Day 4 San Juan to Rincon

We got up early and while Sylvia was packing (ugh! men), I walked up the street to another hundred year old city institution for breakfast called La Bombonera. It’s kind of hard to describe as anything other than a diner, but it’s unlike any I’ve ever been to and I’d recommend that anyone who enjoys diners should go there if they’re ever in old San Juan. After breakfast and packing we walked down the street to the Sheraton and picked up the rental car and headed on to Rincon. The drive was thankfully uneventful and we checked into the Lazy Parrot Inn around one o’clock. The Lazy Parrot is small twenty one room inn with a very good restaurant and a small pool bar (Rum Shack) that has its own menu (I think I’m going to like it here). While we waited for our room to be ready, we had lunch at the Rum Shack and chatted with some other guests and were told that we arrived during a major surfing competition. I hadn’t packed my board so I can’t participate, but maybe I’ll enter the Limbo contest as the evening progresses. When our room was ready we took the bags up to the room, did a little drive around town, and went right back to the Rum Shack. We stayed there the rest of the evening and had Sushi for dinner. Since the Lazy Parrot is such a small and cozy place it’s easy to get to know everybody and you have a very friendly atmosphere. This also seems to be a place where locals frequent. Tomorrow we’ll spend more time exploring the area and spend less time at the Rum Shack…yea, right.

I also heard there's going to be some strange event up there. I think it's called snow. I'm not sure what that is but I'm sure you'll let me know.

Day 3 San Juan

The day started off with a walk around the corner to an old Spanish diner for breakfast. It’s called Mallorca and has been around since the forties. I'm pretty sure that the waiters have been there since it opened. It was like going back in time. After a great cup of coffee and a bowl of fruit we walked to several museums. First the Galeria Nacional, then the Museum San Juan. Neither was outstanding, but both were somewhat interesting. We walked around town some more and just took in the atmosphere. We noticed that there were school groups everywhere. Puerto Ricans are very proud of their country and they make sure that children get to know their its history. Old San Juan is a very comfortable city. There are sufficient enough things to do, plenty of good restaurants, extremely pleasant people, and great weather.

For lunch we went up the hill to Aureole on San Sebastian Street where we ate a light lunch consisting of some local appetizers and a small pizza. Once again, the food was good and the service great (and pretty)...a very enjoyable experience. Several hours of wandering the town, including a stop at San Juan Cathedral, brought us back to Lupi’s for an afternoon break at their sidewalk café. After spending quite a bit of time people watching, we noticed that it was easy to identify the tourists from the locals because the tourists were the ones wearing shorts--of course we were too. After Lupi’s, we shopped a bit and headed back to the hotel. We had dinner at La Mallorquina which proclaimed to be the oldest continuously operated restaurant in America. It’s been in operation since 1836. I had a whole grilled red snapper and Sylvia ate an excellent Churrassco steak which is a Spanish styled marinated skirt steak. After dinner we walked the neighborhood and saw that the bars and restaurants were filling up. It was Friday night and the party was on. There were people everywhere and the streets stayed that way until 3 AM. And, no I wasn’t up until three; I just happened to wake up then and looked out the window.

Tomorrow we’re checking out, renting a car, and heading to a small town on the west coast of Puerto Rico called Rincon. We’ve really enjoyed Old San Juan; we’ll probably end up our trip with a few days back here. I had heard San Juan was not a safe place and that there was a lot of crime. We never got that feeling. We walked practically every street in the city and never felt threatened…of course we weren’t out after ten either. I’m sure there are unsafe places in Puerto Rico, but Old San Juan does not appear to be one of them. As I said “we’ll be back”. Like Key West, it’s also nicest when the cruise ships aren’t in port.

