This was our third annual “Turquoise Water Tour”, i.e. the trip we usually make in February to some place, with the eponymous theme.
Previously, we’d done Aruba (TWT #1) and Turks and Caicos (TWT #2). This time, we decided to go to Puerto Rico for a few reasons:
We didn’t plan much beyond the hotel and the airplane tickets.
Thursday
We flew in on Thursday, Feb 17. It was an early morning flight from EWR (the more typical flights were mega-booked for Presidents’ Day Weekend).
We got only a couple-hours worth of sleep, parked at EWR-Hilton, and took a shuttle to the airport. Ate some mediocre airport food, slept on the plane, and woke up in sunny Puerto Rico!
We took an Uber to the hotel (maybe 10-minute drive for like $8… Uber is dirt cheap in PR, we found).
At the hotel, we basically napped until dinner time, then we went out for dinner at the recommended Casita Miramar, which was a delicious and great experience. We picked up some toothpaste on the way home.
Friday
We took an Uber to Old San Juan, and broke fast at an eh cafe overlooking a plaza. The view was pretty, food asi asi.
We meandered up the hill to the coastal wall, and followed it to the “small” fort, where we paid a small fee to walk around inside of. It was overall a fun experience. Interesting to imagine the purpose, and time this was built in. How important Puerto Rico was as the “Key to the Caribbean” in the age of imperialism, as the easternmost port with easy access to abundant fresh water. How much blood was spilt over this fort and town, and how this contrasts with its openness to tourism today. How the times change!
We meandered towards the Fortaleza, but it was closed in anticipation of some protests that had been scheduled for that day. We went into a coffee shop, 4 Sombras Cafe, and had some coffees. Then, we took an Uber back to the hotel to chill by the pool.
We ate dinner nearby the hotel quite late. It was decent but nothing amazing. Casita Miramar was definitely the best food yet.
Saturday
I woke up early, and went for a 4 mile run from our Hotel towards Old San Juan and back. There were many other runners on the same route, it was cool to see a running community!
It turned out that some of our friends were visiting PR at the same time! Plus, staying in the same hotel on the same floor to boot! How crazy.
We broke fast with them at Caficultura on Plaza Colon, that had quite decent coffee and food. Probably our favorite breakfast experience of the trip.
This came after meandering around for hours trying to get a table at other restaurants, which is a San Juan motif on the “busy days” (weekends and holidays).
Afterwards, we toured the bigger fort Cristobal, which was much the same as the smaller fort, albeit with better views, fewer iguanas, and more involved ascents.
We rode some of the ubiquitous scooters back to the hotels, with small detour through Munoz Park, which is a beautiful little place.
We chilled by the beach/pool for the rest of the afternoon, and chatted with our friends.
For dinner, we went to a very nice restaurant, named “To Share”. We enjoyed tapas and a bottle of wine. Very different atmosphere to Casita Miramar, but definitely in the same league of how much we enjoyed the experience.
Sunday
This day was pretty relaxed. We got some forgettable breakfast and espresso in Condado, then rented a kayak for a couple of hours.
We did a lap of the Laguna near our hotel, and then went outside the bridge, towards the ocean, where we encountered a small pod of 2-4 manatees. They were really cute!
We then proceeded to chill by the pool for the afternoon, before going out to dinner with friends who had been living in San Juan for over a year.
We met up in Lote 23 in Santurce, and got some very solid, local Gelato from a nearby Pueblo for dessert.
Monday
This was definitely the sleepiest day, coinciding with Presidents’ Day (which coincides with a major PR holiday). On this day, many businesses were either closed or overwhelmed.
Tried the hotel restaurant for breakfast, never again.
Took some nice pictures on our balcony. We relaxed at the beach for a while, I went snorkeling, but the water was rather murky.
Went up to the pool area, did some reading and hot-tubbing. Then, played corn-hole for a few hours and tried to practice hand-stands.
Went up to our rooms, took a nap for a couple of hours.
Woke up, had the (in hindsight, awful) idea to go to Old San Juan for dinner.
