It’s been nearly a month since my last post and I can’t believe it’s March already! Does anyone know what happened to February? It feels like we just got back from Christmas but already it’s nearly spring and I fear March will go by just as fast - I'm off to Guatemala this week and Panama in a couple of weeks. With trips to look forward to that break up the month, before I know it, it will be April.
February went by in a whirl partly because I was back stateside for a week and a half in the middle of the month. I spent a week working in Michigan and sandwiched the weekends in Dallas. If the company’s paying, why not sneak in a visit to see some friends? The week in Michigan was good, hadn’t been there for any length of time in six or seven years. I didn’t realize how many people I know up there now, and honestly wouldn’t mind if that was my next stop. Though I doubt blogging about freezing my butt off will be as interesting!
To finish February, my friend Stacy came into town for the weekend. I was excited about having a visitor as I hadn’t since mid-November, and even then the visit was tainted by having to run that pesky 13.1 miles. She arrived wearing the pale February coat that drove me to the tanning beds every March and was determined to get some color. I had worked hard the weekends before my trip to get a nice tan in an attempt to make my Michigan-based coworkers a bit jealous, so already had a base. In hindsight, I should have been more forceful in my suggestion that she apply sunscreen right from the beginning, but I figured a forty-something year old woman would know better.
I was wrong. After four hours in the sun, she was nearly purple. And blistered. And swollen. Sure, she finally put some sun screen on after a half hour or so, but the damage was done. And so was our time on the beach for the rest of the weekend.
I figured this was a good opportunity to get out and explore some more of the island. I’m a bit reluctant to do it on my own, safety in numbers and all that. I was also ready to see the Caribbean side of the island. Envisioning white sandy beaches and mild surf (the Atlantic side can be a bit rough) we loaded Charlie in the car with us and south we went.
I was headed to La Parguera, an area a coworker said a lot of natives go on vacation. It took us nearly two hours to wind our way to the southwest side of the island in search of lunch and dipping our toes in the water (how worldly would Charlie be, having been in three major bodies of water?) Once again, Puerto Rico wasn’t what I was expecting. Not that I can really articulate what I WAS expecting, but having spent the vast majority of my life in the commercialism that is the U.S. of A, I guess I was hoping for a bit more development. Structure. The look of a beachside area that catered to tourists. Instead, we found a few street side vendors and a waterfront surrounded by foliage that made it look more like a lake than the Caribbean. And it was surprisingly desolate during a Saturday afternoon in what is supposed to be tourist season. But I guess if it’s where the locals go, that should have been expected as it wasn’t Spring Break quite yet.
We took a brief walk around and headed back to Ponce, where I’d been told there was a nice boardwalk of restaurants and bars. And I was still hoping for that white sandy Caribbean beach. We found the boardwalk, parked, and promptly headed to the beach. And again, didn’t find what I’d expected. The beach was small, the waves were rough, and the sand was course; more like ground gravel than the fine white powder of my imagination. Regardless, all three of us stuck our feet in, just to say that we did. We walked up the boardwalk in search of lunch, and settled in for some traditional Puerto Rican fare. I went with the beef mofongo and Stacy had the fried pork with tostones. I love me some mofongo and couldn’t resist swiping a tostone. Plantains are good, especially when mashed or fried - or both, as is the case with mofongo.
We were lazy bums on Friday night, after drinking on the beach all afternoon, but Saturday we managed to make it to Old San Juan. Rather than commit to one restaurant, we set out on a drink and appetizer tour that took us around the world in one evening. In just a few hours and in a one block radius, we managed Asian, Puerto Rican, Indian and Mexican. Old San Juan really is worth a look. The city is something like 500 years old; the streets are paved with blue cobble stones and the architecture looks every bit its age. Good times. Then of course after all that wine, what else to do but head to the casino?
Sunday we had brunch with insta-friend and then hung out, hoping to watch a Daytona 500 that never happened. We had some evening cocktails and took it easy before putting her on a plane the next morning. All in all, a good time. So, who’s next?
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