Sunday: Travel Day
6:30am flight meant an early wake-up call, but of course Dargan had no issues with that. Flight to Houston was uneventful, D slept about half of it, then we had some time in the Club before the second (4-hour) leg to San Juan. Again, Dargan slept for a good 2 hours on the second leg and was in good spirits the rest of the time. He's really a great traveler!
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| Hangin' out in the Club in Houston |
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| Airport selfies |
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| On the shuttle to the rental car |
Once we arrived in San Juan, we had some challenges (to put it nicely) with the rental car... First challenge was finding it and getting there, then they charged us more than we'd been quoted, and then they refused to help us install the car seat for "liability reasons". Grrr. After more than an hour we finally made our way to the hotel. Dargan had run out of patience by this point, and we were all hungry.
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| Happy to be in the hotel room! |
Scott ran to the grocery store while I fed D, then we went to a nearby BBQ restaurant for dinner called Bebo's. We had empanadas, local Medalla beer (equivalent of Bud Light), and each had a mofongo relleno - mashed plantains filled with meat. All was delicious, and even Dargan tried some mofongo!
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| Mofongo relleno |
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| Yes, I'll have one of these! |
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| Not sure about mofongo |
We made it back to the hotel and all crashed - it was a long day! Dargan didn't sleep great and eventually brought him into the bed with us so he could nurse and I could sleep.
Monday: Old San Juan & Bacardi Distillery
After waking up a lot through the night, we thankfully got to sleep in until 8:15ish, ate breakfast and had coffee in the room, got Dargan fed, and headed out to spend the day exploring Old San Juan.
Just a 15 min drive from the hotel, Old San Juan is about half surrounded by the old city walls with 5 gates into the city and 2 forts. The old walls were partially torn down to allow expansion of the city to the southeast, but the castles and some of the gates are still there.
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| Good morning! |
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| Strollin' through the city |
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| Old San Juan |
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| View from the city |
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| Chapel of Christ the Savior, built in 1753-1780 on top of the city walls |
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| Stray cats are everywhere in this city! |
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| One of the city's many squares |
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| Beautiful big trees along the narrow cobblestone streets |
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| Small tile mosaic depicting St. John the Baptist above "formal" city gate - one of five gates into the city. |
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| Just up the hill from the gate was the main church, where travelers would immediately go to give praise and thanks for a safe journey. |
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| Strolling through the city gate |
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| Sentry's outlook tower outside the city gate |
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| Outside the city walls |
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| Map of Viejo San Juan |
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| View of Castillo San Cristobal |
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| At Castillo San Cristobal |
The city is surprisingly hilly, and has lots of brightly colored row houses, kind of like Rainbow Row in Charleston. Dargan loved looking around as we strolled the city, and napped a bit here and there.
We had lunch at
Manolín then took a ferry ride (Dargan's first boat ride!) over to
Cataño back on the mainland where the Bacardi distillery is located (and over 85% of the world's Bacardi rum is produced!). We had an awesome private tour by Jesús, the head tour guide supervisor. Had a beverage to start, then learned the history and rum-making process. It was a great tour!
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| I'm on a boat! |
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| Ready for the tour! |
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| Pre-tour daquiri & mojito |
Straws... new favorite toy!
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| Tanks and tanks of rum |
Afterwards we headed back to town, stopped at a local beer bar for a snack, them had dinner at Café Puerto Rico as recommended by Jesús. More
mofongo for us both (yum!), D and I both tried some yuca, and then back to the hotel. Got D to sleep and then Scott and I had a picnic of beer and dessert on the bathroom floor... That's what happens when you have a single room hotel and the baby is asleep!
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| Beer stop |
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| Gimme dat menu... |
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| Bartender! |
During the night Dargan did much better... Woke up and wanted to party around 1:30, but after that slept til after 5 in the crib! Brought him into our bed after that so we could sleep in some more. Not a bad night!
