e & e do PR

We arrived at 3pm, took a cab to Hotel El Convento.

The hotel is gorgeous!  The staff is extremely friendly, and we found that we had been upgraded to a suite.

We decided to settle into the hotel for a few hours before venturing out to explore old San Juan.  The rooms are really nice in the hotel and I'd definitely recommend staying here.  In fact we'd stay here again next time we're in Puerto Rico,  It's right in the heart of the old city and truly a boutique hotel.


Here's a view of the courtyard at Hotel El Convento.

There's a tapas bar, a 300-some year old tree, and in the mornings this is where breakfast is served.


And here's a view of our bedroom from the hotel.  Just perfect.  At 6pm they have a wine and cheese reception on the 3rd floor balcony.  It's really nice.  That same area is where you can get coffee all day/night, where their complementary computers are, and where the honor bar is.  And there's an outside staircase that leads to the tiny, but deep pool and the hot tub.

That hot tub is really nice also because you can soak and watch the cruise ships come in.

I have to add that the staff here really goes above and beyond.  More on that later, but for today, this is a top-notch place that we'll definitely stay in again.  As a matter of fact, we decided to cut our island stay short by a day and come back here to stay.

For dinner, the staff recommended a little dive-type place called El Jibarito.  It's within walking distance.  The food wasn't great, but wasn't terrible.  It was definitely affordable.  We both had Mofongo, a Puerto Rican specialty that's plantains shaped into a bowl-like shape with some meats in the middle.  I had the chicken and my wife the shrimp.  If you go there, definitely get the garlic sauce and the hot sauce as the Mofongo here is kind of bland.

Their Pina Colada was ok as well.  Not great, not terrible.  Still, very interesting to eat here and with a sense of locals.  We saw a few couples with young children.




We also took a walk around the old city.  We saw the shrine to San Christobel (pictured) and the city at night was just beautiful.  There was a lot of construction work going on while we were there.




Finally we capped off the night with a few Mojitos at the Tapas bar in the hotel.  These were so worth it!

We started out early in the morning (around 9 am) waiting for E&B tours for our El Yunque experience.  We checked our bags at Hotel El Convento since we checked out today in order to take the ferry to Vieques.

We were met in a rather large, air-conditioned van by Edwin.  He spoke good English and knew his way around San Jaun and the island of Puerto Rico.  First stop was at El Portal Rain Forest Center.

This was an interesting building with lots of exhibits about the rainforest, a gift shop, and a snack bar.  One cool thing about this place is that it's built high up so you're in the canopy of the trees.  Neat for bird watching.  Edie and I missed breakfast so split a chicken quesadilla around 11am.  I asked for a brochure, but all they had was a photocopied black and white flyer.  Still it was good because it provided an idea of where we were in the rainforest.

I'm glad we did too, because we didn't finish the tour until about 2 pm and we would have been starving!

Here we are at La Coca Falls.  Picture taken by Bob, an interesting fellow we met on the tour who was in PR from Alaska, looking for places to relocate.  You can check his photoblog at http://robertospuertorico.com/  This is the first stop in the park proper, and folks would stop their cars to let you take pictures and walk across the street to the falls.

On the other side of the street, you can see where these falls come out.  There's a really pretty rocky stream there.  Apparently as this was more low season, and as there hadn't been a whole lot of rain, the falls aren't as grand in this picture as they usually are.  Still, really interesting.

Next, we headed to the Yakahu tower, an observation post built in the '60s that has 98 steps to the top.  But way worth every one.  It looks like an old castle, but the views are spectacular.  You can see to the ocean.  Plus, climbing the tower gives one a really nice and cool breeze.  I couldn't believe the views.  After the tower, we headed to the start of our hike to La Mina Falls.  75 feet tall and freezing cold!  I went for a swim.  This was nice, although my feet were wet and this set me up for blisters for the rest of the hike back.  Tip:  bring a spare pair of shoes and socks!