Puerto Rico weekend (Sun)

I decide to go snorkeling today as the Caribbean sea is too inviting.

The tour is provided by this company http://www.travelerpr.com/

This website summarize the trip.
http://www.getyourguide.com/fajardo-l882/from-fajardo-full-day-cordillera-islands-catamaran-tour-t19894/

I paid extra for transport pickup so that i don't have to drive an hour to the Marina. However, the transport never came for me as they didn't get my cell phone number. So i had to grab a cab last minute to meet the boat. Grrr..
Lesson learned: always call the tour the day before, to confirm your pick up

The other interesting part is free rum and free flow of rum for the entire trip.
It's strange for me, as sun exposure + alcohol is usually a bad combination.
What i realize later, is it's a party boat more than a see-fish expedition for the locals =)
But the water is so pretty that it's still worth going out, but i will probably pick a more reliable tour provider next time.

The Catamaran is huge and had 45 people on board that day. It sailed really fast too as it's very windy

Some crazy structure at the Marina

Water cleared up right after the Marina and stayed pretty =)

Clear waters at the Culebra Island

The ocean species here are very similar to the tropics in South East Asia too.
The first reef has a bed of grass leading to it and that is kind of cool. I also saw a couple of huge sucker fish that looks like baby sharks! They were grabbing the bread that i brought with me to feed the fish.

These are a few meals that I had in PR

Mofongo with fish stew

Peruvian shish kababs & potatos with hollandaise sauce, together with a Tamarind drink

Puerto Rico weekend (sat)

Puerto Rico Day 1

PR City View from El Morro Fort

The  clear waters of PR

Here for work, took a weekend extension to see PR!
I flew in on a midnight connection flight from Houston, after San Diego.
Both flights are full but are short enough that it's tolerable.
But sleep quality is compromised on a plane, so I am tired with the overnight flight.
It was raining when i land at 530am in Puerto Rico San Juan airport.

With the rain, my tiredness, unfamiliar roads, GPS announcng strange LONG spanish name(S) for each turn, it took me 6 tries to find the tricky freeway exit to my hotel.
I'm definitely glad I got in so early that there's minimum traffic to accomodate my errors. Else i might not have made it!

I stayed at Caribe Hilton  which is right by the ocean and 30 mins walk to Old San Juan.
http://www.caribehilton.com/
Beautiful hotel, great beach access and over-run by American tourists =)

2 Igaunas with bright green colors

I hit the road at 9am, walking in the rain, after charging my phone and had a quick shower.

Food tour (Old San Juan)
I made a beeline for a street junction in Old San Juan, which is the starting point for my food tour with
Flavours of San Juan, http://sanjuanfoodtours.com

Some information i learned today
The guide explains the commonwealth structure for PR. They don't pay federal taxes, they vote in primaries but not in final election. And food is pricey here as 80% of it are imported with an import tax on food.
There's 73 towns in Puerto Rico. PR is a very important port, between Europe and US. That's why Spain fought for 400 years to keep this place safe.

First stop is Manolin





Traditional Puerto Rican breakfast place that serves a really nice ham and cheese sandwich. The bread is thin, soft, sweet.. ooh... it's easily one of the best bread i had, washed down with a really nice passion fruit juice!
Place is crazy crowded too, especially on a Easter Saturday. The guide had a hard time trying to find 13 seats as this place don't take reservations. They had to negotiate with a granny and walk her to another table to get a U shaped table to accommodate all 13 of us.












2nd stop is Cuatro Sombras
It's a local coffee shop that sell 100% PR grown coffee. Apparently PR drink enough coffee that they had to import other Carribean coffee beans. Most commercial coffee sold here had to mix the beans. But this place has a plantation in the south of PR and roast the beans on site.
The machiato coffee is very fragrant with hints of cacao and caramel, enjoyed without any sugar








3rd stop is Cafe El Punto
We enjoyed a PR empanadas. It's PR as the shell is made with plantains/spices to make it more flavorful. The hot sauce is made in-house, spicy but really nice vinegar tang
Cerviche made with grouper fish. Nice balanced flavor and fresh fish. This restaurant has a lot of face masks decoration on the wall. These are used in old times for people to dress as demons. Apparently the purpose is to scare people to go to church.

4th stop is Barrachina
One of the 2 places in PR who claimed they had a bartender who invented Pina Colada. Of course, we need a sample of that

5th stop is Rosa de Triana
I made my first mofongo!
 they provided all the fried plantains in butter/garlic, and i mashed it up. Mix in some Creole chicken and it's pretty good eats.
Ordered a sangria too and it was spiked with rum =)























This restaurant, with the really low ceiling, is part of the tunnel system in old San Juan.
According to the guide, you can take a tour of the old tunnel.
But parts of it have been sealed with request from the cathedral for safety and privacy reasons

The low ceiling restarant that's part of the tunnel

6th stop is Casa Cortes
This is a chocolate bar where we had drinking choclate melted from a bar, together with a slice of chocolate and mild cheddar cheese. The mixture is surprisingly good!
And the final sample for the tour is a rum truffle which is amazing.

