Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Can I go back to the beach yet?

A Puerto Rico Adventure

This is my last post on Puerto Rico. If you missed any of the others you can view them here:

Puerto Rico

 

I posted about the food. I posted about the historical sites in Old San Juan and fabulous beaches. I talked about the great rum tours. You know how sometimes when you go on a vacation there's always a few things that fall through the cracks? Well here's some great things that I loved about San Juan but didn't post about...

The hammock our condo had. It was so great that one of the people in our group slept in it. Right outside on the balcony.

 Salsa dancing!

 Colorful Old San Juan

 

 Lizards just hanging out.

 And that sums it up!

History in Puerto Rico

San Juan is home to two historical landmarks. The first one that we saw was Castillo de San Cristobal.

 entering

 

Castillo de San Cristobal is a Spanish fort that was created by Spain to protect San Juan from attacks. They finished building it in 1783 and was the largest fortification built by the Spanish in the New World. 

 view of the sea

 Another view of the sea and another section of the fort

 

 walls of the fort

 Cannon balls which I'm sure I wasn't suppose to touch.

The second and larger we visited was Castillo San Felipe del Morro. It is located on the other end of Old San Juan.

 This guy was just chilling. The people didn't freak him out at all.

 looking for the imp from Game of Thrones

 pardon my face. I was very burned there.

The Fort was very nice and I liked it the most out of the two that we visited. It was very rich with history and I can't imagine what it was like hundreds of years ago. I also can't imagine what it was like to stand there in armor and look at the sea for hours in the humidity and heat of San Juan. Now I understand why they had been captured so many times. Those poor guys probably couldn't keep the sweat out of their eyes.

If you're in San Juan make sure to take the trek to both of these forts!

Beaches in Puerto Rico

While I was in Puerto Rico, I visited two beaches: Condado and Isla Verda. Both beaches are easily accessible from Old San Juan and offer great amenities around them. The first of the two that I visited was Isla Verda.

It was by far my favorite beach of the two. The waves were just right. The sand was silky and smooth and the water was that perfect blue/green that you could see thru. It's close to restaurants, hotels, bathrooms! They also had a guy on the beach who was taking coconuts and cutting them open right there for coconut water.

I sported my vintage bathing suit.... pardon the fattiness.

 

The second beach that we visited was Condado. This beach was closer to Old San Juan and a little more crowded.

I am a self proclaimed beach lover but out of the two I have to say that I liked Isla Verda more than Condado. I will say that Condado had a great beach bar/restaurant right on the sand that we loved. They had great food and the hotel seemed nice from what we saw. It was the Atlantic Beach Resort at Condado.

Get In My Belly

Before I left for Puerto Rico I had three fears.

1. The water.

2. Getting kidnapped and finding myself holding a newspaper in a polaroid.

3. The food.

 

I drank bottled water or filtered water the entire trip. Puerto Rico is also a U.S. Territory so I'm sure that helps out with the fact that the water was clean. I also didn't find myself with a bag over my head, counting my fingers a toes while smiling for a polaroid ransom note. Now... the food. That was in all honesty my biggest fear. I'm a very picky eater. I'm not a fan of spicy food because it tends to upset my stomach. I can also get a very wicked case of heartburn and since I've only had that a few times in my life, I do not wish to repeat it. I was so nervous about the food, I thought about pulling a Charlotte from SATC and packing pudding in my suitcase. BUT I didn't. I braved it and ate the food. And it was gooooooooood.

 

First up, Caficultura.

We ate there twice for breakfast. The food was really good and worth the wait. Each morning the place was packed out. It's also a place that's close for people stopping on cruise ship excursions. You can sit inside or outside but we chose the inside because it was the first seating available and air conditioning. I can never eat while I'm sweating.

The café offered a good selection of food and drinks and in the coffee they had designs that changed with each drink.

 

Here's the spinach wrap and the turkey/cheese croissant...

 

Next up we got pizza from Pirilo Pizza Rustica!

 

It was amazing! We had to wait forever because the place was packed. I'm talking so packed people were standing on the sidewalk outside. We were determined to eat here because we looked for this place for an entire hour.

 

We also ate at Oceano by the beach. It was just ok. The place was nice, the setting was beautiful but the food was way over priced. If you don't mind spending 28.00 on a small portion of chicken then this is your place! The best food I tasted while in San Juan was actually next door to Oceano. We found it by chance and it was a great place for lunch on the beach. It was the Atlantic Beach Bar that's attached to the Atlantic Beach Hotel on Condado beach.

This is how close you eat to the beach...

 

I only had one bad food experience in PR. It was in Old San Juan. It was at Sofia's Kitchen. We hadn't read anything about this restaurant. We were hungry, walking around and couldn't find our first choice for food. We saw their menu outside and thought that it looked good. The restaurant itself is clean and nicely decorated. However, the food was awful. The meat was freezing cold. The service wasn't that great either. I would avoid it at all costs. The dinner menu wasn't good and it wasn't worth it. I went got a meal after leaving this place that's how bad it was.