Carlos & Jessi's Travels

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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Out and about on Day 2

Our first stop was the Bacardi factory. There were good points and odd points about this stop. Good points were that it was free and they give you a couple of drinks. Of the several "tour guides" involved in the ordeal, one (Thomas) was really fun and nice. Odd points were that parts of the "tour" were lame and boring (like the video they make point of telling you not to record... who would record this?!). You don't get to see any of the factory. AND, there were a surprising amount of kids on the "tour," and it's surreal and somewhat disappointing to see their parents buying them Bacardi t-shirts. I did buy a mint muddler thingy, though, to commemorate the occasion, and I hope there are many mojito-making days in my future.

Our next stop, where we spent the rest of the day, was back in Old San Juan. We went to lunch at El Jibarito, a place the tour books noted was "off the beaten path," "away from the hustle and bustle," a place with "great authentic food" and "horrible service." The books were right on all accounts. Seriously, I don't know if I've ever had to wait so long for food, and we felt a little ignored. Once we got someone's attention, ordered, and got our food, it was absolutely wonderful. Carlos and I had plantains, red beans, white rice, and mofongo (a vegetable dish). Carlos had a plantain mofongo that was so so, but I had a yuca root one that was outstanding. It's like a fried bowl-shaped yuca thing. Very good (we had some later in the day with a lot of garlic in it). The beans really were some of the best ever. I also enjoyed the sweet fried plantains.




Next we went to the other fort, Castillo de San Felipe del Morro (El Morro). This fort was smaller than San Cristobal, but in some ways nicer. One of the first things you encounter is a large green space area as you're walking to the entrance, and there were dozens of people hanging out and flying kites. Inside the fort, with everything fairly compact, you're just engulfed in angles. There are several cannons about and some really spectacular views. Again, it's neat to see such an old building, and it's striking that the walls are so thick. I'm very glad we got to see both forts, and that we went to them on different days. I think it would have been overwhelming to tour both on the same day, and it would be too tough to differentiate the memories. We may actually take Lisa and Mike to San Cristobal later in the week, if there's time.



























We spent several hours just wandering around Old San Juan. The cobble stone streets and building facades have so much character. We've encountered really friendly people who will just stop and chat with you for a while about their city. We had a great drink at a beautiful restaurant, and later we had wonderful coffee from a small kiosk in a plaza. All the plazas built into the city are great, both as places to sit and as a break for your eyes. We wandered in and out of a few shops.

We had dinner at Cafe Berlin (where we had breakfast on Sunday). I was very happy with my Criollo Tofu, and Carlos had a good vegetarian Philadelphia "steak" sandwich. After dinner, we made our way back to the car (which was quite a ways away, since we had walked so much (we got a parking ticket, some locals who parked behind us told us to disregard the sign that said no parking, "they never give tickets.")) and headed back to the hotel.



We had big plans to hang out more, but we called it a night at a decent hour because we have a big day tomorrow: El Yunque National Forest, the rainforest. We'll take a lot of pictures and post them tonight.

You can see all of our pictures from each day of the trip at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48817538@N04/

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