June 11th, 2010 -- San Juan, Puerto Rico

I left my camera at home the first day in Puerto Rico so I borrowed pictures from our first day (6/11/2010) from Ayaka. Thanks Ayaka!

I should mention one awesome thing about taking the plane to and from Puerto Rico: when the plane lands everyone on the plane cheers like we just won a championship game. It's good to be reminded to be grateful for things we often overlook, like not dying in a plane crash.

We visited Castilla San Cristobal, the second largest fort in San Juan.It was our first day in Puerto Rico, so the heat was oppressive. Not to mention that we woke up late because of our 1am arrival that same morning.Combined with the stark architecture of the fort and the bleak colonial history, I feel like the heat really allowed us to empathize with the soldiers stationed there for hundreds of years. The soldiers had to wear very stuffy uniforms, complete with socks, ruffles, vests, jackets, and hats. We were wearing shorts and tank tops and still felt like melting. Here's an upstanding soldier, whose facial expression I mocked.

But on the upside, these soldiers had spectacular views. Apparently people believe that throwing coins onto the external window sills of the fort would grant their wishes. The vastness of the Caribbean certainly seems to suggest omnipotence.

After staring at the sea for so long we decided to go get in it. There are two resort neighborhoods in San Juan near Old San Juan called Condado and Isla Verde. We, who were staying in a guest house (very very cheap motel-type lodging) wanted to taste a bit of the good life and also see some nice beaches. We rode the bus from Old San Juan Terminal, soaking in the public transportation experience too. I am my father's daughter. I loved riding the bus and hearing people's interactions as well as seeing people doing everyday things, not just people doing tourist-related business.

We arrived to the resort areas after about 40 minutes, so while the bus wasn't fast, I enjoyed it.

Obligatory beach photo:

The water was very warm and the beach was clean. After messing around awhile taking "Vogue photo shoot" pictures, we stopped into a sports bar that was open to the beach. There were a bunch of locals there as well as tourists. One guy struck up a conversation with us and recommended we go to Luquillo and told us that he had lived in New York but now lived in Puerto Rico. We met a lot of people who had done that. There is definitely a strong connection between New York and Puerto Rico. 

Ayaka had the local beer, Medalla, and I had a mango mojito. It was delicious. This experience convinced me of the therapeutic powers of drinking in the afternoon in a sports bar on the beach. I prescribe it to anyone with anxiety problems.

After brushing the sand off our legs, we wandered into various luxury hotels' lobbies. They were snazzy and it was fun to scope out the clientele.

We both agreed that we wanted this chair for our homes. I am holding the coffee I bought for my dad from a local coffee shop. It was grown in Jajuya, a region famous for coffee that we visited later in this trip.

We returned home and rested a bit but soon set out determined to eat local food: mofongo. Mofongo is a dish  where one stuffs a cake-looking thing made out of seasoned plantains with a meat filling. Wanting some greens (a rare commodity in PR) we ordered a "King Crab salad." We should have known that at $8.95 it was not to be real crab.

So it was fake crab, that's alright. The pork mofongo was delicious. I recommend that anyone who has a chance to eat it do so. We were served very soft baguette-sized bread with seasoned butter too. Soft white bread seems to be the default bread in Puerto Rico.

Here's Ayaka dressed up for salsa and looking cute. We luckily arrived on a Friday, so the nightlife was buzzing, well it got buzzing around 11pm or 12am. The streets were full of tourists from Latin countries, maybe the culture of siesta and late meals meant that nightlife was also late? It took some adjusting too.

That night, we went to Cafe Nuyorican for the first time. The salsa band (Salsa La Femme) didn't start until 11:30pm so we killed time by wandering the streets and drinking at random bars. We ended up dancing from 11:30pm to 2:30am. It was awesome to be able to dance so much, and , exhausted, we fell asleep promptly in our little room back at the Fortaleza Guest House.