink our two beers and call it a night. A big day tomorrow and we
want to get an early start.
Let's talk about the hostel. And
let's just say the saying "you get what you pay for" certainly
pertains here. The room is $60 per night ($30 each) which is at least half of
anything else we found and a might less than the places along the Condado. Mind you we have not had a problem, but the
amount of people who question our choice to stay in this neighborhood- my
ignorance is weighing on my conscience. I cannot say I recall the last time in
America that I was woken up by a crowing rooster. But, it has happened two days
in a row now. The hostel itself is far from the best I have ever stayed in
(also not the worst). Ponder this question, would you rather have bugs (like
ants) in your room OR hot water in your shower. This morning there is no hot
water in the shower and yesterday was the bugs (we have had two different
rooms). Who knows the challenges we will find tonight. We ask what the trick is
to getting the hot water in the shower to work and we are told that you have to
sacrifice pressure for heat- though both people that said that immediately
suggested just taking a shower in the common room. Jess, one of the workers,
tells us she will call a repair guy- not sure if he is a pluming repair guy or
an electric repair guy, but she is on it. We come back from our day out to find
that someone has been in the bathroom (in a good way). The shower head looks
new and the shower curtain that was resting inside the shower tile is now on
the outside and the window shutters have been opened. I immediately try the water...all
cold. No warm?? I resign to shower in the common room, but will ask the staff
if there is a trick to getting the hot water to flow. I don’t see anyone
between the room and the shower, so I shower and head back to the room. El asks
later if I saw anyone about the water and she did see Jess who confirmed that
the problem is a lack of enough energy to the water heater that is causing the
issue and reiterates...”shower in the common room”. Now, I have showered in a
few common rooms in hostels and this set up isn't the worst, but the fact is
that I paid for an ensuite bathroom, thought they will tell you I got the
ensuite bathroom and they didn't say anything about the temperature of the
shower. In all fairness to Jess, she did offer to move us back to the original
room we had, the one with bugs and right next to the patio that has some lively
conversation going on well into the wee hours of the morning. I feared it was a
lesser of two evils situation and that I would rather shower in the common room
than have bugs. I shut my mouth.
MONDAY MARCH 2
We head to Old San Juan on the M3 bus.
We arrive just as a downpour descends. We stop at a food truck for a small
breakfast. I get a ham, egg, and cheese wrap. While in line the rain starts
coming at an amazing rate. Standing under the awning so as not to get wet while
waiting for the food, it is now coming at a real downpour pace. So much so,
that after a few minutes, a wave of water comes barreling down the space where
the pavement meets the curb and instantly floods the intersection. We are now
seriously drenched (even in our rain gear) and now our food is ready. The rain
starts to lighten up, but is still coming at a level that challenges the eating
process. We do the best we can to stand under a tree to avoid direct rain,
though so much has already fallen, the trees are dripping as much as the direct
showers from the sky. El spots a café across the street and we decide to grab a
coffee there and wait the storm out. Of course, as we walk the 50 feet to the café,
the rain stops and the sun comes out. Such is the weather in San Juan. We walk
up to the tourist information office across from Plaza De Armas. We get some
good directions and some great maps. We have some time to kill before our food
tour at noon. We head from the tourist office up to San Juan Cathedral to see
what we are led to believe is a mummified saint. We find it and see the story
of how the mummified remains of an Italian saint came to be resting in the
cathedral. The thing is that instead of looking like a creepy mummy, it looks
like a ceramic cast. So, either I am missing something in the story or I am
just not as impressed with mummified remains and their stories as I used to be.
Our next stop is the equally unimpressive "tiny house" which basically
is where someone converted an alleyway into an apartment which is about 5 feet
wide. We take our been-there, done-that photo and move on to the San Francisco Cathedral which is said to have catacombs in the subterranean level. We walk
down the stairs to what appears to be a small room with larger than normal
marble plaques lettered with names and dates (birth and death) of those interred.
There is nothing really creepy about it and we don’t recognize any of the names
painted on the stone. Upstairs in the main part of the church is a wooden cross
that was recovered from a shipwreck off the Puerto Rican coast and brought to the
church by some faithful locals. We don't need to spend much time here and
continue towards the Plaza Colon to meet the tour. Our last stop is a coffee
shop called Caficultura. We think we will stay, but opt to get a cup to go
instead. My coficoco is decent. It is coffee (espresso) with a shot of coconut flavor
in it. It has a hint of artificial flavor to it- a little flavoring could work better,
but too much is a little weird. Anyway the coffee is OK and we take it to the
plaza to wait for the group. Today’s food tour is a company called Spoon Food
Tours. Our guide is Paulina. Everyone arrives on time and we get a quick
introduction to each other and Paulina tells us about the food journey we will
take today. We all jump into a waiting taxi van and head to Ocean Park for
lunch. Spoon Food has a couple of places that they partner with to bring tours
in to sample local foods and get some history at the same time. This first stop
is our lunch portion at a place called La Cueva del Mar. We start off with a
local rum drink. The choices are rum with fresh squeezed orange juice, rum with
fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, or rum with grapefruit and orange juice. The
drink is served quickly and is quite refreshing. Then we get fish tacos made with
locally caught grouper and slaw with a side of empanada. I choose conch and El
opts for land crab. Everyone enjoys the lunch. We get back into the taxi and,
coincidentally, head out to Playa Piniones which is where we were trying to get
to yesterday when we aborted and headed to El's race early. The ride is about
15 minutes and brings us exactly what we were looking for. We each get a cup of
mofongo which is basically mashed plantain and topped with some sort of stew.