Day 2 San Juan

Today was a walking day. According to Sylvia’s pedometer we managed to walk almost ten miles even though it really seemed more like fifteen since we ended up walking for a fairly steady six hours. We started by walking around the bottom of the walls around Morro Castle (old fort), then entered the San Juan Gate and spent the next couple of hours touring the fort and surrounding grounds. The picture on the right shows Morro Castle at the top of the hill. There's a walkway along the water between the water and the wall. It’s truly a pleasant way to spend a few hours (If you double click on the picture you can see people walking next to the wall). There’s a constant warm yet cooling breeze that was very refreshing. I never felt hot. We then walked next to the San Juan wall over to the San Cristobal Castle (another old fort) and wandered around that until lunch time. Both were worth visiting. The history and scenery are equally beautiful. We lunched at St. Germain Bistro, a small place that specialized in fresh fruits, vegetables and breads. We met the owner, a very beautiful young woman, who could not have been more pleasant. The women over here all look like Maria from the movie West Side Story…Sylvia’s about to kill me. By-the-way, the food was pretty good. I had Ceviche again and I forget what what’s-her-name had. After more walking, we stopped for something to quench our parched throats at a tapas place called Toro Salao. We also arranged to pickup a rental car on Saturday to use for the rest of our trip. Prior to dinner we strolled the Princesa Promenade which is a great little tree lined park next to the water that featured large fascinating aerial photographs of the earth. For dinner we chose Sofia, an Italian restaurant that was pretty good. Why anyone surrounded by first-class local food would pick Italian is beyond me, but we did…must be the rum.

Day 1 Solomons to San Juan, Puerto Rico

Ok, it’s cold, so we decided to go to Puerto Rico. I’m not really sure why, but we did. I guess Florida was too easy. Anyhow, we decided to spend the night at a hotel near the Baltimore airport and park the car there for the two weeks we’ll be gone. We got the room and two weeks parking for $115 which was cheaper than just two weeks parking at the airport. We checked in early and drove up to the Canton neighborhood in Baltimore and visited a few of the local establishments. A couple of beers at an Irish pub called Looney’s started us off followed by a stop at a place that Derek recommended called Nacho Mama’s, a Mexican restaurant with a great and very hard to resist menu. One thing I really wanted to try was the Margarita served in an old hub cap that you had to drink with straws…Sylvia was not impressed. I was. After Nacho Mama’s we went next door to a Jessica favorite, Mama’s on the Half Shell. This was our primary destination. We started with oysters on the half shell, followed by a shrimp and grits with tasso ham. The oysters were small, but very good and served very cold with both vinaigrette and cocktail sauces. The shrimp were blackened and placed on top cheese grits with Tasso ham. It didn’t last very long…Sylvia liked them. Feeling fairly full, we were debating on the relative merits of ordering something else as we watched the two guys next to us devour an order of shrimp, mussels, and chorizo in a spicy beer and tomato broth. After catching their breath they told us it was called Beer Mussels. Not to be outdone, we ordered it…very, very good. By then we were hooked, so we split the White Chocolate Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce. I would suggest that anyone going there should try it. We then waddled out to the car and drove back to the hotel. Canton’s a neat little neighborhood to visit if you’re in Baltimore and are hungry and thirsty.

This morning we caught an early flight to San Juan. A cab took us to the Hotel Milano in old San Juan. The hotel is in a great location and is satisfactory (rustic) at best. There are plenty of tourists in old San Juan but not many hotels. We did a quick walk around town and made friends with a local who happened to be the bartender at the Barrachina Bar and Restaurant. It turns out it was in this bar that the Pina Colada was invented. I know this is true because she told me so. The Pina Colada was good even though it was pre-mixed. Another hour of walking and we stopped and had fish ceviche at Lupi’s which is a little bar owned by Ed Figueroa who was a New York Yankee during the same time we lived in New York – the 70s. The ceviche was terrific. For dinner, we walked around town again and settled on a little place up the street called El Restaurante Jibarito. It’s a mostly local family place with complete with screaming kids. Sylvia had real roast pork and I had grouper. Both were good and given enough time in San Juan, I would certainly go back. After another short walk we headed back to the hotel and called it a day. It seemed like a long one.