Puerto Rico Part 3 (Catano, Old San Juan, Vieques, Isla Verde)

Short hiatus from blogging due to the lack of internet access from Vieques. More on that later. A little tired from the past few days and covered on parts of my body with evil mosquito bites which look horrible. Eeeks. So, here's just a (sort of) brief run through of the past few days events.

Monday, 24 December 2007
We took a quick brunch at Wendys before boarding bus B21 from our hotel to Old San Juan. Hopped on a ferry from Pier 2 towards the town of Catano, where we visited the largest Bacardi rum distillery in the world. Interesting tour of the place and the bonus was that it was free with 2 free drink tickets! Needless to say, I fully utilized them (and one additional one from Ted). Raspberry with Barcardi Green Apple, Coke with Barcadi Coke and lime, and Barcadi 8 (Bacardi aged for 8 years) on the rocks. Kinda early in the day for drinks, but oh well, whatever...

Bacardi Classic Galore

Bacardi Store

Cuba Libra (Bacardi and Coke)

Took the ferry back into Old San Juan and went to Polo Ralph, where I bought a pair of much-needed chinos. We also went to Marshalls where I got a pair of much-needed dress shoes since my old pair was nearly totally worn out. Took a short detour to San Juan Gate and Hard Rock Cafe (San Juan) before having dinner. I had Mofongo with Fried Pork at Mojitos, and headed back for an early night.

Mofongo and Fried Pork at Mojitos

Tuesday, 25 December 2007
Woke up at 7am in the morning, packed up and left San Juan Beach Hotel on a cab towards Fajardo. Here, we boarded the 9am ferry to the island of Vieques. Vieques was a former US military base and has since been evacuated, becoming a tropical island paradise.

On board the ferry enroute to Vieques

Out at Sea

After getting to Esperenza and checking into our hotel (guesthouse) Amapola Inn, we headed down the street to check out the area. Ran into a helpful couple from Seattle, Stan and his wife Jean, who offered to help us around. Showed us the way and gave us some useful advice on the island. Delighted to have met them! Had lunch, which was an awesome egg and bacon salad wrap with potato salad at Duffy's. One of the best food I had since I got to Puerto Rico.

Egg and bacon salad wrap

Stan and his wife offered to drive us to Sun Bay Beach, where we hung out for the afternoon, basking in the sun an enjoying the crystal clear waters. I couldn't resist the sea and jumped right in. Absolute bliss.

Sun Bay Beach


We headed back to our hotel at around 5:30pm or so, getting ready for our night trip to the bio-luminiscence bay, the brightest of its kind in the world. The bay got its name because of the presence of high concentrations of dinoflagellates (damn, I actually learnt that in my coral reefs class!) which glowed when they were touched as part of their defence mechanism. We signed up with Blue Caribe Kayak Tours, which drove us to the launch off point and hopped into our kayaks, pedalling into the deepest part of the lake before plunging into the water in the dark! It was the most AMAZING experience in my life! When we hopped into the water, the sky was dark and it was filled with stars! I've never seen so many stars in the sky before in my life. Floating in the water with our life vests, lying back to watch the stars. It was simply unbelievable. Wriggling my wrists around and kicking the water a little made my hands and feet light up due to the dinoflagellates. Staying for a little longer in the cold water, we also got the chance to watch the moon rise! Another first, and definitely one of the most beautiful sights I've seen. A totally out-of-this-world experience.

Following the bio-bay tour, we got showered and changed out, before having dinner at Bili restaurant, which was the restaurant at the entrance to the guesthouse which we were staying at. The food was simply amazing. I don't even know how to describe it. We only knew after that the chef was voted one of the top 4 chefs in Puerto Rico by Food and Wine magazine, and was formerly a chef cooking exclusively for the governor of Puerto Rico!
Had a short drink of passionarita (I think) at Duffy's, basically passion fruit margarita before heading to bed. I didn't sleep well that night, got attacked big time by mosquitoes, resulting in huge ugly bites/boil-looking things on my arms and back. Argh...

Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Woke up late today, going to Belly Buttons down the road for brunch. Nice alfresco dining at a decent price. Ted and Jianwei went to use the internet and I went to grab a drink (Sato) at Banana's (the bar/restaurant next to our guesthouse). Pretty nice, icy drink. At 2pm, Jianwei and I went over the Blue Caribe to meet up with our guide, who led us on kayaks out to a small island a couple of hundred meters away. We beached our kayaks, donned our snorkel masks and headed for the reefs. Beautiful to see the undersea life again; it's been almost 4 years since I last had the chance to snorkel. We saw a couple of interesting sea creatures and corals, a stingray, sea urchin, amongst many other fish.