Our stew is shrimp prepared with garlic and white wine sauce (like scampi). The
drink is coconut water direct from a fresh coconut. The mofongo is very
tasty-better than I thought it would be and the three shrimp are good as well.
The coconut water is not so much to my liking. It tastes like salt had been
added, though I am assured none was and that coconut water does have a taste of
salt- though in varying degrees of salinity.

fresh coconut water and shrimp stew mofongo
As the end of the meal- they
offer to cut the coconut for anyone who wants to scrape the meat with a spoon. It
is not like dried, flaked coconut, but still better than the water that I just
drank! We take some pictures and hear some stories from Paulina our guide. Her
enthusiasm is infectious and she does make for an entertaining guide. The van
takes us back to Old San Juan and we get dropped off at El Morro. We walk
around the corner to a building that does not look like much from the outside,
but has a large, empty courtyard. At one corner we find Don Ruiz coffee shop.
It is a place that offers Puerto Rican grown coffee. The tour rests and enjoys
lattes. Next, we walk down to our last stop on the tour which is called Hecho
en Casa (home made/made in house) for ginger flan. Way better than I expect.
The tour breaks from there and El and I head up to the cemetery near El Morro
Fortress. Unfortunately, the cemetery closed at 3:00pm. We take the free
circulator trolley to get off at the tourism information office again so that
we will be near another bar that we had read about. We stay on the trolley for
a while waiting for the stop, soon realizing that it has just made the entire
circle without hitting our stop! We wind up at El Morro again and now that we
know the route, we know where we want to jump off. That said, we get off near
the pier and walk up to Fortaleza Street which seems to have a lot of food and
drink options. We head for Barrachina which is one of two places who claim to
have invented the pina colada. When you are in New Orleans you go to Antoine's
where they invented Oysters Rockefeller and when you are in Puerto Rico you go
to where they invented the pina colada, right? Well, though El likes hers, I am
unconvinced. I have read (disappointingly) that they use a mix and add rum.
Whatever. It tastes too sweet for my liking and not strong enough either.
Nonetheless, we came, we drank, we left. I find a couple of places I wouldn't
mind drinking at, but most don’t open until 8pm and being only around 4:30, I
just need to pick our places carefully. We walk up to San Sebastian St. to El Patio
de Sam. Their recommended dish is fried cheese balls. We get one order with a
pitcher of sangria, catch up on our journals and discuss plans for the rest of
the week. It is only 6pm and I am not sure if we will stay in Old San Juan for
the rest of the evening or head back to Santurce and go more low key. The buses
run until 11:30pm so, at this point, it could go either way. After finding an
ATM we head to another bar on San Sebastian called La Taverna Lupulo for a
beer. The beer selection is great and the music really to our liking. Sadly, no
wifi, so this may limit our time here. Not that we can't find something to talk
about while we are here, but if we can connect it does open up options and can
be the difference between bar hopping and staying in one place all night. It is
now 8:30pm and we are both full from all of the food and this beer isn't
helping to lighten me up. Even though I could stay and explore this
neighborhood all night, I am thinking that we might just call it a night and
come back either tomorrow or Wednesday and try to work our way further down the
block! One of the other options I would like to look into is the other food
tour of Old San Juan. I was talking to the guide today about the options and if
the stops are radically different, we just may do that later in the week too. The
possibilities are limitless when we are on vacation!
El enjoying the coconut water in her first hammock rest ever!
As for Old San Juan, this place reminds
me so much of our trip to The Azores a few years ago. It is a very walkable
town with a pretty small area of only a few blocks paved with blue
cobblestones. We walk along these streets as we call it an evening and walk
back to catch an M3 bus back to the hostel. As we walk along Calle Paseo, I see
three people sitting on a bench. Earlier today I know I saw an M3 bus on this
street, so I asked the bench people where we can find a bus stop and
surprisingly they tell us that this building they are sitting in front of the
bus terminal! Nice. We go in and find the bus we need and wait for him to leave
making his first stop inside the terminal. I confirm that he stops along Ponce
de Leon Street. We take the bus and although I would have waited until we
actually hit our cross street and then pulled the stop cord, he tells me that
this is where we should get off. We get off the bus and start walking. I know
exactly where we are in relation to our hostel (it is only 1 block down), but
El does not recognize the neighborhood in the dark and for a moment,
considering our surroundings, starts to question our decision to exit the bus.
The amount of burned out buildings, graffiti riddled roll down gates over store
fronts, vacant lots with the odd cinder block or shopping cart laying on its
side, or the presumable prostitute exiting a car while adjusting her clothes
makes us recognize the potential for problems, though we have not seen any
menacing faces on the street. El Royalito is within eyesight and I point out to
El that she knows where we are, even though it looks less savory in the dark
than during the day. On our way to the hostel we stop in for our usual...a $1.50
can of Medalla light beer. As we arrive a rain shower passes through and we
grab a seat inside. There aren't as many people tonight as in previous nights,
but dominoes is still the focus for several patrons. We are well out of our
element and straddling the comfort zone for sure. We only stay for one beer
tonight and call it an evening. We head back to the hostel and tell them that
we are interested in a ride to the rainforest. They say they will call in the
morning for us. We head to bed.
TUESDAY MARCH 3
soaking in the sun
We wake around 8:00 and are out
around 9:00. We both have the best sleep of the trip so far and wake somewhat
refreshed. We tell the desk that the lack of hot water in the room is
disappointing and that if there is something they can do, that it would be
appreciated. Jess is on it! We sign up for another food tour on Thursday and
today we will explore the community of Ocean Park and Isla Verde. We walk down
De Diego to Luiza St. and our first stop is a café called Kamoli Kafe &
Butik. A quirky little breakfast place with antique treadle style sewing
machines for tables and pages freshly ripped out of magazines for placemats.
