Matt and I took a quick trip to Puerto Rico with our friends from Minneapolis. We spent a night in San Juan (one of my favorite cities on earth), and then a couple nights in a condo on the beach in Rincón, a town that I promptly fell in love with. You can never spend too much time in Puerto Rico.
Here’s the entire photoset on Flickr.
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Matt and I had left home after work on Wednesday and driven up to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale, since we had an early flight to San Juan. It turns out the La Quinta near FLL is a great deal – it’s cheap, has free breakfast and a shuttle to the airport 10mn away, and they let you park your car in their lot for up to two weeks. We’ll definitely be doing that again in the future.
One of the benefits of our move much farther south – it’s now only a little over 2-hour flight to San Juan. We landed around noon and took a cab into town. Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we left our bags at the Hotel Plaza de Armas. I’d forgotten that we’d stayed there before, because it has a different name – it used to be a HoJo. Nothing much had changed, and while the rooms were totally fine, they have no windows. Do not stay in a room with no windows or you’ll never be able to wake up in the morning. It was just one night, thankfully.
San Juan was decorated for the holidays in festive fashion. I love it.
We needed lunch right away, so I suggested checking one of the side streets nearby where I’d seen tables set up in the street on previous visits. We found a cute little place with Mexican food, so we sat down for tacos and Medallas.
After lunch, we walked down to the city gate. It was gorgeous outside, and even warmer than in Florida.
The city is so picturesque it kills me. I want to spend so much more time there.
If you’ve wandered around San Juan, you’ve probably noticed that the streets are blue-tinted cobblestones. (You’ve probably almost broken an ankle on one of them, too.) They’re called adoquines, and they started out as furnace slag in Spain that was then used as ship ballast. Over time they’ve weathered into this color. They’re threatened by car traffic, which is one of the many reasons it would be awesome if Old San Juan banned cars.
I think it’s funny that the facade of the cathedral is perfectly spotless, but the rest looks pretty weathered. (I mean, it’s the oldest cathedral in the western hemisphere, so we can cut it some slack.)
Here’s El Batey, one of the greatest bars on earth. I had to stop and get a picture of it during the day.
This guy seemed pretty chill:
Our friends’ flight was arriving fairly soon, so Matt and I decided to go have a drink at the bar in El Convento. The former convent, now the fanciest hotel in OSJ, is a mere 356 years old. Their central courtyard seems to always be empty, which is kind of amazing. We grabbed seats at the bar, ordered papaya-ginger mojitos, and sat talking to the super-awesome bartender. He gave us samples of his coquito, the traditional Puerto Rican Christmas drink. It’s like eggnog, but better.
Kris and Orsi found their way over to the hotel and joined us at the bar. We hung out there for a while, and then decided to walk down the block to La Barrachina, the restaurant that claims to have invented the pina colada.
Post-colada, we walked down the hill to get dinner at Old Harbor Brewery. I don’t love their food there, but their beers are decent and they had a vegetarian option, which is something. After dinner, we walked back up the hill to a cocktail bar Matt had heard about recently. It was billed as a speakeasy, which made it hard to find, because it wasn’t really hidden at all. OK, there’s a different bar’s sign on the wall, but still.
La Factoria was hopping, but we managed to get a table in the corner. Their cocktails were pretty excellent, too, but there wasn’t anything especially Puerto Rican about it. It was like any city bar anywhere. After a couple drinks there, it was time for the main event: El Batey.
We drank rum and Medalla, and played a half-assed partial game of Moby Dick and then dominoes. Orsi wrote their names on the wall, and I left a Key West sticker in the bathroom. It’s important to leave your mark at El Batey.
Then it was time to go sleep in our dark, windowless hotel rooms, so we could head out of town in the morning.