Bananas: Where I got my Sato

After the snorkelling trip, I went to take a nap on the jetty, sleeping on the pier and enjoying the sun. Jumped off the jetty into the water when it got hot. The sand underneath was so fine and the water was totally clear. Really beautiful to swim and walk along the jetty in the sea. After washing up, we took an evening stroll over to La Dulce, a local bakery for some locally baked pastry. I had this cream-cheese filled puff called quesitos, which tasted really awesome. Loved every bit of it.

Sunset seen from Esperenza

Best Quesitos ever

We had dinner at El Quenpo, which was a pretty classy and yet, casual resturant. The food was rather pricey but the sirlon steak which I had was really good too. A nicely tossed salad on top, sliced medium-well sirlon steak, sambal-chilli tasting herbs, minced meat with spices, mozerella cheese and a slice of french loaf on the bottom. Awesome. Also had a glass of sangria (red wine, washinton apples, citrius, cognac), which tasted equally awesome.

Dinner at Le Quenepo

One of the best Sirlon I've ever had

House Sangria

Jianwei's Dessert

Classy, yet laid back and just gorgeous

As it was still pretty early after we were done with dinner, we headed over toe the jetty and hung around, listening to the waves and seeing the fish dart around the jetty in the clear waters. Later in the night, we ran into Stan and Jean again while watching a performance on the street. There was a group which had set up their loudspeakers and drums, singing and playing music on the street, with local folks and tourists dancing to the catchy tunes. It felt like we were back in the 60s, with no other form of entertainment other than street performances.

Sitting at the jetty

Us and Stan, with his wife Jean

Thursday, 27 December 2007
We got up early this morning, walking over to La Dulce, for coffee and pastry. Followed that with a brief breakfast at Belly Buttons before bidding our farewell to the island, taking the long and kinda stuffy ferry ride back to Fajardo.

Breakfast at Belly Buttons

Outside our room

Just outside Amapola Inn

La Nasa (cheap beer! $1.25 Medalla!)

Another long cab ride and we finally got to our hotel, Coral by the Sea. Used the net for awhile, clearing up some emails and blowing some time on facebook before we headed out for a walk to the beach on Isla Verde. The beach was a lot more like the typical view you would see on Miami beach. Deck chairs lining the beach for rent, surfers, swimmers, people playing beach volleyball. A totally different sight from the beach in Vieques. Interesting to see it though.

Isla Verde Beach

Another shot at Isla Verde Beach

Hotels lining the shore

Dinner was a good and pretty decently priced meal at Mi Casita, a Puerto Rican/American restaurant down the road. I had stuffed chicken with rice and beans (rice and beans is the Puerto Rican staple; I have grown to like it a lot). Great food.

Stuffed Chicken, with rice and beans

Bought 2 cans of Medella (oops) and here I am, blogging in my room and watching the Holiday Bowl, where Texas is now dominating Arizona State University (ASU). Go Longhorns! (only when you are not playing us)

Oh well, better get to bed soon. Leaving for another island, Culebra tomorrow. Flemenco Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Probably not going to get internet connection again, so until then, take care!

P.S. To friends who are fighting their own battles and challenges halfway around the world, jiayou.

Puerto Rico Part 2 (Condado, Old San Juan)

Hey, into my forth day (forth night really) here in Puerto Rico. Time is really flying by pretty quickly. The weather here is hot and wonderful. Scorching hot. A welcome change from the snow and ice. Onto the events over the past 2 days.

Saturday, 22 December 2007
Shot out of bed in the morning to go rush to return the car to Avis and barely made it on time to avoid the penalty. We went to grab brunch at a nearby Puerto Rican 24 hour diner. Rice and beans (a Puerto Rican staple) and some roast chicken, as well as excellent thick Puerto Rican coffee. We waited for a super long time (almost an hour) for the bus into Old San Juan.

View from the window of our hotel room

Finally made it in and went to visit one of the greatest pieces or architecture in the Carribean, the Castillo San Felipe del Morro. It was built hundreds of years ago strategically by the Spanish as a fortress to protect their intests in the Carribean. Ingenuious architecture and a wonderful view. Truly worthy of it's title as a World Heritage Site designated by the UN. Took a ton of photos of the fort and the surrounding area. Completely wowed.

Castillo San Filipe del Morro

Just look at that fort...

Path to the grand fort

View of Old San Juan from the canon placement

We took a walk around Old San Juan, passing by the "White House" Museum, the Church of San Juan (closed for renovation/restoration since 2005, the second oldest religous structure in the New World), numerous plazas and the old town. Love the feel of the town and it's architecture. We also visited this plaza, Parque Las Palomas, which was an old canon emplacement, turned into a park where hundreds of pigeons now reside. Took some awesome photos of the sunset and also kids having fun feeding the pigeons. Absolute classics.