Lots of juice bar offerings on the menu. I get 2 fried eggs served with some
potatoes, multigrain bread and homemade pumpkin jam- which is a little weird,
but edible. El echos my sentiments remarking that the coffee is very good here
as well. Our breakfast runs $20 and we get some wifi time where El gets a good
street map on her mobile, since most of our maps detail Old San Juan and Condado
exclusively. After breakfast we walk down to the public beachfront. We have no
real “gear” like blankets or swim suits, though I did grab my slippers so that
I wouldn't have to walk in the sand in my sneakers and my rain jacket doubles
as my blanket. I sit, listening to my iPod while El goes down to get her feet
wet. We stay at the beach for about an hour. The beach is not my favorite place
in the world, but we are in the tropics so I guess it is something that you do
and I won’t keep her from it. We walk through Ocean Park which seems like two
worlds. There is the small street that runs along the beach separated from the
water by only sand and high priced beachfront real estate. Then there is Calle
Luiza which is more of the business district. There are the shops that have
been here for ages- like the metalworking shops or hair and nail places, but
this is also an, I don’t want to say up and coming neighborhood, but a locals
neighborhood that is attracting more and more business like trendy restaurants
and boutiques serving not only the tourists, but the residents as well. That
said, do you know who Jean-George is? Well, when someone said to us, "do
you see that place? It is a stationary food truck and the chef was an executive chef for Jean-George for years before returning to open his own
place", I knew that was going to be our lunch plan today. Tresbe is a
yellow, metal box that reminds me of the stands where you buy french fries at
the beach. It sits on the corner of Luiza and Las Palmas and the menu is small,
but varied. My lunch is an octopus empanada with tamarind sauce, fish tacos
with a pineapple slaw, a bowl of ceviche, and a glass of fresh squeezed
grapefruit juice. I tell you that you probably never had food truck food this
good! I probably could have done with a little more spice in the ceviche, but
the very cold fish with lime juice was really refreshing sitting in the shade
on this hot afternoon.

Tresbe
It is about 3:30 and we are kind of done with Ocean Park.
Thinking that though, we don't need to leave, we may just wander along towards
Santurce, maybe stopping for a beer or two along the way. While full from
lunch, we start to think about dinner at another place we have read and heard
about. It is called Jose Enrique and they do not take reservations. We hope
that a Tuesday evening will be our chance to check it out.
We get a call from the hostel that we are striking out so far on a rainforest
tour. One guide broke his leg and won’t be giving tours for a while. Another's
vehicle is broken down, so he is out. One company said we were too short
notice, while another asked us to leave a message and they would get back to us-
which we did, but they haven’t. There is a tour company office in Old San Juan,
so we can go tomorrow and try to sign up for Friday if we don't have something
nailed down by then. On our way out of Ocean Park, El thinks that we should go
to one of the Condado hotels and ask about their rainforest tour options since
we have been striking out on that front. We walk to the Ambassador Hotel and Casino-
bringing back the memories of my first gambling experience all those years ago.
The concierge is at lunch, so we pass the time walking through the casino.
Though not opposed to throwing a few bucks away, this place isn't exactly as I
remember it. Of course, we are only talking 4:00 in the afternoon, but there is
exactly one roulette table, exactly two blackjack tables, exactly zero craps
tables, and about 500 slot machines to round out the options. Maybe they offer
more games in the other casinos in the area, but I am not in need of playing
games, so we just walk through until the concierge returns. One of the things I
think is weird is that none of the slot machines accepts coins. So, even though
there are nickel and penny slot machines, you have to insert either a bill or a
casino card to play the game. I mean, it can be fun as you are walking through
a casino to slip a couple of nickels in a slot and hope for the best, but in
this case, you would have to insert a dollar bill, play your spin, get your
receipt for 95 cents credit, take that receipt to the cash desk and have them
cash you out. Obviously designed to get someone who wants to spend a nickel to
spend a dollar, but in my case someone who wants to spend a nickel to spend
zero, which is what I did. We meet the concierge who gives us the rainforest
options of half day easy trip, ¾ day difficult hike, or full day excursion of
half day easy trip and half day stop at Luquillo Beach- perfect! We sign up on the
spot for the full day excursion leaving 9:00am tomorrow. We press on. There is
a heavy metal bar in Santurce called La Respuesta that I would like to check
out. The concierge is able to give us a printed map with the location on it and
we are off. We walk back to Santurce and find the club. I wasn't sure if it is
a bar that has bands or if it is a concert hall that serves beer. It turns out
to be the latter. We find the place, but it is clearly closed at this hour. I take
a couple of photos and we head up to a dinner spot that has had a couple of recommendations called Jose Enrique. The thing is that this place does not take
reservations. It is a bit of a popular place for quality cuisine and we want to
at least stop by to see what it is all about. We find it on Duffaut St. There
is no sign and we did pass it the first time.

Jose Enrique Restaurant with people waiting to get in
We walk in and ask for a table
and are immediately seated. Our dinner is: a half carafe of white sangria,
prawns in white wine garlic sauce, seared sea scallops on a bed of red lentil
stew. Then for entrée we split the filet empanaodos (deep fried filet mignon)
with a side of rice and beans and each order the salad appetizer to accompany
the half of the entrée. Washed down with a glass of pinot noir. We both really
enjoy our meal and by the time we leave they are up to an hour wait at the
door. We pass on dessert and decide to just head to El Royalito for a can of
Medalla light before heading back to the room. As we get back to the room it
starts a brief downpour and we are glad to be in for the night. It is only
8:30pm now, but El's health gizmo tells her we walked 8 miles today, plus with
the sun, we are exhausted and have an early day tomorrow for the rainforest. We
will watch an episode of Jeopardy on YouTube and call it a night...because
that's how we roll!
