It has been quite sometime since my last flight and a lot has changed. This was also the first time I took JetBlue. It was cool to sit on a flight and watch movies on a personal LCD monitor mounted on the back of the seat in front of me. One of the channels was a live Google Map of the planes path from JFK to San Juan International with altitude and current speed information which I found interesting since I was sitting in an aisle seat. I landed to Puerto Rico about 15 minutes then expected and was quick to get my one bag at the baggage claim. I was picked up by my friend Juan, Cliff and Juan’s high school friend, Mariana. I am incredibly grateful for Mariana picking me up from the airport, since she didn’t even know me. We headed to a “dive” bar in San Juan where I enjoyed Puerto Rican’s own beer, Mendalla. Ordering drinks was also a pleasant surprise due to how cheap it was. Juan compared this beer to PBR or Coors Light. The bar was playing traditional salsa music and an outside patio for people to drink and chat. This bar eventually closed down shop at 4am so we headed a little further down to another bar. This time I ordered a “Cuba Libre” or free Cuba, a drink made up of DonQ rum, cola and lime. We stayed up to see the sun rise. Juan, Cliff and I decided to head to Ponce to meet up with David.
It was not a short car ride to Ponce. We arrived early in the morning and ended up getting some sleep in Juan’s SUV for a few hours. Afterwards we grabbed some food at a sandwich shop a few feet away from the car. It was important for me to attempt to speak Spanish in Puerto Rico. So I ordered, “cubano, por favor,” expecting to get a spanish response, but instead I got, “Do you want everything on it?” The sandwich was quite delicious and perfect boost to start the day. We drove to David’s house where we met David’s father and another Mariana, David’s girlfriend. His house is a beautiful one floor house in a gated community. The first time I noticed entering the house was the indoor garden in the middle of what seemed to be the living room. Family pictures and paintings stretched all four walls. Daivd’s father inquired our first impressions of the island. I was blown away by how unexpected his question about the Puerto Rican women. Of course beautiful. We cleaned up and headed out to the beach.
Leaving Ponce, I noticed giant letters which seemed scattered along the highway, spelling “Ponce.” We drove across a mountain range that stretches across the whole island. Juan explained how the mountain range created a division of landscape where one side is blooming with vegetation and the other side was quite dry. David mentioned that Puerto Rico is the only place where the desert and rain forest are so close together. Since the late start we didn’t arrive to the entrance of the beach until mid-afternoon. There was a line of cars waiting to get into the beach. we pulled up in line and started drinking openly as we slowed moved up in line as they started letting people out from the beach. Finally after a few cars leaving, we made our way closer to the beach to bring our stuff. Walking to the beach carrying coolers and bags was definitely not an option.
At first sight, I was amazed how blue the water was. Next I was hocked how few people there are on the beach. Apparently this is a nature preservation area so it is heavily monitored. Unlike the beaches in the United States, you will not find boardwalks and bathrooms here. It is completely nature. We drank beers in the warm water and relaxed in the shade and sand. Hours flew by. I noticed how freely Juan could talk to strangers and more shocking is how friendly everyone responded. We met up with some other people our age and invited us to their camp grounds.
Just before dusk, we packed up our stuff to head to try some delicious seafood in a street fair style neighborhood. The first thing I ate was chapin, which is a fried turnover filled with fish. Ee left after a few drinks to get some more sustaining food. Cliff and I was recommended to get the mofungo, mashed plantains with an added ingredient of either, fish, pork, or shrimp. Apparently this was an unusual was to serve mofungo. Our dishes were more soupy then the traditional way this dish is served.
We found a hotel with two beds and with the hopes to still party. Unfortunately we could get buy alcohol past midnight so we ended up sleep and trying to get an early start in the morning.