We got up Friday morning (painfully, since the lack of windows made it seem like it was 3am), and hauled our stuff downstairs on the slowest, tiniest elevator in the world. (It’s the kind with the two gates you have to pull shut yourself.) We found Kris and Orsi’s stuff sitting in the lobby, and Kris texted that they were getting the car. Matt and I walked over to Plaza de Armas. Kris said they were bringing coffee, but the plaza booth sold mallorcas.
I love this giant Christmas tree in the middle of the plaza. At night it’s fantastic.
You see the three wise men all over San Juan. We didn’t figure out what this was about until we got home. Apparently they like to hand out gifts to kids on the 12th night, the Noche de Reyes, when the reyes magos visit.
They arrived with the car and coffee, Matt arrived with the mallorcas, and we were off to Rincón.
Our first destination on our journey was La Ruta de Lechón, i.e. the pork highway. Matt had wanted to go there since he’d learned of its existence long ago, but obviously I was less than excited about visiting a road full of restaurants dedicated to pork. But we figured since there were now three meat eaters, we had to visit. Plus I kind of wanted to see it. (I had lunch backup in my bag just in case.)
When you exit the highway toward Guavate, you end up on a narrow road that winds up and down through the hills. There are restaurants and bars the entire way, and they all specialize in one thing: whole roasted suckling pig, the kind you have to start cooking at midnight the previous day. The lechoneras are up all night, and the places open when the meat is done. And it’s every single place.
For a while there’s a restaurant every half-mile or so, but if you keep going you’ll get to Guavate, which is an ENTIRE TOWN made up of lechón restaurants. It was amazing.
We parked and wandered down the block to find an ATM. We grabbed Medallas and stood around gawking at the sights. Then we went into El Rancho Express, since Kris had read that they were one of the recommended stops. It turns out they just have a pre-made plate, so they decided to cross over to El Rancho Original instead, where they could pick out all the meat they wanted.
The guys went to stand in the food line, and Orsi and I went to get beers and grab a table. We took note of the giant SANGRIIIA sign on the building across the street, because we’d seen that same banner at every single place along the way. (It was even more amusing knowing it’s made by a company called Gasolina, and comes in a pouch like Capri-Sun.)
Matt and Kris arrived with a giant spread that included various kinds of pig and pig skin, turkey, blood sausage, rice and peas, and roasted yam. And Sangriiia, of course. (Sadly, not in a pouch.) I was thrilled, because the rice and peas and yam were really good and I didn’t have to get out my Suncake.
While we ate, we watched the entertainment in the covered area next to us. It was full of picnic tables, and had a big stage where a couple of old guys were singing and playing. We didn’t know exactly what he was singing about, but one of the guys on stage had the old ladies swooning. People were dancing and singing along. It was fantastic. Every restaurant seemed to have their own version of that, too.
After lunch, we got back in the car and headed back to the highway toward Ponce. We hadn’t visited the western half of Puerto Rico before, but the landscape was really familiar since we’d flown over it on the way to and from Vieques. It’s very rural, with rolling hills and a constant view of the ocean.
We exited in Ponce, because Kris had a few stops there on his list. He told us there was a place called Cafe Cafe and another called Ponce Ponce. We found one of them (I don’t even remember which), and went in for coffee and beer. The other place didn’t exist. I think he was making the whole thing up.
Ponce is an adorable little town. (It’s actually second-largest in PR, but the historic downtown is small.) It has the same narrow streets as San Juan, and gorgeous old buildings. The town centers around a large square that features the Parque de Bombas. I’d seen photos of it before, but it was still kind of shocking to see sitting there. It’s such a weird, awesome building.
There’s a museum inside, with this awesome smoking goat in the lobby. (Note the cop not wanting to be photographed in the background.)
We did a lap of the square, picked up some souvenirs, and then headed down a pedestrian side street toward the town market that Kris had read about. The shops along the street were all kind of shady-looking, like stuff that fell off the back of a truck. We found the market, but it was closed. We couldn’t tell if it was closed for the day (it was mid-afternoon) or for renovations, but it seemed like the latter. I’d really like to go back and see it at some point, because it looked awesome. Also, Ponce was really cute.