WEDNESDAY MARCH 4
Instead of the air conditioner, we
have opted to sleep with a small fan running. It acts like enough white noise
to block out most of the sounds coming from the other side of our door. We both
got a mostly decent night's sleep and wake just before the alarm. Today is our
trip to El Yunque (rainforest) and Luquillo Beach. The trip leaves from
Ambassador Hotel on Ashford, so we plan accordingly. To meet the group around 9:00
we leave the hostel with plenty of time to get to the hotel and grab some
breakfast on the way. The lobby of the hotel has a coffee cart and I get a hot
chocolate and a muffin, while El runs across the street for a bowl of healthy
granola, fruit and breakfast grains. We inhale the food waiting for the tour.
It is a small group of only six of us and we are on the road punctually. First
stop: El Yunque rainforest. On the way we have a very talkative driver who
gives us some history and anecdotes. Our forest tour has four stops. The first
is a lookout tower that gives a great bird's eye view of the surroundings. The second
stop is a short hiking trail.

waterfall in the rainforest
in the rainforest, overlooking the valley below
It only takes about a half hour and we walk along
a trail while the guide points out some unique items in the forest. Next is a
waterfall that makes for a picturesque backdrop for those getting their picture
taken. The last, on the way out of the forest, we stop at a snack shack/gift
shop to get some food before heading to the beach. At this point though, I remark
that it is ironic that we are in the only rainforest that is part of the U.S. Park
System and I have yet to see any rain! Luquillo is not really that far from the
forest and we are there in no time. Having done the beach yesterday, I opt to
sit in the shade while El stakes a spot in the sand to do her knitting. It is
1:15 and the driver says we will meet at 3:15 and head back. All of the hotel
drops are in Condado but a drop off at the hostel in is not going to happen.
Not sure at this point if we will go to Old San Juan again tonight.
Today, while the driver was talking
to the group he mentioned mofongo. He then asked if everyone or anyone had tried
mofongo and El and I were the only two that said yes. He asked where we had it
and we told him Playa Piniones, to which he told the rest of the group that we
were "real locals". Anyone who knows Playa Pinones knows where to get
real food- he tells them! This is not the first time on this trip specifically
that others have commented/complimented the way we travel. I mean the tourism
we do, I don’t necessarily think of it as that adventurous. I mean we did not
choose the hiking tour of the rainforest, but just the overview tour. We don’t
do the ziplining or rappelling ecotourism. We aren't renting a car to visit
other cities on the island. These are all things that people I think are
adventurous do. However, we have met several people that will tell us that they
have spent their whole vacation on the Condado or in Old San Juan. We met a
group that had been in town for two days and eaten at the same place both
nights- suggesting that we would absolutely LOVE the place. But, when we went
for drinks, they were more show than substance (Barrachina). Not really impressed, we figured we would stick to the suggestions we had that were more
inline with our tastes. While those that choose to hike to the peak of the rainforest,
or El and I, or the ladies who probably choose the Olive Garden over other
local options, the one thing we have in common is that we all will probably look
back fondly on the time we spent in Puerto Rico. The driver drops us back at
the Ambassador Hotel and we ask the desk for the bus that will take us direct to
Old San Juan. The 21 or 53 and the stop is 2 blocks down. As we approach the
stop we see the 53 pulling away. We sit and wait for the next one. We wait. And
wait. And wait some more. We wait so long (probably 20 minutes) that a car
comes and parks. The driver gets out and goes into the pharmacy. When she exits
we are still there. She sees me looking down the street to see if another bus
is forthcoming. She stops and says that the bus must be taking a while (since
we are still here). We concur but tell her we are on vacation and as long as the
route hasn't stopped for the night, we will be fine waiting for the next bus.
She proposes that we get in her car and she would be willing to take us about
half the distance to Old San Juan. We thank her, but politely decline, citing
that half way wouldn't do much for us since we would still have to wait for the
next bus and to put her out for that effort didn't seem to make much sense.
"That is so kind of you to offer, but we are good to wait" we tell
her. She stands and thinks for a moment and then says that her offer did sound
like only half a job, and that she would be willing to take us all the way into
Old San Juan. She gives us no time (or reason) to decline the offer and after
her telling us at least two times that she is not crazy, we get in. As she sits
in the driver’s seat, her door ajar, she is making sure that the front seat is
cleared off for El. Then, she goes to pull her door shut to find a homeless man
standing in the arc of the door and preventing it from closing. I begin to panic internally for a moment until he bends down to look into the car. Once
his face is visible to her, instead of shooing him away, she says
"Enrique! Como estas?" a brief verbal exchange ensues and she hands over of a couple of cigarettes to him. "Tell them I'm not crazy" she
commands Enrique. He obliges and tells us what she wants us to hear. We set off
on the couple mile journey from eastern Ashford Ave. to Old San Juan. Within
moments we have almost all of Danielle's
life story that includes being born in North Arlington, NJ and growing up in
Kearny (where my family is from). I will spare all of the details, but it was
just a really fun, chance meeting, small world kind of ride. It only lasted 20
minutes or so, and true to her word she dropped us off at Plaza Colon. El is
hungry and we stop at a tapas pace for sangria and patatas bravas. A quick bite
sets us on our way. As we exit, we run into Paulina who was our food tour guide
on Monday. We talk to her for a few minutes and head off to shop, walk and
drink. She gives us a couple of 2 for 1 drink coupons that we promptly use on
San Sebastian St. Our first stop is Nono's Bar where we each get a couple of
pineapple and Don Q (rum). The 80's hair metal is flowing like the drinks-
pretty much 50% of the good stuff and 50% of the stuff I don't like. The open
front allows a gentle breeze making this a place I don’t mind relaxing in. As
AC/DC comes on, we decide it won’t get any better than this and agree to leave
after this song is over. Since it is getting dark now, we head up to the
building where Don Ruiz Café is to take a photo of the lit up courtyard.

