Suzanne asked me at one point if PR was as nice as Hawaii….and the answer for me is ‘no, it’s not even close’. Granted, I haven’t had a chance to see much of the touristy spots, but, what I have seen hasn’t really overwhelmed me (two of the other guys down here from CH have been to Cancun and parts of Mexico and say it’s really similar to that…).
Arrived late Monday night. Up early on Tuesday; nothing really touristy going on until we went out to dinner that night.
Yeah, it’s not San Juan, it’s Atlanta out there in the distance….thought I would at least try and snap a picture as we landed
The view outside the restaurant we ate at in Old San Juan. Narrow cobble-stone streets.
After we finished up at the alternate site on Wednesday my buddy and I headed out for the “Pork Highway”; an exit south of Caguas where the Lechonera shacks are legendary for the pork that’s slow-cooked on the spit and carved up for meals throughout the day.
Walk up…in broken english and spanish make it clear we want a lb of pork to share with arroz y gandules (rice with pigeon peas…the local side dish) and the guy grabs his machete and chops us off some pig. Oh man was it good.
From there, we decided to take the long way back to San Juan; head south until we hit the coast and then drive back on a different highway. The drive across the mountains was stunning and really reminded me of the road to Hana in Hawaii….large bamboo forests, switchback after switchback, the drop-off from the road was at least 1,000 ft down at some points. Since I was driving, there aren’t any real pictures of this.
Made it down to the coast and stopped at a rocky beach to look out on the Caribbean Sea.
Yes, it was that dark and cloudy.
Thursday was our “just-in-case” day; since we were done it turned into my “get to see some things day”
Looking east along the beach in front of the hotel
Looking west….red flags were up so I didn’t go in…did walk along in the water a little bit.
This is the Plaza del Quinto Centenario; which my poor spanish skills tells me celebrates an anniversary long long ago. That’s what I assume this totem pole like structure commemorates
Fort San Felipe Del Morro – this panorama looks east across the esplanade (a fancy spanish word for “grassy plain which gives me an opportunity to shoot you”)
looking west from the Fort
This view is out at a sentry box that overlooks the ocean…more on this later.
The main entrance to the fort; the site is a US National Park and admission was free when I visited on Veteran’s Day.
Another panorama looking back to the south west. you can see San Juan Bay on the other side of the esplanade; almost straight ahead at the end of the ‘walk’ is where Old San Juan begins….on the other side of Old San Juan is where the cruise ships park and two were in town on Thursday
Directly across the bay to the west is this small islet; another fort (providing crossfire with El Morro at the bay entrance) is there
View of the lighthouse and the flags that fly here (Burgandy..part of Spain at that time, Puerto Rico, and the United States)
Looking down at the main sea defense level of the fort
View back west at that sentry box I mentioned earlier….that sentry box image you see here is on most of the license plates of the cars in PR….
a daylight view of the typical street in Old San Juan….San Juan Bay is at the end of this street.
The only other touristy-highlight was I encountered some success at the PR casino’s Wednesday night (I stayed at the Marriott the other CH guys stayed at the Conrad down the road; both had casino’s) I played with two buddies at the Conrad from work after dinner on Wednesday and we all walked away winners…..which is certainly better than walking away a loser, my usual modus operandi.