We walked back to the car and headed toward Rincón. The highway was pretty fast until we hit Mayaguez, which appeared to be a town entirely made up of about 250 car dealerships and the brewery that makes Medalla and its much-crappier cousin, Silver Key. It took forever, between the traffic and the stoplights, since it was rush hour time. We finally made it to the far side of town where the turnoff for Rincón was, and found that the road was closed.
So we got to sit in more traffic, and finally got to the alternate route. From there, it wasn’t far into town. From the second we saw it, I knew we were going to like Rincón.
Orsi had rented a condo for us that was right across the street from the main beach. We drove through the tiny downtown and found the condo complex about a half-mile away. It was indeed across the street from the Balneario de Rincón.
They were quicker into the condo and claimed the master bedroom, so we were stuck with the room with the double bed, and bunk bed. The bunk bed was at least queen-sized, and ended up being fine. It’s a miracle neither of us got a concussion, though.
We unpacked and sat out on the patio while the sun set over the beach. We noted that there was some music and activity at the building right next to the beach, so we decided we’d need to check that out later.
We then went back down to the car and headed into town. We stopped at the grocery store to get supplies for our stay there (stuff to make breakfast, mixers, and snacks). Of course it took us forever to shop because people kept wandering off. After that, we went into the little downtown. The main square was all decorated for Christmas, and was adorable.
We stopped into Rincón Beer Company, where we got a table out on the sidewalk. Unfortunately they didn’t have any of their own beers on tap at the moment, but they had a good selection from other breweries (plus cocktails, and a small food menu).
After a couple rounds there, it was time to get dinner. We decided on La Cambija, because it had really good reviews. I was a little wary because it was a seafood restaurant, but it turned out they could make a few things vegetarian. (If there’s a note about it on the menu, that’s always a good sign.) Their mojitos were good, and the food was excellent. Plus it was just down the block from our condo.
After dinner, we stopped into the little restaurant/bar next door because they had a sign advertising that they sold ice, and the icemaker in our freezer didn’t work. Of course it just made sense to get a beer while were there, so we ended up sitting at the bar talking to the super-nice girl who worked there for a long time. Her name was Stefania, and she was Colombian. (Her English was excellent, and she told us she liked having the excuse to practice.) A couple guys we assumed were local came in, and Kris overheard them saying something about Minnesota, so he asked. It turned out that one of them lived in Maple Grove part-time, so he ended up being mercilessly hassled over that. Before they left, they gave us advice on other places to go in town, but the gist of it was “wait til it’s really late, drink a lot, get in your car, and drive up some winding mountain roads til you find a club”. So that wasn’t going to happen.
We said bye to Stefania and walked over to see what the music was about at the beach bar. It turned out to be a tiny hut with a big patio space full of tables, where old people hung out drinking cheap beer and singing karaoke. It was fantastic.
We grabbed a beer, then went back to the condo to play dominoes on the patio.
Sunday morning, I got up and did the dishes while waiting for Matt to get up. Kris and Orsi wanted to go to the market in town, so I told them to go do that and I would hang out. I discovered that the coffeemaker was useless, so when Matt woke up, he and I walked into town to get coffee. It was really hot outside – much warmer than Key West.
We walked through the market and I wished we had more time to spend there. It was really nice.
We got coffee and walked back to the condo using the shortcut past the baseball fields. Kris and Orsi showed up downstairs, so we closed everything up and took the bags down to meet them. We got on the road back to San Juan.
We had some time to kill before our flight, so we went into Miramar to get lunch. Matt wanted to go to Soda, but we found it closed. There was a big street market going on there, too, so we walked through it and found Bartola right down the street. They had really awesome Mexican food, even though the band outside together with the music inside led to a giant cacophony every time the door opened onto the street.