the courtyard at the Department of Culture. it is all open and the lights change color every few moments
We
take a couple of photos. Both having had a little too much drink with not
enough eat, we decide to head to El Jibarito for food. It reminds me of a cafeteria
style place with wait service. I order sangria and a plantain tamale. El gets
something called a Christmas dinner with pork ribs, rice, tamale and fried plantains.
Of the locals I asked about this place, one person recommended it while the
other said it was better in the past. Overall, we both agree with Trip Advisor:
decent food with spotty service. My tamale is decent while the sangria is
terrible (most likely made from a mix or syrup of some kind). Just dreadful. I
like the rice as well. Afterwards we head to our last stop on San Sebastian for
one last rum and pineapple juice at La Balcon above Nono. The drink is good,
the music is terrible. We finish up and decide to call it a night. We walk back
to the bus terminal knowing that tomorrow is another day that we will probably
spend in Old San Juan again. This is definitely our kind of place. Of course
when the bus brings us back, we stop at El Royalito for the usual. The ladies
of the night looking as primped as always and the clientele as menacing as ever,
and the place as seedy as last night. We finish our beers and head back to the
hostel for the evening.
THURSDAY MARCH 5
walking along the city wall from Princesa to El Morro
Our only commitment we have today it
the second food tour at 3pm in Old San Juan. We set no alarm and are out around
10am. We decide to walk back to Ocean Park to breakfast at Kamoli again. The
relaxation factor is very high here and the food is good too. We ponder the
idea of taking a day trip tomorrow to either Culebra or Vieques Islands, but it
is looking a bit more complicated than we are willing to undertake on our last
day in town. There do not seem to be any options from San Juan as all ferries
to the islands go from the town of Fajardo which is an $80 taxi or car rental
away. We will probably just do the Bacardi Factory tour, but keep our ears up
for other options. We start off walking in the same direction from the hostel
as we have the previous several days. As we walk along Ashford toward Ocean Park
coincidentally the elusive trolley pulls up next to us. We lean in and ask the
driver if he goes to Calle Luiza and he affirms. We get on with our bus fare in
hand and he waves us on, telling us it is free! After a few minutes we are on
Luiza and pull the cord for a stop. Little do we know that the stop is right in
front of Kamoli! We could not have planned that better! We keep our eyes open
for buses headed towards Old San Juan for when we are done- but they seem far
between. After a breakfast that includes bacon pancakes we walk out of Kamoli
and go to the closest bus stop. It is so hot, that after about 10 minutes we
decide to walk down to De Diego to stand at a bus stop that sits across the
street from another so that we could see if a bus was coming from either
direction, doubling our chances at getting one- or so we think. As we stand in
the shaded spot, a young man crosses the street and asks..."weren't you
just waiting at the other bus stop?? Where are you trying to go?" He tells
us to follow him to another stop for our best chance to get a bus to Old San Juan.
As we walk we get most of his life story as well as the story of why buses run
so infrequently. Mostly, it has to do with corruption he tells us. The buses
travel the tourist routes infrequently so the taxis will get more fares. Also,
he says, tourists do not take the bus, only the locals who work on the Condado
do…and they don’t get out of work until much later. Once he realizes that we
know our way around Condado and Santurce, he agrees that our best bet is probably
to walk up to Ponce de Leon and take the most reliable M3 bus to Old San Juan.
This is what we do. With all of the walking and waiting, it takes us 1½ hours
to get from Kamoli to the bus stop on Ponce de Leon. It then takes less than 5
minutes for the M3 to arrive and take us to Old San Juan. We take the bus to
the terminal and walk along the pier. There are three cruise ships in port
today and the piers are just overrun with tourists. We walk into CVS to get a
bottle of water and find ourselves in line with many boat people buying their souvenirs
(at a pharmacy??). While I am happy that people who take cruises are able to
get out and see another art of the world, at the same time I am conflicted by
the amount of business that caters to the people getting off the boats. When
you arrive to San Juan Bay by boat, the first thing you see is Senor Frogs…and
it is packed. I cannot help but think that that is NOT the way I want to
travel. I, for one, don’t want to go to Paris to eat McDonald’s. I don’t want
the duration of my stay in any foreign land to be limited to American chain
restaurants and the impulse rack at CVS. We pass this mobscene by and start to
follow a self guided walking tour along the Princesa promenade. We look at the
statues and fountains and take some pictures of the city wall. We even go to
see the jail cells that are still standing from the time when they used to imprison people outside of the walls of the city. We continue on following the
course of the wall towards El Morro eventually entering the city through the
last standing city gate. As we sit in a shaded resting spot, we overhear a woman
telling another couple about the courtyard in El Convento Hotel. This is an old
convent that has been converted to a luxury hotel. As we enter through the gate
we see the hotel on the left and decide to go in and see what she was talking
about. We make our way into the courtyard which has been converted to the restaurant
and café. We each get a coffee and relax waiting for our tour to begin a few
blocks away. The rooms in this hotel are more than $300 per night, yet the
coffees are only $3.50. We head down to meet our food tour for the day. After a
brief introduction and plan we start our 6 stop walking tour. First, is a café
for a cup of coffee and a Mallorca sandwich which is a grilled ham and cheese
on sweet bread sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Mallorca finger sandwich with a Puerto Rican latte
The bread was good, the ham and
cheese was good. The combo, not so much. The coffee remains good. Next stop is
a popsicle shop that makes all of their popsicles in house using as many local
ingredients as possible. With offerings like pineapple and banana- strawberry,
I go with the pistachio (probably not locally grown nuts) which is very good- though
an odd order since we haven’t had any main course yet. We eat our popsicles
while standing in a shady public square and getting some local history from the
guide. Next stop is an appetizer stop. We are served a deep fried plantain and
beef empanada that is a little overcooked for my liking. Tasted OK, but the
over frying makes it a little tough. They also serve us a single bite of
grouper ceviche with a cube of avocado. Very tasty. Next stop is the main course.
