The influence of the Catholic Church in Puerto Rico history can not be underestimated. The main North/South thoroughfare is named Calle Cristo or Christ Street. At the bottom of Christ Street is the Cristo Chapel. Apparently rowdy young men would race down the hill on horseback. It is quite a steep hill and at the end is the city wall and about an 80-100 foot drop. Apparently around this time in 1753 an unfortunate young man (Baltazar Montanez) misjudged the end of the street - catapulting down the cliff. According to historical records he died but according to Catholic lore he was saved after someone shouted for Christ of Good Health to save him. The very ornate silver and gold altar was made from ex-votos (offerings) brought by faithful in thanks for healing.
On Tuesday we were out the door at 815 to meet
the shuttle to the car rental. Picked up
our cute little Nissan Versa and headed out to El Yunque Rain Forest. We drove about 20 minutes out of the way
because we missed our exit but otherwise the trip was good. I made Ryan stop at CVS the day before because I
had absolutely no first aid stuff. My
intention was to get a first aid kit but it was huge and $20 so we settled for
some large bandaids with Neosporin in them. The first aid supplies live in the kid's toiletry bag and wasn't with us. I already brought like 6 pairs of shoes so my hiking boots did not make
the cut. We hiked in exercise gear and
tennis shoes (everything in my suitcase had to pull double duty or it did not
make the cut). It was a little
slippery. Ryan was less than excited to
go on a 5 mile hike up a mountain but he was a good sport and came along.
Rainforest view while hiking.
Someone was nice enough to leave a pair of jeans in a rain shelter...
The views at the top were spectacular.
The rainforest was pretty – lots of vegetation and lots of
loud creatures – birds and coqui frogs.
We were never able to see any of the critters responsible for the noises
but they sounded nice. I was having a
little cat withdrawal because I hadn’t seen one since we left OSJ but there was
one on the last little bit of the trail (actually along the road). We took some pics at the top and then headed
back down. I was disappointed in the
lack of wildlife and then I saw a mongoose run across the trail and I felt
better. We finished the hike at 2:00pm
and then headed out of the park, taking pictures at some scenic places on the
way out. By the way, no one needed a bandaid...
That is one big leaf!
Nice babbling brook
We drove back to OSJ and Ryan took a nap while I worked on
this blog. Then it was off to dinner at
St. Germain – a place I have been looking forward to since we passed it
(closed) on Saturday night. We arrived a
few minutes before it opened so we went upstairs to Mezzanine for another round
of pigeon pea escabache and some drinks and then went down and shared an incredible
meal. I had a 3 flight wine tasting for
$7 (with good pours of a sauvignon blank, merlot, and malbec). We split an appetizer of mozzarella, tomato,
avocado and balsamic reduction (think caprese with avocado) and a taste of
potato spinach soup. Then we shared 2
sandwiches – chicken, goat cheese and sundried tomato on baguette and chicken,
pesto, tomatoes on pita. We then had a
piece of rum cake for dessert. Then it
was home to talk to the kids, do some laundry, and get ready to leave OSJ
tomorrow morning.
A better picture of Mezzanine where we had drinks that first night.
The view down from our room at Caleta 64.
The ceiling of our place in Old San Juan
We pack up on Wednesday and head a little bit east to the Hilton Caribe for my meeting. It is a great meeting which means I attend almost all the sessions so there won't be any more blogging unless Ryan does some cool stuff that he shares with me during the days. We haven't had any rain yet and the vacation has been perfect. Thanks for the good times Puerto Rico!
On Monday we got up early again to get picked up by EcoQuest
for a ziplining tour. There is a large
parcel of land to the east of San Juan (but only like 15 minutes away) that is
owned by the largest land developer in Puerto Rico. Turns out it is lowlands with mangroves (I
guess similar to wetlands in the US) so it is protected land and can not be
developed. Still wanting to make money,
they grow some crops and then lease the land to this adventure company. Our tour consisted of 6 ziplines and like 5-6
suspended footbridges. We were joined by
a nice lesbian couple from Ventura, California, an older couple from
Houston, and 2 young Asian couples from Houston
(weird coincidence). We had 2 guides –
Luigi (?Italian) and Kim from Canada (British Columbia I think). We
got all harnessed up and then paddled across a small pond in kayaks.
