A Medical Mystery: Birthday, Guánica, & Ponce

For my birthday extravaganza, Avanti and I followed the advice of the doctors in the clinic and went to the Fería Carnaval de Turismo in Mayagüez, a local fair with tons of food, artisan crafts, drinks ($1 Medallas!) and concert by some of the most well-known artists in the Spanish speaking world. The night that we were there, we saw a concert by Sie7e, and tried acla purias with our Medallas. The crowd was enormous. So enormous in fact, that you had to park at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez (or elsewhere) and take a shuttle bus in to the fair. We had some difficulty with the shuttles (because the stops were not marked!) but after asking 3 policías, I was able to figure it out.

If you want to get an idea of the music that Sie7e sings, here are two of our favorite Sie7e songs -- they play them on the radio nonstop! These two popular songs happen to be bilingual (most songs on the radio are either English or Spanish, rarely both). Most of his other songs are in Spanish entirely.

This weekend was started with a lazy day of rest on Saturday to allow us to plan for our more extensive trip on Sunday. During the morning, we met our landlord for the first time and afterwards went to lunch at a nearby coffee shop called Banana Dang. The cafe itself reminded me of an Ithacan eatery, complete with compostable utensils, chalkboard menus, and advertisements of the numerous healthy ingredients (flaxseed!) in their products. The place was not typical of Puerto Rican cafes at all, but the staff preferentially spoke English and it was clear that the place was founded by some homesick New Yorker, fed up with the lack of Starbucks on this island! Avanti and I ordered frappes (smoothie's.) Mine was made with coconut, vanilla, (flaxseed, of course), and banana. ¡Deliciosos!

Continuing our lazy afternoon, we took a trip to the historic faro de Rincón (Rincón lighthouse.) It's some hundred something years old and has since gone out of use, but the glory of the place is all in it's views of the ocean and it's beaches. This location is about a 5-8 minute drive from our house, and it is a shame that we didn't discover it until just now. There were a couple of women selling artisan crafts, some ice cream, older men sitting in a circle playing guitars and singing, and a bunch of people walking around taking in the view and snapping photos. It looks like the perfect place to return during future lazy afternoons with a picnic lunch and a book to read. From what we hear, the lighthouse has the best sunset on the island, because of it's location on the west coast, where of course, the sun sets. Look at the end of the post for more pictures of the view from the area around the lighthouse in Rincón!

Later in the night, we were able to take a long walk on the beach to the nearby hotel Villa Cofresi. Several doctors in the clinic ranted and raved about going to this hotel to try the famous "Pirata," which is a drink with a secret mix of alcohols and juices (mostly coconut milk) made inside of a freshly opened coconut. We enjoyed these drinks on the beachfront while listening to some talented hotel guests sing karaoke in front of a huge outdoor screen. The atmosphere was possibly the most lively we've seen so far. Good thing, the hotel is only a 10 minutes walk along the beachfront from our house!

When Sunday arrived, we were ready for a bit more action, so we set out early in the morning on our way to Guánica, in the south, to catch a boat to Guilligan's Island. This mangrove island is famous for the tv show of the same name, and boasts amazing coves and waterways filled with fish, and clear, waist-deep water. Although we knew how popular the place would be, we didn't realize that catching the ferry to this island was only for the lucky few. 200 people per day get to board the boat, and tickets sell out early (sometime around 7:30am). Although we were out of bed at the crack of dawn and made the hour and 15 minute trek to Guánica first thing in the morning, we still didn't arrive until almost 9, and tickets were long gone. Instead, we improvised by going to the nearby Caña Gorda beach, which was a fine substitute for our previously planned mangrove island. Caña Gorda was still a wonderful experience, but we will definitely be trying to return to Gilligan's Island for another shot before we leave at the end of the summer.

Our trip to Ponce, a city in the south of Puerto Rico, included a walk through tour of the Parque de Bomberos, an old firehouse built in the Spanish style that now houses a small, quaint museum to the islands former firemen. The building is in the city's center plaza, along with a church and a statue of I-forgot-who with a fountain. Across the street in the plaza was a famous ice cream parlor that became well known for it's homemade ice cream with fresh, local fruit. We tried the Parcha (passionfruit) and Tamarindo flavors, both to die for! We ate our ice cream in the plaza where there was some shade with trees, but other than that, the center city had little more to do.

The rest of Ponce included a trip downtown to the Museo de Arte and then some sightseeing at the Castillo de Serralles and La Cruceta del Vigía. The view was beautiful, but unfortunately we didn't get arrive in time, so the Castillo had run out of tours and closed - we couldn't even step inside. We did manage to ride the elevator up the cross to see the amazing view outside, but the several-decades-old display inside the cross left something to be desired. There were some nice Japanese gardens, which seemed somewhat out of place, but were enjoyable nonetheless.

As evening approached during our day in Ponce, we took to the car once again for a short trip downtown to La Guancha, a boardwalk off the southern coast the city, lined by kioskos (booths) that sell cheap drinks, cheap-and-expensive food, and some artisan crafts. We watched the sunset as we ate Chincharrones (a chicken dish) and Ensalata con Jueyes (crab salad), and then watched as the locals danced salsa to some live music that was being played. The boardwalk was beautiful, as you could see huge and colorful fish swimming in the water right below you, and the pelicans were sitting on the railings right next to the people. Children were teasing the large birds until they would try to snap at them, and then everyone would gasp and laugh. Overall, a nice night!

This post comes on a delay, and since writing this there have been many other adventures to share. I am working on catching up, but here are some more pictures that were taken during this time, with captions!