Our last days in San Juan

During the week between Christmas and New Years we mostly hung around San Juan and Condado. 

On Thursday night we did a night tour of Old San Juan. We saw a few parts of the city we had not seen before and we received quite a bit of historical information. A fun tour. 

Friday morning we rented bikes and went on a beautiful 7 mile ride along the ocean and through a mangrove forest. 

At night we had a wonderful dinner with the daughter of a friend of ours from San Miguel. A excellent meal, wine and wonderful conversation. 

Saturday we took a drive to the town of Hatillo for the famous mask parade. This is done every year an old Catholic tradition. 

"Las Tradicionales" Hatillo Mask Festival ("Día de las Máscaras") - The Mask Festival began in 1823, and was imported by the immigrants from the Canary Islands, where the traditional festival originated. The early tradition of the festival required that the male population dress as women and they would visit each residence where the owners would offer them food and drinks. Currently the festival is celebrated every year on December 28. The Masks are fashioned and based on the biblical story of King Herod. The costumes used are very elaborate and the Masks represent the soldiers which were sent by the King to kill all the innocent children of Israel. The festival, however is presented in humor and said soldiers only joke around and ride on chariots.

Monday night we headed back into Old San Juan to listen to some wonderful music. But first we stopped at La taberna lúpulo a pub with 42 craft beers on tap and the best fish tacos we have had in a long time.  Then off to listen to Puerto Rico's Estudiantinos músic group.   This was a wonderful cultural event with many locals. A fun time was had by all.  

On New Year's Eve our plans our to walk the streets of our Condado neighborhood to enjoy the sites and sounds of celebration and maybe head into a casino. Tomorrow we are off to the mountains for three days and then other parts of the island. 

Christmas in Puerto Rico

On Christmas Eve morning the sky was dark and filled with rain.  We had no official plans for this  day except our Christmas Eve salmon dinner. About noon there was a low in the storm and we were able to go to the beach for about 1 1/2 hours. 

We cooked our lemon-ginger salmon for a wonderful Christmas Eve Dinner.  

After dinner we took a walk again to the Seaview bar for a happy hour cocktail. Unfortunately, because of the holiday there was no happy hour prices. Oh well we stayed anyways and had a great time. 

Christmas morning turned out to be the most beautiful morning you could ask for with bright sunshine, blue sky and warm temps. Jason's flight was at 1:30 so we made an early morning dash for an hour and a half of beach time.  Jason could not have had a better last day. 

 

I always wanted to spend Christmas Day on the beach and here it is. 

We went back to the condo for a Mallorca sandwich.  Mallorca bread is a Puerto Rican speciality made with egg yokes, delicious. 

 Off to the airport at 11:00. After dropping off Jason we took a drive to Piñones, a state park famous for its hiking, biking trails and the many food kiosks.   With views of the city. 

As we drove back to the condo we decided to look for a place to eat on the beach. We drove over to Ocean Park the neighborhood next to ours an stopped at Pamala's on the beach.  The view from our table.  

Christmas was a beautiful day in Puerto Rico. We have one week left in San Juan then we will be driving the island for two weeks. A new adventure begins. 

A day in Old San Juan with Jason

December is a very interesting month in the Caribbean. You never leave your place without your umbrella. It is amazing because the sky could be clear and within 30 minutes clouds can come in over the ocean and drop a couple of inches of rain in about 30 minutes. As fast as a storm comes in it leaves with bright sunshine and clear skies. Monday morning was filled with a few of these intense rain storms. This is the day we are to go to old San Juan. However after 30 to 40 minutes of what appeared to be serval inches of rain the skies cleared up and we drove into the city.  Driving in is always a little adventure because for some reason the main street into Old San Juan is blocked.  We finally got to our cheap parking lot we discovered and walked over to El Morro the walled fortress protecting the city. 

After El Morro we took the free Shuttle for about 3 blocks to have a beer break. 

Then we headed into the heart of town to the famous Puerto Rican restaurant Jibarito. 

