Puerto Rico

As the most famous singer of Puert Rico (Spanish for "rich port") said, here they really are "Livin' La Vida Loca"... Sun, Sea, Music, Good food, and very nice people... 

So we flew in to the warmness of the Caribbean from the cold winter of New England, peeled off our winter clothes and boots right to the sandy beaches and the ice cream.


Day 1 (Dec. 29, 2010) - Why not buy a new car on the way?


We had a morning flight, so we decided that it will be best if we slept near the airport.  And so we packed everything and headed north.  Due to the expected addition to our family we also thought about looking for a bigger car.  After Mom and Dad looked for used cars on the internet, they found a nice one in a dealership not far from the airport. 
And we made our last few miles to the hotel in our new Toyota Siena (and sold the Legacy).  It is much bigger (7 people) - so we call it The "RabinBus" !!


Day 2 (Dec. 30, 2010) - Ola Puerto Rico 


We woke up early, had a small breakfast (left the RabinBus at the hotel parking) and took the shuttle to the airport.  
6 hours and 2655 km (1650 miles / 1434 nautical miles) later we arrived at Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (San Joan).

We haded right to a local restaurant our friend Migel (from Manjares) recommended to us - Bebos.  It is a big palce (open 24 hours) that serves local  food, and if was packed!!  The food was good, and it is a nice place to get to know the local food and the local vibe.

Juan Ponce De Leon

After we eat ,and bought some food and drinks at a small grocery, we headed to the hotel for a good night sleep.  Our hotel was Courtyard San Joan Miramar (Marriott).  A nice hotel which is perfectly located 5 minutes from the old city, and right on the main road in and out of San Joan, on Cll (street) Ponce de León.  


Juan Ponce de León - was a Spanish explorer, who became the first Governor of Puerto Rico. 














Day 3 (Dec. 31, 2010) - Hola Sunshine!!


We woke up to a worm day, put on our short clothes and drove down to the old city of San Joan.  Founded in 1519 by Spanish settlers from Caparra, and named after John the Baptist, it is a beautiful pictures place.  Narrow streets and small houses, each uniquely build and painted. 

We strolled through the old street to plaza colon (Columbus in Spanish).  

From there we proceeded to the Castillo San Cristobal. The largest fortification ever built by the Spanish in the New World. Its construction began in 1634 and in 1983 it was Declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO.

While we were looking at the view of San Joan from the Castillo's wall, a couple approached us and asked if we want to participate in a photo project for the new year. Of course we agreed and here is the result (daddy took the last picture...of the photographer).

Inside the walls we meet a nice animal (a prove that dinosaurs really existed)

Day 4 (Jan. 1, 2011) - What is going on?


We woke up and thought we'll go out of the city to visit two close by sits.
Luis A. Ferre Science Park (Bayamon) : It looked promising with planetarium, physics museum, electrical energy museum, rocket plaza, transportation museum, aerospace museum and a zoo.  But it was closed for renovation...
The second place we wanted to see was La Marquesa Forest Park (Guaynabo).
And guess what? ...It was closed !!


To be honest, we didn't do our homework right.  Puerto Rico celebrates the new year on January 6th, "El Dia De Reyes" (three kings day - Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar).  The day when the Three Wise Men following the star to Bethlehem, arrived bearing their treasured gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for the Baby Jesus.  




As most of the touristic attractions (mainly parks) are government owned, many of them are closed from January 1st until after the 6th. And since the 6th was Wednesday, they just took few more days off, and weren't opened until the next Monday (when we were long gone from the island).
Anyway, since we didn't have a lot to do, we headed to the beach...

As you all know, we love to eat and the sea made us even hungrier. So we took the recommendation of our guide book (which by the way is great book for Puerto Rico - Fodor's) and went eating at Lolita's. It was very good!


Day 5 (Jan. 2, 2011) - Down South


Ponce - the capital of the south - was founded in 1692 by Loíza Ponce de León (the great-grandson Juan Ponce de León). The city is also known as "La Perla del Sur" (pearl of the south), "La Ciudad de los Leones" (city of lions) and "Ciudad Señorial" (majestic city), because of its many beautiful neoclassical buildings and facades. 


The main attraction in the city is the old plaza - Plaza de las Delicias.  As in many cities, the plaza has a nice fountain and a cathedral.  The plaza is also surrounded by many beautiful houses. No doubt it is a beautiful place, but we were very disappointed. Again it might be we came at the wrong time. But it seams that outside of the plaza, the rest of the surrounding was abandoned. The stores seamed to be permanently closed, and the buildings deserted.

