at mamasonga's, my standard bacon and eggs were not spectacular although my home fries ought to have been crispier. same with my bacon. to be fair, az loved her french toast. it must be the bread. once they started serving lunch, i ordered a crab cake sandwich. a posting on the interwebs reviewed it as divine. it wasn't. the crab cake was mushy. Perhaps there's something wrong with the frying pan? the bread, however, was pretty darned good.
the bacon and eggs with anemic potatoes
the french toast
the crab cake sandwich
although i can't rave about the food at mamasonga's, i thought the service was most excellent. the employees, mostly expats from mid western to eastern states, i.e. where snow can shut down schools, were friendly and helpful. they called us a "publico," basically public transport, to take us to the airport after they found out that the taxi driver arranged by our landlord to pick us up couldn't pick us up. apparently, a gas shortage on the island (as in the only two gas stations on the island were closed because they ran out of gas) meant his vehicle was inoperable. i still don't understand how the gas shortage made his phone inoperable as to prevent him from letting us know that we were still waiting for him.
but i digress. mamasonga staff? great. food? not so much.
alas, our time in vieques was up. but we saw one last wildlife before we left. that lizard was HUGE!
after a twenty minute flight on another cessna, we were in san juan and jarred back into city life.
in san juan, life appeared to be like any other metropolis (complete with the traffic jam). we only had less than 24 hours to enjoy san juan so we were out and about immediately.
we stayed at a former convent converted into a funky hotel called da house in old san juan. it was close to the san cristobal fort, which was our first visit. the views were terrific.
i love these guard towers. the spanish pretty much knew how to defend its territories. i saw similar ones in the old city walls of cadiz.
old cannon balls
view of el morro and the coast from the san cristobal fort
next, we walked about a mile along the old city walls towards el morro, another fort. it was really cool at el morro. it was family day and the locals were out and about flying kites. it was a beautiful sight.
inside el morro
instead of a typical circular stairway, this was triangular
thereafter, we just walked around and saw random things:
the cathedral
the mini park in front of the cathedral
someone was getting married in front of this sculpture
sunset by el morro
san cristobal fort at night
for dinner, we went to el jibarito. it was crowded with tourists and locals alike. there was no ambiance to speak of but the food did not need any such mood enhancers. i had a special plate of roasted pork chunks and pork tamale (the orange stuff) with rice, plantains and some salad. i also had a side dish of mofongo de platano (a mashed mound of plantains).
az had some kind of pot roast and a mofongo de yucca (a mashed mound of yucca).
the food wasn't pretty. but the food was definitely tasty.
after such a filling meal, we walked around towards the pier where we found the locals just chillaxing. there was a night flea market where people sold tobacco, jewelry, crafts and food. it was such a lively scene. so az and i participated by enjoying dessert. i had a batida de papaya (papaya shake) and az had a mantecado con brownie (a brownie sundae).
we walked around some more and when we finally got our fill of the streets, we headed back to our hotel, which was right next to the nuyorican cafe. it was basically a bar with a live band playing latin jazz and salsa. it was a good band with great energy but it didn't start playing till midnight. i think i am getting too old because i was tempted to just go to sleep without seeing the band play.
i may have been too old to stay up till the wee hours but i was young enough to appreciate that i had an enjoyable day. puerto rico may have beautiful beaches but the culture, art, food and history were definitely engaging.
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