Interesting architecture in old San Juan
The old convent, the cathedral, the governor mansion, the main square with military building and 4 seasons fountain, the old blue cobblestone streets and the church with silver altar, and the smallest house in the northern americas.

Streets of old San Juan

Governors mansion

The yellow one is the smallest house in Northern hemispheres

The city hall

Silver altar in the church

El Morro and San Cristobal
The 2 forts built by the spanish to defend Puerto Rico. They have free admission today as it's the saturday before Easter. Great view of the city from both forts.

El Morro

Fort of San Cristobal

View from San Cristobal

Dinner @ Hilton 

Dinner that night was a quick and quiet dinner at the Hilton Bar with PR chicharrons, which is really fried chicken with crispy chicken skin.
And of course, a pina colada, as Hilton Caribe  is the other place that claimed to have invented Pina Colada!

Southern Spain Oct 2013 (Granada/Nerja)

Day 1

Granada / 25 Oct 2013

Travelling the South of Spain with Ana

What could be better? Getting in touch again with a great friend, add some good/free Spanish tapas and bring on lots of tinto de verano with a douse of Alhambra and Mediterranean sea.

First, let me say Free Tapas are great! Not just that they are free, but they taste great.

In the south of Spain, it’s common to give a free plate of food for every drink that you order. The food changes with every drink.  Although some restaurants allowed you to pick from a selection, some places said “it’s a gift. So be happy with it” =)

It’s simple food, nothing fancy but it truly reflects the life style of Spanish. Good food with fresh ingredients, great hospitality with a hint of playfulness. The drinks are not pricy (Typically at $2E), and to get food for that price is mind boggling.

These are some of the free tapas that we got.

Unfortunately, we both don’t drink enough to get filled up with the free tapas. So we do have to order some in order not to go hungry. Not that I didn't try, but there’s only so many tinto de verano that you can drink a night.

Granada took me by surprise, specifically Alhambra. The palaces’ grounds are breath-taking. This is a sunset view of the castle from the city area. 

The sunset is also very pretty that night, with the city of Granada below it.

Day 2

Alahambra (Granada)

We visited the castle early in the AM @ 830am. It was raining a little, so we took the bus to the castle. It was fortunate that Ana booked the tickets in advance through the hotel and we avoided the long line of 30 people that’s going slowly (priority are given for advance booking).

The castle took 7 hours at a brisk walk. There’s so much to see and I’m blown away by the architecture.

It's made up of different castle, one of them being Charles V castle that reminds me of Colosseum except that it's much nicer.






There’s water running all around the grounds and inside the castle and it’s still a mystery how that’s achieved. The fountain of lions has some explanations inscribed that apparently didn't make sense.

Anyway, the main castle is restored painstakingly and it reminds me of the Arabian nights.It is hard to capture the beauty of the castle through a camera but here are some attempts anyway. 

These are another castle/s that's part of Alhambra outside the main castle.

The gardens and the fountains are also playful and very pretty. It's surreal walking through the gardens imagining a city full of people walking through them in old times. 



We had lunch at Paradores restaurant inside Alhambra as a treat. Ana told me that Paradores is famous for building hotel and restaurants at historical sites.

http://www.parador.es/en/restaurants-eating-in-paradores

We had duck risotto and a fish dish that's really good. Together with a pasta dish that's a complimentary amuse-bouche.

Day 3

Granada/Nerja

First aim: Breakfast at Ysla.
This has piononos which is a specialty pastry in Granada. However, i can't say that i enjoy it as it's really sweet. This is all you would ever want to know about piononos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pionono



We walked around Granada city that day, visiting the cathedral

and the Arab streets

After that, we took the bus to the airport to collect our rental car before driving to Nerja.

Nerja is really lovely and touristy. It’s a typical white Spanish coastal town that’s at off-peak season in end October.

The weather reminds me San Diego, as it’s by the ocean and flanked by a desert on the other side. It’s dry with moderate temperature fluctuations.

Day 4

Frigilliana/Nerja

We knew that the hostal Don Peque provides breakfast. What we didn’t expect was a terrace roof top breakfast view, with a full Spanish breakfast brought to our table. The French couple who ran the B&B is very nice, the room is spacious and the food is great! All for 55E a night! What a steal and a delightful difference from the 119E Sant Cugat H&R Hotel.

We hit the town of Frigilliana which is another touristy white town. 

But it’s lovely roaming the streets taking pictures of striking blue doors, Spanish decorations and having a good time.






The weather is very comfortable (t shirt and shorts weather) which is amazing in end October.

After that, we went back to Nerja and spent the afternoon lazing on the beach. I even took a swim in the Mediterranean Sea, with a “refreshing” temperature of 20 C. Brrr…

Day 5

And we are off, going home

We had another lovely breakfast at the roof top, this time with homemade yoghurt.

We also made a couple of sandwiches for lunch, from the leftover bread and enhanced it with some store-brought salami and gazpacho.

We made our way to Nerja caves which is impressive for its sheer size. The biggest column is in the Guinness book of record.

After that, we drove leisurely through a few Spanish coastal town on our way back to Granada airport. 

And here's a couple of shots of me/Ana goofing around just for grins