Puerto Rico Day 1
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| PR City View from El Morro Fort |
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| 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 =)
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| 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
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| 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.
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| Streets of old San Juan |
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| Governors mansion |
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| The yellow one is the smallest house in Northern hemispheres |
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| The city hall |
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| 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.
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| El Morro |
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| Fort of San Cristobal |
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| 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!
