Año Nuevo en Puerto Rico
2017 a 2018 después de Maria
Diciembre 30, 2017 - Enero 2, 2018
Summary:
Travel was on my mind for the weekend that turned 2017 into 2018. I had nowhere set to where I wanted to go, but I wanted it to be interesting. I worked with Google's flight tool to display flights under $300.00 across North/Central America for that weekend. Interestingly Puerto Rico was among the locations flying out of Tampa. It makes sense and we booked the flights only 2.5 weeks in advance realizing it would be a good opportunity. It will only get more expensive. The morning after, there were several news articles released announcing that "Puerto Rico is back open for business" and that the best way to help them out is to visit and put money into their economy. Done and done.
Wikipedia on Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico on Wednesday September 20, 2017. She absolutely devastated the island. Mid-December, they estimated only about 70% of the island had power restored. There was a high initial death toll and persons missing which only grew with time. The "official" death toll sits at 499 people; however, the lingering effects can attribute to a much higher number.
Why Puerto Rico’s death toll from Hurricane Maria is so much higher than officials thought
Damage to the island is estimated at $94.4 billion USD. Puerto Rico was already in trouble, and this is devastating. I felt uneasy about making the visit initially because I didn't want to show up with my United States mainland privilege; however when I read the articles about PR declaring itself officially open again for tourism, I felt much better. Since Puerto Rico's economy depends on tourism, visiting and spending money truly helps them out in the more natural way. Tour guides and bar/restaurant employees were extremely appreciative to be working and making money again, and the hospitality across the island was amazing!
There was still a lot of work to be done on the island, but everything seemed better than expected. San Juan was powered, as we anticipated. We saw some work being done on the highways. Even a trail less traveled in Rio Abajo State Forest was in the process of being cleared, resulting in a badass bamboo tunnel.
We got a phenomenal AirBnB in Old San Juan that would normally be booked way in advance. It was easy to sign up for tours and rental cars last minute as well. Tourists were much more abundant than I initially thought, and there were several cruise ships going in and out of port. We had a great time people watching "the cruise people".
Another great thing about visiting Puerto Rico is that there is a National Park! San Juan National Historic Site has two locations, and our AirBnB was directly in the middle of the island for easy walking to the locations. I got my cancellation stamps, and PR is officially the first "state" that I have completed in my National Parks passport.
This is my main blog post about the trip. It will focus more on exploring Old San, la comida de Puerto Rico, random pictures and commentary, and it will have links to the more detailed blogs of more specific activities. Here are the links now, but they will also appear in chronological order as I tell the trip's story.
The Gear:
The Story:
Old San Juan AirBnB [Saturday 2017-12-30]
Our lovely AirBnB [
Link to Listing] was on a residential only street in the heart of Old San Juan. Our host met us outside the main door which led into a partially enclosed building with courtyards and beautiful decor. As we walked back towards our unit we passed a few apartments that essentially had doors and windows opened and exposed to the public. This would be a trend throughout at least Old San Juan.
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| Exterior of our Old San Juan AirBnB |
We got a quick rundown of the apartment then went out to explore! We planned to stay in the area this evening. We walked past colorful buildings and fell in love with the blue brick that covered the streets.
It was already well into the afternoon, but we walked towards El Morro, one of the sites of the National Park. Some of the parks I've been to have the admission fee that covers 7 days. If this was the case, we would have started to poke around the site. Unfortunately admission only covered 24 hours so it wasn't worth it to have just an hour today since we already had our plans outside of San Juan tomorrow.
It didn't stop us from playing around on the outside!
We went back into the main part of town and had our first drinks and food experience. We grabbed beer and margarita. We learned about the two main beers of Puerto Rico - Medalla Light and Magna. We would be drinking these fairly often. My first meal was ceviche - happy Kat right here.
After satsifying our stomachs we returned to the fort area to take some sunset photos.
Then we walked around town some more. Check out the giant generator and power lines. It's also still Christmas time.
This super chill cat lives on our AirBnB's street and liked to hang out here.
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Old San Juan Kitty
Photo Credit: Robert Hodgen |
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Arecibo, Puerto Rico [Sunday 2017-12-31]
We had an eventful final day of 2017. We journeyed out to Arecibo where we got to see some crazy waves crashing into rocks, visit the giant radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory, try our first mofongos, and explore a fun forest in search of a cave. You can read about those adventures with the following links:
Un Día en Arecibo - Poza del Obispo y Arecibo Observatory [Coming Soon]
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| Sol Mates |
Feliz Año Nuevo en Old San Juan [2017-2018]
Our day was exciting and tiring, but we weren't going to miss out on the experience of celebrating the new year on a tropical island!
Our first stop was at
Greengos Caribbean Cantina. We are in fact gringos, and I loved the fact that the spelling was due to their commitment of being environmentally responsible. You can read about it on the website, and also this gem: "And some of our drinks are served in temperature-sensitive plastic cups that darken to bright green as they are consumed or warmed to room temperature. Everyone can see you need a refill as the "green goes" down!" Ha.. ha...
Anyway - the most exciting thing about Greengo's was that served Sol! Sol is my favorite of the light beers and can be so hard to find. In fact I cannot even find it in 6-packs in Florida anymore. I can only get it in a variety pack with Dos Equis and Tecate, which are both fine, yes. BUT - I would rather just get straight up Sol.
