Puerto Rico Day #3

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!