December 6, 2014
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| Old San Juan (Photo by MJ) |
I traveled to Puerto Rico this weekend with some of my
favorite people! We landed in San Juan Saturday afternoon without a sketched
plan. The wind blew us over to the car rental building and Hertz quoted us an
affordable price. With a map and a compass (and 5 phones without service)… we
were off!! After a quick U-turn and realizing that my compass was, in fact,
broken [ :-/ ]… we buzzed through the non-touristic part of town (pretending we
knew where we were going) and left quicker than we arrived.
One in Old San Juan, we strolled through the streets. It
reminded me a lot of France with the cobble stone floors, narrow passage ways,
and musicians in the street performing for dining tourists. Since our stomachs
were starting to eat themselves, we eagerly approached the food trucks on the street
by the port. Before arriving, I was dreaming of fresh fish, steamy paella, and
fresh fruit juices. To my dismay, all of the options were fried, meats, or
processed sugars. The hunt for a place to feed two vegetarians (and three
meaty-eaters) continued up the streets and through the crowds who were enjoying
what seemed to be a food festival. .jpg)
We landed upon Greengos--- a “Mexican-American” restaurant that felt more like the USA than some places in the US. It must have been good because we returned there twice more, a couple hours later, for more mango drinks and burritos.The rest of the night started with a walk through the whole town and ended with dancing in the streets to a band. (That was the second time this week that I had to dance to Latin music. Secret #1—I can’t dance).
Sunday morning we woke up, piled in the car, and drove south
towards El Yunque National Forest—the only rain forest in the USA (according to
Leslie). The car swirled up the little mountains past the greenery (the bamboo
were HUGE!) and stopped at an awesome waterfall on the side of the road.  |
| Gotta love those trees! |
We
drove further up to a path that, by foot, takes you to another waterfall. The path
rose and fell, swirled and surprised until 4 steps lead you to the rocks that
lead you into the freezing water that leads you to the pounding water of the
waterfall. (Secret #2—I have an irrational fear of cold water.)
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| Waterfall fun! |
On the ride back, we stopped at a little place on the side of the road for lunch. The meat eaters were in heaven with their tamales, kebabs, and plantain/meat cake-thing. I was in heaven with my coconut!
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| Bird's-eye view (Photo credit: Mario) |