We didn't spend too much time in Ponce, and soon after we arrived we headed to a much nicer town, or maybe a village - San Germain. With out a doubt the nicest place we visited in the island, and where we ate the best food - Tapas cafe. 

  

Before starting the way back to San Joan, we stopped to enjoy the southern sea. We read that the beaches in Guanica are among the nicest in Puerto Rico, and since we were in the neighborhood, we wanted to check them out. Indeed they are beautiful... we spent some time there, swam and played in the sand...

Day 6 (Jan. 3, 2011) - History lesson 


After our long day in the car yesterday, we though it would be a good idea to stay in the city today. We headed to the old city to visit the second fortress, and the more  - Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which is named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. The fortress, which its contraction started in 1539, was the main defense of San Joan, and is still active until 1961 when the U.S. Army moves out of the forts of Old San Juan. in 1983 it was also declared a World Heritage.

Inside the fort we saw a movie about its history. It was super interesting, and described the different attempts by different superpowers to occupy Puerto Rico (as it is the gate to the Caribbeans. England, Holland, Denmark tried to take over the fortress and the city, without success. Until in 1898 the US bombed the fort, and occupied the island. 

Today, the park around the fort is the number one kite flying location in San Joan...

We left the fortress heading back to the city for lunch, when we saw a few kids playing in the fountain- we joined them....

Day 7 (Jan. 4, 2011) - Run Forest Run


One of the main attractions in Puerto Rico is EL Yunque the island's biggest rain forest. just under an hour drive from San Juan, the view is outstanding. 

Day 8 (Jan. 5, 2011) - You gotta be kidding me 


We really wanted to see the La Marquesa Forest Park which was closed the first time we came. So we drove all the way there again. And - you guessed right, it was closed !!! 
So like good tourists we went to the outlets to cool down a little (it's air conditioned). We had a small lunch and then dad said he wants to see Gulliver's travels - so we did, it was nice.

day 9 (Jan. 6, 2011) -  At least we ate some great ice cream


Today we headed to the central area of the island, to see three big attractions:

• Rio Camuy cave park - sculpted by the underground river from which it derives its name, were only discovered in 1958 and haven’t yet been fully surveyed.

• Arecibo Observatory - which  is operated by Cornell University under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The observatory was also filmed in the movies GoldenEye (James Bond), Contact, Species and The Losers, It also featured in the novels The Listeners (James Gunn), Rollback (Robert J. Sawyer), and The Sparrow (Mary Doria Russell).       Scientists use the Arecibo Observatory discovered the first extrasolar planets around the pulsar B1257+12 in 1992. The observatory also produced detailed radar maps of the surface of Venus and Mercury and discovered that Mercury rotated every 59 days instead of 88 days and so did not always show the same face to the Sun. American astronomers Russell Hulse and Joseph H. Taylor, Jr., used Arecibo to discover the first binary pulsar. They showed that it was losing energy through gravitational radiation at the rate predicted by physicist Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and they won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1993 for their discovery.

• Lago Dos Bocas - a man made lake (1942).

But as you already know - they were ALL closed !! 


We did not give up and tried one more place. It was open, and we had one of the best Ice Creams we ever tasted. Most visit in PR !!! Heladería de Lares (Lares Ice Cream Parlo) - Lecaroz Street Lares.

Famous ice cream store located in the town square of Lares. The ice cream store was founded in 1968 by Salvador Barreto (commonly known as "Yinyo") and serves over 1,000 flavors of ice cream. The flavors range from traditional ones (vanilla, strawberry and chocolate) to exotic ones (rum, corn, meat and chicken).

day 10 (Jan. 7, 2011) - Taking it easy


Well it's our last day on here, so we went to the pool and strolled a little in the old city. We drove by a synagogue a few times going from one place to another, and thought that this would be a good time to see if it's open and maybe visit. It was open and we meet the person who runs the place. He told us a little about the Jewish community in San Joan, and apparently, as everywhere in the world, there is a relatively big community...  

 

Day 11 (Jan. 8, 2011) - It's all over babe

One last day in Puerto Rico, what can you do...So we walked around a little and found this great graffiti 

Day 12 (Jan. 9, 2011) - Back to the Ice Age 


Just before heading to the airport we stopped to visit El Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (the museum of contemporary art). A privet non-profit museum, located in an old high school that shown local artists' work. 
Well every good thing must come to an end, and so did our lovely vacation. We landed in Connecticut in a chilly evening, right to a snow storm a few days later - back to business.  


Here some more photos