San Juan, Puerto Rico - A Quick Trip to the Equator

Ola amigos!

I know it has been a long while since I have posted anything, but I have yet to complete any new travels to extravagant locations. Recently though (last week to be precise) I decided to travel to Puerto Rico with a few of my friends for an extended weekend. And boy, was I most certainly NOT disappointed. Not only was the food exquisite, but the people and the sights were beyond imaginable. It was my first trip to a latin american country and definitely not my last. Despite it being US territory, Puerto Rico is fully latin. Most locals only speak spanish, the road signs are in spanish, even the menus in the fanciest restaurants are primarily in spanish. The capital city, San Juan, did have many stores and fast food joints that are commonly found in the US such as, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Burger King and Denny's, but even those had a spanish twist to them. Whether it being Puerto Rican foods added to the menus and stores or just the atmosphere of the locations. Puerto Rico was definitely a great country to experience latin american culture without the extreme culture shock and language barrier!

While there I tried to experience the culture as best I could. All I ate while there was beans, rice and plantains (or a form of plantains they call "tostones")...literally. This is as local as you can get when it comes to Puerto Rican food, haha. I also did a reasonable amount of sight-seeing, rode their public transport, visited an island and tried to get to know the people. What can I say, I tried to experience all that Puerto Rico had to offer to me!

Because of my experience in San Juan, Puerto Rico, I am definitely planning on seeing many more latin american countries, but that's only if my mom can still help me out financially because Puerto Rico was anything but cheap...and I'm still a student, hahaha!!

The journey that I had to make from Boston, Massachusetts to San Juan, Puerto Rico!

My first view of San Juan, Puerto Rico. This is the "Teodoro Moscoso" bridge that leads to San Juan.

Seeing as I arrived in the late afternoon, by the time we showered and were dressed it was night-time in San Juan. We decided to eat out at an authentic Puerto Rican restaurant in Old San Juan. Old San Juan is where the colonial Spanish first set up. They left very beautiful infrastructure in that area. The buildings in Old San Juan are just spectacular.

The group of people I traveled with. 

The street lighting used in these streets of Old San Juan definitely gave it a feel of what it may have looked like a few decades ago.

My first meal in Puerto Rico. 

When walking into the restaurant, I was quite skeptical of the type of food we were going to be served.

But as we sat down to eat, I slowly began to realize that the setting was merely to set the mood for our real taste taste of the local food. 

Please excuse the tilted image. I was trying to get a picture of the wooden ceiling. Very interesting.

In the US Corona's are very popular light beer. It was very cute seeing that in Old San Juan some of my friends were served miniature versions of this beer called "Coronita", meaning "small corona". These were about half the size of a regular Corona. Isn't it cute?

One of the dishes we ordered was Paella! It's OK if your mouth just watered a little...

I didn't order this on my first night, but I wanted to show you what type of good I ate on a regular basis (i.e. every day). This picture is missing the most important part of the meal, the BEANS! If there is one thing that visiting Puerto Rico taught me, it's that beans can be the most delicious food when made a certain way!

After dinner we decided to walk around Old San Juan for a little bit and see the ocean.  

The following morning we had to wakeup at 6AM (also known as the crack of dawn) to catch an hour long taxi, and then an hour long ferry boat to an island called Vieques. My first sight of the ocean water, and I was not disappointed.

The ferry boat was an extremely rough ride, but definitely worth it for this!

"Vieques Welcomes You". Seeing as I am fluent in Portuguese, I was surprisingly bad at spanish, haha.

Right after arriving, we got some lunch and headed straight to the nicest beach on Vieques island, Playa Caracas.

Is this not the most beautiful beach you have seen? Definitely is for me.

After swimming for a little bit, we decided to play in the sand. A friend of ours volunteered to by buried in the sand. Good thinking from her part because she prevented being sun burned that way unlike some of us!

I still cannot believe I was able to experience this.

A snapshot of my excitement at leaving Boston's negative temperatures to Puerto Rico's amazing weather. And this gorgeous beach and water of course.

Cheeeeese!

The beach was actually rather small in size, but it made it feel a lot more private.

A group shot of us all after completing the what was meant to be a mermaid in the sand. As you can see, we are quite proud of ourselves. I unfortunately was too hyper to contribute to the sand-person, hahahaha.

A shot that I took from the rocks on one end of the beach. Does this not look surreal? I don't think my memory would do it justice without these pictures.

The sunset sky while waiting for our ferry back to Fajardo (where we then had to take a taxi into San Juan). We only made it home by 10:30PM that night...VERY long day.

On my second last day we decided to explore Old San Juan in the day-time. So these birds were more common than pigeons, and DEFINITELY more fearless than pigeons. If you tried to shoo them away, they would just stare at you and take a step closer. I avoided them at all costs...didn't really want my eye pecked out.

The buildings in Old San Juan were my favorite.

The cobblestone streets in this part of town reminded me very much of the streets in the Cape Verdean islands. 

We came across some people who offered some jump-rope and a few friends thoroughly enjoyed it!

In front of a plaza/square in Old San Juan.

Old San Juan is surrounded by a few fortresses. These were built on the edge of cliffs to keep watch out over the atlantic ocean. They are very big and old structures. You would think the government would upkeep such historic buildings.

The streets of Old San Juan.

It is very interesting how every building is painted a different bright color. It makes this part of the city come to life and make people feel happier.

The main street in Old San Juan is Calle de la Fortaleza. At the start of this street is one of the fortresses and I believe there is another at the end of the street (but don't quote me on that!).

Almost everywhere you go, you can still see the ocean. It's scary to think what would happen if there were a tsunami or tidal wave were to hit, but beautiful to look at.

Seeing as we were in Old San Juan, we decided to visit the birth place of the Pina Colada cocktail. I was definitely not disappointed!

On the way back to our hotel from Old San Juan, the taxi driver was nice enough to stop in front of the congress building. It is a huge structure that, again, is so beautiful. In front of the structure, there is a block dedicated to a few US presidents. 

This structure and one in front of it outlined the purpose of the statues of the presidents...in spanish.

Of course I had to take a picture with Obama...it's OBAMA!

I mentioned Tsunami's earlier, but they're a real possibility for Puerto Rico. There are signs such as these all over San Juan and the other island that I visited. "Entering Tsunami Zone". I guess in such a small set of islands you will always be in a tsunami zone.

My final afternoon was spent on the beach. Puerto Rico was very kind to me while I visited. I was welcomed by warm weather, friendly people and the most satisfying food. I hope to one day visit it again and experience all else it has to offer.