The first place: closed. Second place: out of anything desirable, had no place to sit. This prompted a large meandering walk to the other, touristy-busy part of Old San Juan. There, every place was either closing in the next 15 minutes, or had a 1+ hour wait. At some, it took us 10+ minutes of waiting for a host to inform us of this fact.
In short, after walking around for nearly 2 hours, we gave in and settled for grocery store cold cuts. The store was quite depressing (moldy bread in the bakery section) but at least the service was prompt. Quite a few other people, in the store, appeared to be in the same situation.
We ate Tostitos and salsa in Plaza de Armas for 20 minutes, before an Uber took us home at 3x the normal rate. Lesson learned: never go out to eat on a holiday in Old San Juan.
Tuesday
Tired out from yesterday, we slept in this morning.
This day was mostly defined by walking; we probably traveled some 5 miles by foot.
We walked to a breakfast restaurant in Ocean Park / Condado area. Good service, but tragically-below-par food (I hope it was a bad day). Got water at a grocery store.
Walked another 20 minutes to 787 Coffee in Santurce. 8/10 coffee, very nice vibes. Sat there for a while to cool off and plan for Saturday.
From there, we walked back into Ocean Park to shop at some boutiques, Sara found some nice pants.
From there, we half-walked, half-scootered back to the hotel, and got ready for climbing!
Took an Uber to El Bloque (only bouldering gym in San Juan!), and climbed for an hour. It was a small gym, but very nice vibes and made good use of a small space. Seems to be the core of a great climbing community.
We took an Uber back to the Hotel, and went local to Bar Havana for dinner, was strictly par.
Woke up kinda late, then rode scooters 80% of the way to Old San Juan. At some point, the scooters erroneously ran into the OSJ geofence, compelling us to walk through stifling heat the rest of the way to Kaffee Haus. Ouch.
Kaffee Haus, was above average, 7/10 with coffee. There was an interesting argument that broke out between an anti-vax couple (from NYC of all places) and the host, because the couple didn’t want to present their vaccination records to enter. Reminiscent of a conversation I’d heard outside of Frank’s 457 in Brooklyn, that ended with a guy storming off saying “You’re going to lose a lot of business for this!” Thankfully, this one ended with the people happily sitting for food some minutes after exchanging heated words.
From there, we walked in god-awful heat to the Museo de las Americas. We met some kittens along the way and took some breaks from the heat to pet them. Filtrado was still blocked off by police, in their attempt to control the zone surrounding the governor’s mansion. Crazy that the governor has the perceived need for such security.
The Museo de las Americas was a pretty damn good museum for a $6 entry fee. It was a blend of contemporary and old, with a much-appreciated bent towards contemporary and local.
One of the coolest contemporary exhibitions, was of a local artist painting 19th century images onto 19th century rugs with acrylic. Of these, the most provocative were depictions of a man who had been convicted for murdering an American soldier during the 19th century occupation of PR by the United States.
Of the “old things”, the coolest exhibition was a collection erotic sculptures dating from 500 BC to 500 AD. It was amazing that (1) these things exist (2) are on display in a “mainstream” place.
The subset of erotic sculptures that most people are familiar with are of a very particular type: female figurines, highly stylized, in isolation from each other.
On display here were almost exclusively male figurines, and many were in homoerotic poses “connected” to other sculptures… It makes a ton of sense that such figurines should exist, knowing what we do about human sexuality, but it’s still a sign of how “weird” modern western society is, that these are surprising to see in a museum.
Stepping outside our current cultural concept, the survival of these
artifacts (they were apparently preserved with people at burial)
demonstrates how the word heteronormative is an Oxymoron
with a wide enough cultural frame of reference. Mind-grenade,
recommend.
After viewing all the exhibits, we went down into the courtyard to have some coffee at Don Ruiz and take a break from all the standing. The cortado was great; maybe the second best on our trip, after Caficultura.
Sara went to a local ballet drop-in class, while Adam stayed home and did his best to do laundry with the hotel machines… He does not recommend.
Dinner was round 2 of grocery store cold cuts.
Thursday
Friday
Saturday