Puerto Rico Journal Day 6

March 14:

We finally have a good breakfast on the island at Tradewinds. There are beautiful views of the ocean, a sea breeze and endless cups of coffee. After a plate of huevos ranchos, we’re satisfied. We were a little sad on our last walk back up the hill. After a far too short time it was time to leave the island. A taxi whisked us away for a nauseating ride to the airport.

This is Max

I was very lucky on our flight today, and got to sit up in the front of the plane beside the pilot from our hop across the ocean. There were so many switches and gauges to watch. My views were amazing, but my space was so limited I would have been hard pressed to take pictures. I sat back and enjoyed the ride instead.

When we got back to the mainland we set about finding our new apartment. It took a fair bit of searching, but we did find the place, nice and close to the beach. The apartment is comfortable and clean enough, but we see two little cockroaches, which scare the crap outta me.  

After dropping our bags off we run right back out the door for lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Lolitas. The food was outstanding! Tacos and chimichanga and fried cheesecake! Happy us!

We walked from our apartment to the beach about a half block away. The beach here is called La Pared, “the wall”, named after the wall that hold back huge waves from the shore. A surfer’s dream, my nightmare. We follow the beach down for a few kilometers, passing protected lands, shallow tide pools and insane waves until we reach Luquillo beach. The beach is one of the top rated in all Puerto Rico. It does have the perfect amount of waves, long stretches of sandy beaches, gorgeous palm trees and best of all, amazing pina coladas sold from a stand along the beach. But it was far busier than Sun Bay, and with a type of tropical pine tree dropping it’s needles everywhere, it felt more like Cultus Lake to me.

After a debacle with the gate leading out of the parking garage, calling the apartment owner, meeting Jay the guy who lives downstairs to swap clickers and eventually pulling the gate open by hand, we finally went to dinner. We went to dinner at the kiosks, or kioskos as they are called, and on Jay’s recommendation we ate at Terruno. The food here was fan-freakin-tastic! We had chorizo cooked in red wine with plantain chips, mofongo with fried pork and tre leche cake for dessert, plus madella for $22!

The kiosks are about sixty ramshackle huts built along the highway, just after Luquillo beach. Some of the huts are empty, a few of them are dedicated to souvenirs, but most are either nice restaurants, or cheap bars that serve the same food as every other cheap bar in the place. The restaurants are nice, open air spaces with nice lighting and friendly service. And most of them serve very good food.