This place lets you make your own mofongo. They serve you a mortar with some
butter and sautéed garlic, and then filled with fried plantain. You then take a
pestle and gently mash the ingredients together to make a paste (like mashed
potatoes).

mashing our mofongo
They serve us a plate with rice and beans and a dish of stewed
chicken. The idea is to put the chicken on the mofongo and have a side of rice
and beans. The taste is good. We are all now pretty full and the next stop is
dessert. We go to Cortes’ Chocolate Shop. This is a Puerto Rican family
building a chocolate empire that they expect will eventually be made of 100% Puerto
Rican grown cacao. Today, much of it is grown on other Caribbean islands and
processed here. We start with a slice of cheddar cheese and a square of milk
chocolate. We are also served a cup of hot chocolate. The idea is to dip the
cheese and chocolate together into the hot drink and eat. The chocolate is
melting too quickly for my interest in dunking it so I eat the combination without
the dunk. The cheese is not a sharp variety and is a little on the warm side
making it a little soft and a touch oily. My mouth gets the consistency of the
chocolate and cheese, but I only taste the chocolate. The hot chocolate is very
good and I would drink it quick if it wasn't so hot. As I sip and wait for it
to cool down, we are served fresh fried churros to dip in the drink. The
churros are hotter than the drink and make a lovely combination. I love churros
as long as there is a sink nearby to wash my hands! The next and last stop of
the tour is a pina colada at the Mezzanine Bar on Calle de Sol. The guide gives
us a little history on rum and explains the difference between the younger and
the older varieties. (young/white is for mixing, old/darker is aged for sipping).
We drink our pina coladas and say goodbye to our guide. As the tour disbands El
and I head upstairs to the third level of the place. They have a bar called
Alfresco which is an open air terrace. It is happy hour and they have a selection
of $4 wines by the glass. No sooner do we start drinking our wine, when a
manager comes to tell us it is now 6pm and that at 6:40 we will need to move
inside to make room for a private party who have reserved the deck. Instead of
moving inside at 6:40, we pay and head up to San Sebastian where there are
several bars and eateries. We are pretty full from the food tour and we opt to hold
off on drinking for a while due to fullness. I nurse one beer at Taberna Lupulo
just so I don’t feel weird sitting at a table with nothing served. The music is
not as strong as the other night when we were here. The beer selection is
great, though they have no wifi. I catch up on the journal and El knits. There
are ceiling fans and the 10 foot doors are open to the street creating a
comfortable breeze. This is still my kind of place. Our adventure just in
finding a bus to get here today pushed a lot of our sightseeing plans off until
tomorrow. It is only 7:30, but we are both pretty beat and will probably call
it a night after this beer. The more I think about the fact that we are coming
back to Old San Juan tomorrow, the more I begin to miss the vacations when we
would do one city for three days and then go to a completely different city for
three more days- deciding if we would want to go back to either of them again.
This trip we are spending 6 nights in one city. Though we got out of the city
yesterday, for the most part we are doing one city for the week. I don’t want
to make it sound like we are scraping the proverbial barrel, but I feel like
any more time we spend in Old San Juan will be seeing stuff that I would be OK missing.
We will decide tomorrow. That said, I really like this town and there are a lot
of things about it that I appreciate- though I will leave feeling that there
would be no reason for us to ever need to come back here without the expectation
of exploring more of the island and, at this point in my life, I feel like I
would rather spend a vacation on Jamaica or Aruba than going to Ponce or
Mayaguez. Time will tell I suppose. We finish our beer here and head back to El Royalito for our Medalla Light nightcap and then to the hostel for the night.
FRIDAY MARCH 6
Today is our last full day in San Juan.
Again, no alarm, but not looking to get too late of a start. Because of the
water situation in the room, we both shower in the common room at the hostel.
It is a single bathroom with shower stall, so it is private, and at least there
is warm water. Not sure where we want breakfast, we decide to text Paulina (our
food tour guide from Monday) to ask for recommendations. She gets back to us
with either Caficultura or Cortes' Chocolate. Having been to both already, we
make a decision based on what we have already had and choose Caficultura. From
the hostel we grab the M3 to the terminal in Old San Juan which is just blocks
away from the café. I get mocha pancakes (made with espresso infused
buttermilk) and a latte. The breakfast is really good. For our first tourist
stop today we decide on the cemetery near El Morro. We grab the trolley and
take it to the entrance (which looks like you are walking into an underground
parking lot) and walk through the cemetery.