When we were ready for a change of scenery we traveled onto
La Taberna Lúpulo, which we had discovered the prior night. It is a craft beer bar that had a huge number of taps that included Puerto Rico craft beers and also a large bottle list. I indulged in the Ocean Lab blood orange beer again as it was my favorite. They also had $20 buckets of 5 beers from a select list. They even had Weihenstephaner beers on that list, of which we happily took advantage. We camped out at a table in a corner with open windows on each side, great for people watching.
When it came close to midnight they passed around champagne, and we counted down to the new year. Puerto Rico is an hour ahead of most of our friends in Florida, so we got to jump in 2018 sooner! We took our champagne to go and made our way back to the AirBnB. People were launching fireworks in the streets, which can be seen in the picture.
Once back at the AirBnB, the party that had started small when we left had expanded into the road as well as the front of our building. The hosts came up to us immediately to welcome and talk to us, and then offered us anything to eat and drink that was available. They usually live in a more remote part of the island, but they also have this spot in San Juan. Since their main home did not have power, they had been spending most of their time here. We stuck around for a little bit, and I tried some homemade Puerto Rican moonshine. We were tired though so we walked the fifty meters or so from the party back to our AirBnB. It was a great experience to be so welcomed to their party - one of the benefits of staying in a place among locals rather than a hotel.
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Kicking off 2018 with Mofongos [Monday 2018-01-01]
Rise and shine - it's 2018! We took our time in the morning before setting out on our day. I think I even went out for a run to start the year off right. We began to drive east hoping to find a cool place to eat. Not only was it Monday, but it was also New Year's Day, so most places were closed. Everything we looked at on Google Maps or Yelp was closed. Driving around and seeing 'Open' signs was much more accurate.
We wound up at Las Canarias Bakery.
Calle Isla Verde, Carolina, Puerto Rico
Las Canarias was packed and mostly with locals. We probably waited in line to order at the counter for about an hour. We each got a mofongo. Not sure if it was worth that long of a wait, but the food was fantastic. I would try eating there again with less of a line.
We then proceeded east to go to El Yunque and see how much of the rainforest we would be allowed to see. We observed more storm damage and roadwork on the way. Signs were bent and then traffic stopped as they were erecting electric poles. There were utility trucks from the United States mainland assisting.
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El Yunque [Monday 2018-01-01]
To read more about the adventure in El Yunque, especially in regard to the hurricane aftermath, click the following link:
El Bosque Nacional El Yunque
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Rain Forest Kitty and Kat
Photo Credit: Robert Hodgen |
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Kayaking at Laguna Grande, a bioluminescence bay [Monday 2018-01-01]
You can read about our kayaking excursion with Kayak Puerto Rico by following this link:
Kayak en Laguna Grande
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Playa Fortuna [Monday 2018-01-01]
On our way este earlier in the day we passed a huge strip of bars/restaurants that looked to be poppin'. We decided to drop by on our way back. The crowds had died down, but we walked around before settling on a place that served frozen SANGRIIIA. I wasn't sure what I was feeling, but this looked like something worth trying. It was decent enough to write about in my blog but not amazing enough to write home about. There was a rooftop deck to this specific restaurant which overlooked the water. There wasn't much lighting though so we didn't get to see much of the ocean. It probably would have been a fun place to be for new years celebrations.
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| #BrickPic |
Old San Juan [Tuesday 2018-01-02]
On our final day we walked around the vibrant and colorful Old San Juan. The main agenda for the day was visiting the National Park and catching our flight in the evening.
The
Stuffed Avocado Shop was open and we eagerly went in for lunch. We had only walked past the location about 10-12 times since we have been here, and this is the first time they were open when we were needing a meal. The made-to-order avocado bowls and flavored waters were exactly what we wanted.
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Old San Juan Kitty and Kat
Photo Credit: Robert Hodgen |
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| More kitties of Old San Juan |
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San Juan National Historic Site [Tuesday 2018-01-02]
Blog Post: [Coming Soon]
After a wonderful morning of walking around, we finally were about to indulge in my National Park fantasy. After all, it was the sole reason for this trip.
[Not Really...] My passport was beyond ready to be stamped. There are two main sites of the park: Castillo San Felipe del Morro [El Morro] and Castillo San Cristóbal. We had already taken a bunch of exterior pictures of El Morro, which is where we started.
As we walked east to Castillo San Cristóbal, we popped into a bar that turned out to have a nice deck upstairs where we could drink some Puerto Rican beer overlooking the sea. The Medalla was extremely cheap and even though it isn't amazing, it was great to drink local.
The ramp up to one of the entrances to Castillo San Cristóbal.
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Ocean Lab Brewery [Tuesday 2018-01-02]
We had some more time to kill before our flights so we decided to visit Ocean Lab Brewery, which was along the beach right by the airport. We had already tried many of their brews when we visited
La Taberna Lúpulo in Old San Juan, but it would be fun to check out the actual location. We got some food, a few beers, and enjoyed our last stop before the airport.
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Adios Puerto Rico!
The airport was quiet as we prepared for our departure from the island back to the real world. We wore our new matching Arecibo Observatory polo shirts and tried on some hats at the gift shop. Also it seems like Jimmy Buffet has a monopoly on all of the alcohol serving places in the San Juan airport which jacked the prices extra stupidly high even for an airport. We stuck to one libation each.
We had a wonderful trip!
Hurdles:
Speaking Spanish - This was a wake up call. Everyone was fluent in Spanish. Most people knew more English than we knew Spanish. Ecuador won't be as easy getting away with speaking English most of the time. I have been practicing as much as I could since. Besides this, there were some little bumps in the road, but we didn't have any super big expectations. We did almost everything we wanted to do!
Baños, Tungurahua, Ecuador
