Friday we drove to the Hilton Garden
Inn at the Denver airport, as we had an early flight. We had dinner
at our usual Pho 92 restaurant, where we learned that the owner has a
handicapped daughter, and that most of her employees have some kind
of issue, if not a physical handicap, “Everyone has a story”.
Saturday, we took the shuttle to the
airport at 4 AM, and were near our gate by 5 am, for a 7 am flight.
The flight to Orlando was full of families, taking kids to
Disneyworld. The families got to board before we did, so we did not
sit together, not unusual for us on Southwest. We had lunch in the
Orlando airport, before a 3:45 PM flight to San Juan. We took a taxi
to our Airbnb, where we had to search a bit to find the right door to
get into the building, and then got confused about which door was
which. We had a code for the building, which had an electronic
lock, so we looked for an electronic lock on the door. However,
there was a lock box to get our door key for the apartment. Not what
you want to deal with after a long day of travel. Unfortunately, it
was Saturday night, and there was a pop up nightclub blaring a block
away. We are not impressed by our host; there was no hot water, and
no response to our email.
We noticed that the
bricks paving the streets were blue; they were brought over in ships
from Europe, used as ballast. The blue bricks were a byproduct of
refining iron. We visited a good art studio and a real bookstore,
which had some English books. We picked up groceries and hiked uphill
to our apartment. Then we went to La Mezzanine, where we had very
good tapas, including fresh hummus. The décor was mostly of art
and newspaper clippings related to the drive for independence for
Puerto Rico; our waiter also supports independence. We walked
through the rain to Anita's Gelato, which was packed.
Monday I slept in. We headed for the
El Morro fort, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is at the
end of the island, with a large lawn area in front of it, part of the
defensive design. The fort has mutiple levels connected by ramps, so
that they could move cannon as needed. It is just huge, with six
levels. The fort was started in the 1530s; it was repeatedly
expanded and remodeled by the Spaniards and later the Americans. We
had lunch at El Convento, a high end hotel. We had gelato at Anitas,
and then took the ferry over and back to the mainland, letting us
get a better view of the harbor. We stopped at Poet's passage, where
we bought a print of one of the paintings by the owner, Nico. Nico
is a very nice Frenchman who met a Puerto Rican woman, and never
left. The blue bricks were prominent in the painting. We picked up
a little from the supermarket and headed back to the apartment,
having walked over four miles.
Tuesday we took an Uber to the airport,
where we picked up a rental car and headed west. The first part was
expressway, but then it was heavy traffic with stop lights. We
stopped for lunch in Hatillo, at Marilyn's beach restaaurant. We had
sandwiches, and watched people play in the water, very laid back. We
continued to Ricon, where we found our Aitbnb, after driving around
some. We visited the Econo supermarket, and Sandi cooked dinner. We wandered down to the lighthouse nearby.
Wednesday we headed downtown, and had
lunch at Cafe 413. We also bought a cable so we could charge our
phones in the car, as the car uses USB-C connectors. Sandi bought a
sundress at Ocean State of Mind, and T-shirts for gifts at Uncharted
Studio. There was a health fair in the town plaza, with music.
Thursday we drove to Mayaguez, the
second largest city in Puerto Rico. We admired the Cathedral and the
town plaza, and had lunch at La Jibarita nearby.
We went to the
boat dock in Rincon to go on our sunset sail. Unfortunately, we saw
no whales. Richard enjoyed talking to the captain about boats.
There was an art walk in the plaza, very popular, lots of beading
work, but a little of everything.
Friday Richard slept in, and felt lousy
when he woke up. He rested around the house, while Sandi knitted We kept seeing Tsunami warning signs.
We had dinner at the nearby Beach House, and heard a musician play.
We headed to Domes beach, near the decommisioned nuclear powerplant,
and watched the surfers and the sunset.
Saturday Richard slept in, we visited
the Coqui bookstore, which we enjoyed. We had dinner at the Gylro
Greek restaurant, and then went to mass downtown. Downtown was very
busy
Sunday we drove to the Caguana
Indigenous Ceremonial Park, which is the largest Taino ruin on the
island. The Taino were the indians present when the Spaniards
arrived. They were peaceful, and had women chiefs. The ruins were
ballcourts, small versions of the Mesoamerican ball courts. We took
our shoes off and walked in the mud. Some of the stones had
petroglyphs, enhanced with black to be easily seen. The drive was on
twisty narrow mountain roads, so slow and required concentration. We
had dinner at the Beach House and then watched surfers at Domes. |
Ceiba tree ar ruins
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Monday we drove back to San Juan. We
had a nice lunch at Mesa restaurant in Ponce. My phone kept routing
us on very narrow twisty roads. We finally figured out that I had
set my phone to avoid toll roads. After that we got on the toll
roads, and made good time into San Juan. Our $300/night hotel was
something of a disappointment; the room was small, there was no
elevator, and no coffeemaker. We walked down the street to the
Tryst hotel, where we had lunch overlooking the beach. The
peoplewatching was great, including a large group of gay guys. We
walked back to our hotel, stopping at Anita's gelato on the way.
Tuesday we got up at 5 AM, to leave the
hotel at 6 AM for an 8 AM flight. No real breakfast opportunities
at the airport that early. We flew to Orlando, had lunch there, and
then flew to Denver. We got into Denver at 2 PM Denver time, but
that was 5 PM Puerto Rico time. We picked up our car and headed
home.
Puerto Rico has a very relaxing vibe.
It was easy to move about the country. While it feels a bit like
Mexico, Puerto Rico is clearly better off economically. Sandi was
happy not to be constantly accosted by someone trying to sell
something. We enjoyed hanging out on the beach. Sandi was happy to
unplug in a hassle free environment It was easy to be there.
