Puerto Rico (pt. 1)

Last week we ventured away from Simon to go to Wiggo's wedding in Puerto Rico.  It was a much needed respite.  And it's one that we probably won't see for another 4 years or so.

We split the trip into two parts, the first half in Old San Juan for two days by ourselves (sort of true, we linked up with Will and Nicole on day two).  The last half was spend in Rio Grande by the beach with the wedding party.

Here's some of the sights from Old San Juan.

All the buildings have beautiful, bright colors of varying sherbet flavors.

We checked into our hotel, El Convento, a convent built in the 1600's across the street from the Cathedral, but converted to a hotel in the late 60s (1960's).

We started our first full day at La Bombonera, a cafe that has been around for at over 100 years so you know they know how to do it right.  Gourmet said "fail to visit La Bombonera, and you might as well leave empty-handed."  So we ate breakfast there twice.

 

What you see in front of Erinn besides her hot chocolate and my coffee are two mallorcas.  They're grilled pastries with butter inside and powdered sugar on top.  The one in the middle has bacon, egg and cheese.  Glory.  Walking around Old San Juan afterwards was like toting a rock around in your gut.  For Erinn I'm sure it felt like double.

We stumbled around OSJ with no particular agenda, quite a departure from the past two years.  We found this cruise ship where I'm showing you how awesome I think it is to be cooped up on a sideways hotel and only be able to see 6 hours worth of an island before departing for the next island.  Needless to say, the area around the cruise ship docks was filled with touristy crap.

So we continued walking.

This is looking back toward the fort way off in the distance.  I'll upload pictures from there soon.

After walking, we decided it would be neat to go to mass at the Cathedral, especially since it's the second oldest in the Western Hemisphere, built in 1651.

We thought it was going to be in the main part, but after sitting there for 10 minutes, I asked in my spanglish where mass was held...

It was here.  We were two of about 9 for the weekday mass, no A/C.  Obviously it was held in Spanish.  We held up quite well with the responses.

Doesn't seem like a very private confessional.

I didn't know she was Puerto Rican.

We lit two candles for two folks back home.  One for a baby that, if his 9+ pound birth weight was any indication, came too late.  And another for our friend's mom that left too early.