Quest to See the World

Ok, so this is my first blog entry and I’m testing it out in preparation for my trip to central america which is set to begin in approx. 4 weeks. so I’m going to write about the trip to Puerto Rico from January 13-16. Here goes:

Well, it was awesome. When Dave and I got there we went to Pinones and ate some bacalaito and drank some kola champagne-mmmm-good stuff. Dave quickly found an old Buick to photograph near the beach. From there we passed through the outskirts of Loiza, where I actually have never been.

El Yunque

We went to El Yunque and hiked down to a waterfall where Dave swam and I got in just enough to pee, which was very easy since the water was super cold. It had started to rain by then too, but then again, it is the rain forest. After we left there at dusk we did a quick drive through of Old San Juan so that Dave could catch a quick glimpse at night. We then headed to Quebradillas and stayed at Parador Vista Mar overlooking the old train tunnel, much to his delight in the morning. We got a plate of rice, beans and chicken w/ some guava and orange juice for a whopping $40!!!! Boy, did we get ripped, but oh well, we were really hungry and on vacation, my bad for not asking the price before ordering the food.

the next day we awoke to rain drops on the window thingies, which i loved. we headed down to the old train tunnel and then continued on to playa jobos in isabela for a look at the blow hole thing on the cliff (see pic) and drank a nice cold Medalla.

Me and Dave in Isabela

Our journey then took us through the old Ramey base in Aguadilla, Aguada and lost through the hills of Rincon. We stopped for some empanadillas at Kaplash where Dave tried a Shark one. After eating and stopping at the Anasco beach, we headed to Cabo Rojo. It was kind of a whirl wind day, but there’s just so much to see! As we were cruisin’ through Mayaguez we saw that there was a baseball game in progress and Dave had to go. The seventh inning stretch was much different than i thought it would be and they didn’t sell any souvenirs. weird. anyway, by 9:30 or so we made it to la parguera where we got a decent deal on our room on the third floor overlooking the caribbean sea. wow, what a day of sightseeing!!!

day 3 took us to isla de gilligan in guanica where we went snorkeling. On the way dave got to drink the water out of a coconut for the first time. i was driving, quickly pulled over, told him i’d be right back, jumped out of the car and disappeared, returning w/ a whole coconut with the top cut off, leaving only a very small hole big enough for a straw. he looked puzzled, but seemed to kinda like it. we then headed to the island. the current was SUPER strong and it was kinda hard to make our way up the canals, so we ended up mostly checking out some cool fish by the water’s edge. we had a couple cold medallas and chilled for a while before the ferry came back for us. it was kind of a disappointment because back in the day you could take a yola (small fishing boat) over and get picked up anytime you wanted. now they have this huge touristy boat that only runs once an hour. when we got back to la parguera we ate some awesome mofongo, rice, beans and dave got fried, yes fried, pork chops. apparently they were really tasty because he was sucking the bones. we ended the night with a quick jaunt over to the bioluminescent bay.

last day:
stopped at the panaderia (bakery) in la parguera for some more delicious bread, quesitos and orange juice that tastes way better than the stuff we get here and headed back to san juan. i jinxed myself a couple of days earlier when i made a comment about me being able to get out of a ticket in p.r. if i’d get pulled over by a guy cop, but not if it was a chic cop. well wouldn’t you know it, on the way out of ponce in salinas a chic cop was standing on the side of the darn highway and started waving her arms around like an idiot for me to pull over. at first i thought that she was signalling for me to get in the left lane, so i did, but then i realized that she was trying to pull me over. shoot!! i got the first ticket of my life-$105 for going 76 in a 65. what ever happened to those $15 tickets they gave out when i lived there 10 years ago?! we made it back to old san juan and did the touristy thing there at el morro, up calle del sol and around. i got some of my favorite Flanes Cedo and some papaya and we had a little snack in the plaza de armas before sadly heading back to the airport.

Old San Juan

It was a really nice 4 day get away! We both had a great time and it was Dave’s unofficial first time out of the country (well, besides canada). can’t wait to go back!

Tags: Central America 2007, puerto rico, san juan

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Central America 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.