I always love these grave sculptures
cemetery overlooking the sea
I must admit that I have seen some
of the world’s most impressive cemeteries and what makes this one special is
not the sculptures (which everyone will tell you it is), but the view
overlooking the ocean. While we are there, somehow some school kids made it
into the cemetery and acted in quite a disrespectful manner. They were loud and
obnoxious and clearly unsupervised. We tried to distance ourselves from them. We
are able to get some photos of the sculptures and view. When the cemetery was
founded and the first people interred there, there was still quit a lot of
mystery surrounding death (well more mystery than today) and they buried their
dead on the outside of the wall as a buffer between invading forces and the
residents. There was also something about giving the dead access to the ocean
in the afterlife, but I missed that part of the explanation. After the cemetery,
which isn't all that big, we walk up to El Morro. The $5 entrance fee to the
fort is good for seven days in both El Morro and San Cristobel. There is not
really much to see inside the fort and after a quick once-through I opt to sit
in the shade rather than the sun. It is getting hot and I take to the chapel to
journal. El keeps on inside the fort taking photos including a picturesque vista
from the ladies restroom. There are a lot of school kids taking tours of the
fort today, so the sound level is a little more than I am interested in. El
wants to buy some Puerto Rican coffee, so after the fort we will walk down to
Don Ruiz coffee shop for a cup and a bag of coffee. We sit in the air
conditioned shop sipping our iced coffees and getting ready to head down to a
spice shop we had seen yesterday on tour food tour and then to San Christobel.
We are able to get online and get dinner reservations at Santaella for 5:30
tonight. I am hoping to be able to come back to Old San Juan for some bar
hopping afterwards. We head over to San Cristobal to take advantage of having paid
the entrance fee at El Morro. The setup is pretty similar with a couple more
tunnels. We don’t stay too long and decide to head back to the hostel to get
ready for dinner. Even though it is about 80 degrees out I still think I will
put on some long pants for this dinner. The menu looks great and I am excited
to try it. After changing at the hostel,
we take the city bus to Santaella.

the first thing we were served at Santaella, a glass of water
It is only a 5 minute ride and a one minute
walk from there. On the way we run into the guy who tried to help us yesterday
getting to Old San Juan from Ocean Park. We chit-chat for a few minutes and
press on. We arrive to the restaurant a couple of minutes early for our 5:30
reservation, but they seat us immediately. For my first course I get ahi tuna
tacos with chipotle oil served on top of guacamole. It is really tasty. El
starts with croquettes with mushroom and brie and she too thinks they are
great. Next up is a salad of organic tomatoes with parmesan cheese ice cream.
The ice cream is served as a scoop and tastes more like soft serve vanilla ice cream than parmesan- but it does go well with the tomatoes. For my entrée I
get a roasted poussin stuffed with sausage and Mallorca bread on a bed of red
and yellow peppers in a sherry cream sauce. It too was tasty- though the
chicken was a little bit difficult to navigate with the blunt knife I was
given. There were several flavors going on in the dish that worked well by
themselves, but didn't work as well together. All in all I was happy with the
food. Some of the extraneous situations, though, I was not as impressed with.
We arrived just before 5:30 and there are only two other parties seated at that
time- meaning there are about 15 empty tables in the room. The very next party
of two arrives for their 5:30 reservation and are seated- right next to us. It
was like being the only people in the movie theater and having someone sit
right next to you. There was plenty of room and I know the room was going to
fill eventually and we would need to be sitting next to someone, but really?
Next...assholes on their cell phones. Hang it up! If someone calls, let it go
to voicemail! There are so very few circumstances that I can think of why
someone needs to be on their telephone at the dinner table in a restaurant. It
is rude to the people in your party and to the other people in the room. Pay
attention to the here and now and use the phone after dinner. Lastly, when we
arrived the music in the room was more of a soft piano, but as the place filled
up they switched it over to Dean Martin/Frank Sinatra standards, but at a
volume not conducive to the size of this place. In fact, on the way out I
stopped at the men’s room where the music was also playing and it was so loud,
I thought someone may have forgotten to adjust the volume in there! We take the
bus back to the hostel, change our clothes, and pick up our barhopping gear,
walk back to the bus stop and bus back into Old San Juan for our last night in
town. Our first stop is La Taberna Lupulo again. They will have a DJ starting
at 9:30, so we will be sure to be out well before then. Also, El brings her camera
hoping to get some good night shots of the guard towers on the fort, so we will
probably head there before our next drinking stop. The beer selection at this place
is great, but I think El wants to switch to wine and wouldn't you know it,
there is a wine bar across the street. We walk over to El Morro which is
closed, but lit up at night. El works her magic with the camera and we have an
evening photo session that lasts the better part of an hour. We walk back over
the San Sebastian to try the Factoria Wine Bar. This place is split into three
different bar rooms. The first is a trendy kind of bar where the bartenders are
wearing matching hats and vests and working in sync that it is like watching a
show just to get drinks made. The second room is a cocktail bar that is going
for the upscale clientele. The bartenders are wearing bow ties and making
manhattans and martinis. El goes with a
glass of rosé and I, cava. The bill is a little more than I expect for 2 single
glasses of wine. We peek into the third room (which was probably more our
speed), but at this point it is too late. We grab our bags and head out. Our
last stop is at a bar on San Sebastian that is empty while all others are
teaming with customers. The drinks are cheaper, the music just as shitty, and
the bartender just as nice as the other places. They have no wifi, but I
journal while El knits for the duration of one pineapple and rum. It is 10:15
and though the night is still young, it is close to the end for us. We will
head back to El Royalito for the last time and have our usual Medallas to cap
off the evening. I wouldn't have asked for it to have gone down any other way.