Jason had the typical Puerto Rican Christmas plate of pork. Everything was wonderful the food and the experience. Off to a little souvenir shopping for Jason.  

We then headed back to the condo for a little siesta. That night we discovered the Seaview restaurant/bar part of the Atlantic Beach Hotel overlooking the beautiful ocean. We had wonderful mahi mahi tacos and happy hour drinks and excellent staff. 

Tomorrow is  Christmas Eve. 

Morning beach walk

When possible Elenita and try to walk every morning. Sometimes we even stop by the juice man Walter and his cart at Ocean Park. 

So yesterday Elenita's son Jason came along with us to meet Walter and have some wonderful fresh juice. 

A good time was had by all. Lots of laughs. 

Jason has arrived

At 12 noon on Thursday, December 19th Elenita's son Jason arrived.  While Jason took a 4 hour nap Elenita and I went to the beach to read and relax.  At night we ate at the highly claimed Ropa Vieja Cuban restaurant for dinner. The food was excellent however, it felt a bit rushed. We felt like we sat, ordered, ate and left because everything came so fast. Not a very relaxing place but very good food. 

Friday we drove to El Yunque national rain forest for some beautiful hiking in spite of the rain. 

Our plan was to hike to the highest peak but with the rain we decided to cut it short at the tower. 

As we hiked down the sun started making a presence and it ended up being a beautiful hike.

After the park we went to some kiosks near the beach for lunch.  Wings, fish and banana chips and of course beer. 

Then on to the beach for an hour of relaxing at a very beautiful beach. 

Saturday was a day in old San Juan for dinner but first stop was the Bacardi rum tour.  Which was informative and fun. We also received two free cocktails.

Back to old San Juan to take in some holiday spirit and an excellent dinner at the wonderful Parrot Club. 

Tomorrow Sunday has been designated BR day Beach and relax. 

Culebra

We drove toward the east coast of the main island so we could spend a day on one of the smaller islands.  We made reservations through AirBnB in a big room in the house of Ed and Carolyn for two nights. It is a little tricky to buy tickets for ferry. On the night before they sell only 50 then the next morning they sell the rest. By the time we arrived in the afternoon on Monday they only had one of the 50 left. So the next day we needed to be in line by 7:00 am. Fortunately we were staying only two blocks away. We had no problem getting our tickets this morning. We even got a deal because of the senior rate $4 round trip for the two of us. We then went back and had a lite breakfast. We boarded the ferry at 9:00 am for the 1 hour boat ride. This unfortunately was not a very smooth ride and a fair amount of passengers got sea sick.  Once we landed in Culebra we picked up our rental car. 

This little putt putt took us all over the island and it was great to have. 

Our first stop was the famous Flamenco beach.  A very beautiful area with soft sand and turquoise water. Here we relaxed for about 3 hours.  Is this really December?

After here we drove putt putt over to tamarindo beach which was only a short distance. This area is known for it's snorkeling. The beach was very nice but the snorkeling was a bust.  But we did spot some wild life. 

The beach was really nice and the water was very warm.

Now we decided to drive putt putt to the other side of the island to Zoni beach. This was a beautifully long beach. It was to bad that we did not discovered this beach earlier. 

After this hard day of relaxing we really need a drink. 

Time to board the ferry and back to our room in Farjardo. 

Until next time.  

Ponce and lechón

Sunday we headed out toward the town of Ponce on the Caribbean coast about 1 hour and 30 minutes south of San Juan. The highway cuts through the island with spectacular views. Ponce is the second largest city in Puerto Rico with a very different style of architecture then San Juan, quite beautiful. The main purpose for coming to Ponce was to listen to music. The music was to be performed at 1:00pm however this never happened and we are not quite sure why. So we strolled the city and took photos. 

The picture below is the fire house museum. 

Strolling. 

After Ponce we decided to do the Puerto Rico weekend thing eating lechón which is roasted pig. 

This was one of those one time only experiences. Good food but very loud distorted music and a lot of beer.  The dance floor was always filled. 

The rain did not keep anyone away even us.