I was a little worried because I have had a little fear of heights/ladders in the past.One thing that helped is the knowledge that this activity has to be pretty safe or a company wouldn’t expose themselves to the risk of being in the business.As you can see from the crotch-hugging going on in that picture the harnesses are pretty tight and you are securely clipped to two different huge cables.
I also think I have more faith in my body and
it’s ability to do stuff after taking up running and yoga. The footbridges were no big deal and the
ziplines were exhilarating. As Joe Rogan would say – fear was not a factor
for me.
Here is video that Ryan shot of me coming into a station and a video that Ryan shot while traveling on the slowest zip line that we did:
Here we are at the end of our adventure.
We were supposed to be treated to an authentic
Puerto Rican feast at the end of our adventure but the cook had called in sick
so that part was canceled. We were
bemoaning this to our driver on the way back to OSJ and he told us about a
great little hole in the wall called El Jibarito
(which translates to Hillbilly in English!).
We split an order of pastelles filled
with pork. They are basically like a
tamale only wrapped in plantain leaf instead of corn husk. We also had a mofongo made with plantains
and yucca (it was like a deep-fried sweet thing – tasted like a funnel cake
with the texture of a hush puppy. We
also had some red beans and rice. Puerto
Ricans don’t like any heat in their food and everything is just kind of bland
and mushy. Now I can say I’ve tried
Puerto Rican food but I don’t think I’m really a fan.
Sampling some of the local brew!
The San Juan Cathedral is literally at the top
of our street so we wandered in after we had gone home to shower. Construction began in 1521 and it is the
second oldest cathedral in the Western Hemisphere. The original structure was damaged by
hurricanes and the current cathedral is the result of a restoration that was
done in 1917. Ponce de Leon is buried
there.
Next we hopped on the ferry to Catona (fare is $0.50 each way) to catch the Bacardi Distillary Tour. It is so popular that taxi drivers wait on the other side and round you up into 12 passenger vans at $3 per person to take you there.There is a beautiful outdoor tasting area and the tour is free.
Tasting area
You get 2 drink tickets each and they will make you whatever you want (well if you want a Mojito or a Daquiri you must pay $10 at the cash bar). We tipped the bartender with our first drink so he returned out tickets to us. First Ryan had Bacardi Torched Cherry with Coke and I had Black Razz with Sprite. Mine was too sweet (since I don’t drink soda anymore it tastes kind of gross). Next Ryan sipped an 8 year aged rum which was smoky and awful. I had a delicious concoction of Dragon Fruit, club soda, and a splash of cranberry juice.
Then it was time to board the tram for the tour. We learned the history of the Bacardi
family. Facundo Bacardi began in Santiago
de Cuba (he was Spanish) in 1843 by opening a shop where he sold imported
goods, including liquor.. Pirates in the
area were the first to make rum (distilled from sugar cane) but it was terrible
and called Kill Devil Rum. Bacardi
refused to sell such inferior drink. In
1852 a hurricane wiped out the entire city and a cholera epidemic forced he and
his family to return to Spain. He came
back to Santiago and started another business (which failed) and then decided
to try to make better rum. He teamed up
with a French guy who was a distiller of cognac and together they perfected a
technique with a special yeast and charcoal filtration that resulted in the
Bacardi we know today. In the first
distillery that they purchased, there was a family of fruit bats living up in
the celing. Bats are considered to be a
symbol of prosperity, good health, and united family in Spain so Bacardi’s wife
suggested they adopt this as their symbol.
The bat is still used today.
Bacardi moved out of Cuba when the Communists took over their
business. Today the headquarters is in
the Bahamas. Ryan was a little
disappointed that the tour didn’t show any of the working factory.
By the time we took the ferry back we were too late to pick
up our rental car. That means a later
start tomorrow than we wanted for hiking in El Yunque. We had the perfect place picked out for
dinner but it was closed on Mondays so we went to a nice looking place up the street. The most notable thing about that meal was
this cat that was just chilling on the floor as we left – total relaxation.