a guard tower at El Morro at night
SATURDAY MARCH 7
Our flight does not leave until 5:30 this
evening, so we do have most of a day to kill. We have found on days that the time
does get away from us sometimes- you think, "hey, we have 8 hours until we
have to do something" (like dinner reservations). Then before you know it,
you are like “hey, we need to get a move on if we are going to make this commitment!”
So, as we get up around 8:30 and it seems like we have hours upon hours until
we need to call the taxi, I also know it won’t feel that long. We have done Old
San Juan so many times on this trip that we are looking to try something a
little different for our last morning. We have decided against taking the
Bacardi factory tour, but think that we would like to take the ferry from Old
San Juan pier #2 to Catuna- which is how you get to the Bacardi factory. As you
get off the ferry there is a fleet of taxis waiting to whisk you around the
corner to Bacardi for $20- for all the cruise ship people who do not know the
difference. We, on the other hand are not going to Bacardi and can now see why
the taxis expected us to...at first glance there is nothing to do here besides
Bacardi! We walk along the town streets looking for some place to get coffee
and light breakfast fare. We see a couple of closed up bars and that is about
it. We walk to the end of the street where we can either turn left or right. We
go left just to walk along the waterfront (expecting that if we were to find a café,
it would probably be near the water). To no avail, we walk along the water all
the way back to the ferry terminal that we just came from. Across the street we
see a local food place with an old lady selling some turnovers, fritters, and
other assorted fried things. If she has coffee, we will find something to eat
here and make this our last meal on the island. Sadly, she has no coffee. We
were already compromising with the food, there would be no compromise on food
and drink. We keep walking to a bar that is like a family kind of place
serving lunches and coffee (as well as liquor). We get two coffees and drink
them on the porch. While El checks Yelp for some other food options in the
area, I look back on our trip comparing the list of things that I thought we
could do and checking off what we did vs. what we didn't have time to do. I see
something on the list called La Placita and El remembers hearing that name
associated with the mercado which is like a farmers market in Santurce and a
lot of local restaurants (like Santaella and Jose Enrique) get some of their
ingredients. With Yelp not turning up anything promising, we decide to head
back to the ferry and go to the mercado (only a few blocks from the hostel) and
see what we can find. We meet some more characters on the bus and they tell us
exactly where to get off on Ponce de Leon. The market is only a couple of
blocks down, easy to find, smaller than we thought, but what is there does look
like fresh produce. There is no shortage of eateries and bars surrounding the
market building- from high end restaurants to divey bars and everything in
between. We walk around the block looking into all of them. Of all the places,
we don’t see one that appears to be specifically breakfast fare. We move to
plan B and look for a lunch place. There is a sign ahead that has the word
"lechón" which is roasted
suckling pig.

mmmm, roast pork baking under heat lamps in the midday sun...very tasty
There is a display case on the sidewalk under the front awning.
It has Plexiglas sliding doors so you can see inside. There are three things
in the box. Hunks of roast pork, some, what appear to be blood sausages, and a
machete. We walk into the room and order two lunches. Mine is roast pork, rice
and beans, and a Medalla light beer. El's is similar. The food is simple and
good and runs $17 for the full lunch for two. We walk back to the hostel, making
a brief stop at a bus stop to give two women waiting for the M3 my prepaid bus
card. I hand the card to one and tell her to buy hers and the other young lady's
bus fare. There are a couple more dollars on it and I can’t use it. We get back
to the hostel and change our clothes from tropical to NYC compliant- long pants
and long shirts. Once we get into NYC we will have to readjust again- this is
just to get us from the airport to midtown where our winter coats await us. The
guys at the hostel call us a taxi and we are taken on our first step back to
reality.

leaving the island of pineapple and rum until the next time
As we leave the island I am trying to
sum up my feelings on this vacation. This has been a particularly brutal winter
for us temperature wise and the heat, while a little more than I usually find comfortable, not one soul heard a peep of complaint out of me. We were able to
pack so much into this week that I really can get impressed with ourselves
sometimes. One thing that I have known all along is that El and I travel very
well together and I think that adds to our mutual contentment on the trips we take. We have had a couple of conversations this
week about traveling, ours and others'. For example, when we were on our Spoon
Food tour, one of the other tour takers told us that we sounded well traveled.
Then, when we went to the rainforest, one of the ladies also told us that it
sounded like we travel to a lot of places. I guess it is one of those things
that adds up, like a collection. You start off with a couple of ceramic turtles
and pick up another every couple of months at an antique shop or flea market and
you always think of your little collection as just that, little. Until one day
a friend comes to visit and tells you your turtle collection is huge and you
take that moment to mentally reevaluate your collection and say "though I
still want more, I guess my collection isn't so small anymore." I still
have those people in my life whose bookshelf of traveling guides is much bigger
than ours, but I think it is time for me to start admitting that we do travel a
lot and need to continue to expand our collection of guidebooks.
This morning I asked El if she felt that she needed to come back here again. As
in did we see everything we wanted to or are we leaving thinking that we could
take another trip here to see what we did not do or see this time around. She
replied with the answer, that we do not need to come back to see things we
missed, but that she would come back to see some of the same stuff again. I
say, there is plenty more Caribbean to see and we can check this island off our
list. Been there. Done that. Have the guidebook on the bookshelf. As we leave,
I look back to the list I made of things to see and do that before we arrived
seemed like an impossibly big list, but that seems to become way more
manageable as you get more familiar with the layout of the city. From our first
night exploring the neighborhood of the hostel and Condado to our final morning
eating lunch at a place that sees way fewer tourists than most any other spot
we have been to on this trip. We learn about new things along the way (asking
tour guides and other travelers alike for recommendations) and stumble upon a
few gems of our own. Not just on this trip, but all of them, and that is why I
love travelling with El.