Post-lunch, we headed to the airport. Kris and Orsi were staying another night in Old San Juan, but they wanted to drop the car off since it’s a pain to have in town. They dropped us off at the airport, and we headed to our uneventful flight back to Fort Lauderdale.
We arrived around 6, and had to take the shuttle to the hotel in order to get our car. It didn’t take too long, thankfully. We jumped on the highway and headed south, stopping only to grab sandwich makings at Publix in Key Largo. It was a long drive in the dark back to Key West, but we made really good time and arrived home shortly after 11pm. Flying out of FLL isn’t the ideal setup, but since Southwest is generally cheap it’s kind of a fair tradeoff.
Saturday, I got up and Kris was crabby because we’d forgotten half of the ingredients we needed for a proper breakfast. We decided to go into town, get more groceries, and stop at the coffeeshop/bakery we’d noticed the night before. Matt was still asleep, so we left him a note.
We spent way too much more time at the grocery store, and then he dropped Orsi and I off at the cute hipster coffee shop while he circled. They didn’t really have breakfast stuff, though – mostly just cupcakes – so we just grabbed coffee for everyone and went to the car, then went back to the condo where Kris complained about making breakfast, even though that was the plan all along. (He won’t let anyone help, either.)
Then it was finally beach time. What a glorious beach it was.
We had it nearly to ourselves, and spend a very long time just bobbing around in the water drinking beer or Sangriiia packets that Kris launched from the beach. There was a seagull hanging out on a buoy, so I had to take the time to swim out to it and try to punch him off of it. (He flew away before I got there. Jerk.)
Once we had depleted our beer supplies and finished swimming, we went back to the condo and hung out in the pool for a bit, then headed upstairs to change. After that, we jumped in the car and drove the few miles to the Rincón lighthouse.
There was a big park surrounding it, with great views of the surfing beaches in the area. It’s hard to see in the photos, but there were a ton of surfers out that day. Also, the beaches were gorgeous.
It’s kind of amazing that there’s a good swimming beach located that near surfing spots. Usually you find those things on opposite sides of an island.
From there, we drove up into the hills above Rincón. (Our Minnesotan pal had told us the bars were down that way, so we figured we’d drive around and see what we found. On top of a big hill, we found a bar/surf shop with a good view of the ocean. It was across the street from this road sign, the awesome symbol of Rincón. (There’s nothing interstate about that main road.)
We had mojitos and tostones, and hung out for a while. Then we got back in the car and headed into town. Matt and Kris went back to the brewery, and Orsi and I went to do some shopping in town. Most of the stores were already closed, but I found a really cute woven purse and a Rincón sign at a cute shop run by a lady who split time between Puerto Rico and Hawaii. I thought we had it pretty good, but damn.
We joined them for a beer, and then took the car back to park it at the condo. We were there with just enough time to grab some Medallas and head to the beach for sunset.
Kris joined the Medalla ad campaign:
And here it is post-sunset. I really love that beach.
From there, we walked down to the far end of the beach to a little shopping area called Sunset Village. There was a big restaurant there named The Harbor, where we got a table out on the patio near the bar. They appeared to have a nice waterfront/beach there, but it was hard to see at night.
I was excited that their vegetable mofongo was actually really good, as were their mojitos. Everyone else had seafood. A band started setting up near the entrance, and eventually began playing Puerto Rican music. After a couple songs, they launched into Sweet Child of Mine. Awesome.
Post-dinner, we decided we needed to go back to the old-guy karaoke bar at the beach, but Orsi and I decided that first we needed to stop and say bye to Stefania and have a drink at her bar before we did so. Of course one drink with Stefania turned into three drinks and shots made by her boyfriend the chef. Then we headed to the karaoke bar, where we drank crappy beer and danced, trying not to fall over in flipflops.
And then, it was well past time to head back to the condo and sleep, since we had to get back to San Juan the next day.