Old San Juan

San Jose Church: Second oldest religious structure in the New World

Parque Las Palomas

Dad and daughter feeding the pigeons

Picture-perfect

A nice poem I chanced across

Dinner was at a small restaurant down the road, over-priced and kinda crappy. Rice with seafood and some lousy red wine. Not exactly a very memorable meal. We headed back to our hotel after dinner.

Dinner at a small restaurant

The Governor's house

Jianwei and I got changed and headed back into Old San Juan again, deciding to check out the party / nightlife in the city. The place was definitely transformed into another creature at night, with throngs of trendily dressed Puerto Ricans all ready to party the night away. Feeling a little underdressed, we settled into a small pub tended by a old amiable guy and a friendly girl who gave us directions to a club (which we didn't enter) earlier in the night. Bacardi Green Apple with Raspberry tastes pretty good. Headed back to the hotel and grabbed another drink (since it was still kind of early) at the beach bar, yet again. Had a green apple martini, which was decidedly better than the mojito I had the night before.

Sunday, 23 December 2007
Slept in pretty late today, waking up around 10am. We went into Old San Juan for good old (cheap) MacDonalds breakfast. After breakfast, we headed back to the San Juan Cathedral, checking out the amazing stained glass and set up in the Cathedral. Arrived there just before the morning mass ended so it was a good time to visit. We actually passed by the Cathedral on Saturday but didn't realize it was the one because there were a couple of weddings going on (I even took pictures of that without knowing the place was San Juan Cathedral).

The Altar

Entrance with Stained Glass

Walking past a nice Puerto Rican pastry shop / cafe, I decided to go in and grab some pastry. It was pretty cheap, a dollar a piece. Didn't realize until I saw the newspaper clippings on the wall that this was the famous La Bombonera, which had been around since 1907! Nice pastries, pity we didn't stay there to have their reputedly best coffee in the world.

Pastries at La Bombonera

In early afternoon, we visited the other fortress, which was built for land defense to complement the del Morro, Fort San Cristobal. This was in fact, a bigger fort compared to the del Morro but was significantly less crowded. Amazing architecture and engineering ingenuinty, from the defensive structural designs, to the utility functions (ventilation ducts, underground cisterns which held more than 700 thousand gallons of rain water, underground tunnel networks).

Fort San Cristobal
Elaborate tunnel networks

Inscriptions on the walls in a jail call by mutinous Spanish Captain, who was later excecuted in del Morro
On the top-wall of Fort San Cristobal

Fine architecture within the Fort

With the heat getting to us, we headed into the heart of Old San Juan once again, taking a much-needed break in Starbucks. Ice latte from Starbucks on a hot day just rocks totally!

Ice cold cafe latte

Continuing on our exploration, we went to San Juan Gate, which was a symbolic entrance to the city in the 18th and 19th century. Note that almost the entire Old San Juan is walled up / fortified with high, thick walls. It was a beautiful stroll along the shore, along the base of the walls of del Morro. As we were there in late afternoon, we managed to catch the sunset when we reached the end ofthe path. It was stunning. I probably took almost 100 photos on that walk. Jianwei went to Hard Rock Cafe to grab his shirt before we headed off for dinner.

San Juan Gate

Walls surrounding Old San Juan

San Juan Gate and the City Walls

From the base of the walls of Castillo San Felipe del Morro

Sentry post looking out into the sea

Series of sunset photos





Night view of San Juan Gate and the city

Trusting the travel guide, we decided to go off elsewhere to Piñones. We realized something was amiss when we got on and he quoted us 25 bucks for the ride to Piñones, but we went along with it. Ended up in a pretty local dining area, Reef Bar and Grill, located by the sea. The place was filled with locals and a pretty shady crowd. Ate our dinner and left soon after. Misadventure I would say. Will probably put more thought into planning such stuff on the fly going forward.

Reef Bar and Grill

After dinner at Reef Bar and Grill


Jianwei and I went to try to grab groceries after we got back but the shop was already closed, so we strolled around and wound up our trip (once again) at the beach bar, having a light drink. I must say, Puerto Rico's local beer, Medalla is really good.

Phew, that was a pretty long blog. Will probably go into less detail going forward. Some trivia for those who are interested, this is the 200th post on this blog.

For my friends/family who are in Singapore / Asia, here's wishing you guys an early Merry Christmas. Best wishes for the festive season. To the people who are important to me, and I hope you know who you are, I extend to you my very best wishes...