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| I'll admit, I love waking up next to this sweet face! |
Tuesday: Rainforest Adventures
We did our same morning routine - feed D, shower, have our in-room breakfast and coffee - then headed out to El Yunque Rainforest. We first stopped at the visitors center to get a map and figure out where to go, and of course it rained for 90 seconds when we arrived.
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| Selfie sticks were everywhere |
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| Map of part of the park we explored |
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| Rainforest! |
The entire park is basically a straight road up into the forest with pull-offs for overlooks, waterfalls, and trailheads. We stopped at
Cascada La Coca (La Coca Falls) on the side of the road first, then stopped at the
Torre Yokahu (Yokahu Tower). It was pretty hazy today so we didn't have any good views.
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| La Coca Falls |
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| Lower portion of La Coca falls |
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| Waterfall selfie! |
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| Yokahu Tower |
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| Tower view |
After we hiked out, we drove to the nearby Luquillo Beach kiosks for lunch - there are over 50 of these food stands, restaurants, and shops along the beach. We got some fritters and some other tasty items for lunch.
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| Yay lunch! |
After lunch we went out to the beach and Dargan got his first experience of the ocean!
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| Beach! |
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| Family feets in the sand |
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| First touch of an ocean - not sure what to think. |
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| Hey this is fun! |
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| Just down the beach was a guy with a water jet pack flying around. |
The late afternoon was a combination of attempting to go to a beer bar, having D meltdown in the car, and strolling around San Juan when D finally fell asleep. We stopped for afternoon snacks at Buns (local burger joint) then picked up a To Go order from Bebo's BBQ and brought it back to the hotel for another floor picnic when it became apparent that Dargan was not going to tolerate dinner out.
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| Hotel floor picnic dinner: ropa vieja, arroz con habichuelas, empanadas de carne, Sam Smith nut brown and a laurelwood IPA |
Wednesday: Biking and more Old San Juan
We had a not so great night, so a treat for breakfast was in order with sammiches from the nearby grocery. After the morning routine, Scott took his rented mountain bike for a ride on the trails at José Monagas park. I had planned to hike a bit with D, but he fell asleep in the car on the way to the park so I decided to let him continue napping. He ended up sleeping for almost 1.5 hours while I hung out in the front seat! He woke up, ate, then we wandered a short way down one trail before Scott returned from his ride.
First stop in Old San Juan was Casa Cortés ChocoBar - tried to go on Monday but it was closed, so we made sure to come back. Worth it! I had a chocolate brownies & ice cream dessert, and Scott had a chocolate pastry and some frozen chocolate rum drink. All was delicious!
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| :-D |
Next we walked to the western end of the island to see Castillo Felipe del Morro. It had a huge grassy area in front, old walls to walk along, a cemetery by the shore that you could see from above, and the sun setting with the ocean behind it was just picturesque.
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| Totem pole in a nearby square |
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| Taking "open concept" to the extreme |
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| Neat building with tiled exterior |
It was about 5:30 when we headed away from the castle, so we decided it would be best to grab an early dinner and head home before D decided he'd had enough. We went to Old Harbor Brewing and had a really tasty meal - Scott had grouper, and I had yuca-stuffed chicken breast... Though my favorite part was my side dish of rice with Spanish chorizo!
D got fussy at the end of the meal, so I walked him around outside and he ended up falling asleep. Headed back to the hotel shortly after and called it a day.
Thursday: Beach and Travel Home
Thursday morning we were up early (grrr) and headed out to the beach for our last few hours in PR. The hotel wasn't on the water, but they had a reserved area of the beach (which was only a couple blocks away) with towels, chairs, and umbrellas provided. Dargan enjoyed sitting and playing in the sand, and even had a brief nap after his mid-morning snack.
Once we'd had enough, we went back to the hotel, got cleaned up, and got lunch at a different Bebo's BBQ location on the way to the airport. This Bebo's was more of the side-of-the-road food stand type place, which was really yummy. More roast meats, rice, and beans!
It was almost midnight when we touched down in Greenville, and Dargan was NOT HAPPY about getting woken up again to be put into the car. But... we we're home at last!
