Snooty in San Juan

Puerto Rico might have been one of the best experiences ever. Yes it was a good time and a chance to dance and party in the streets but I was also able to experience lots of new things like trying fried Mofongo, or hiking in pouring down rain to La Mina Falls in the El Yunque National Rain forest. Everyday there was a new surprise and even though it is a tourist location this little island had a load of hidden treasures.

DAY 1

Almost every morning we would walk across the street to Kasalta, an upscale bakery that also served food. We would get our desserts or breakfast to go and come back and sit on the beautiful from porch.

We walked the streets, visited the beaches and asked locals what was there to do in the city. We got lots of answers but everyone was telling us to visit La Placita, a farmers market during the day but at night a whole different story. IT...WAS...LIT.  We danced in the streets for hours and those same streets were filled with so many people when it was time to go our taxi driver barely made it through.

DAY 2 

We stumbled along the cutest restaurant called Tresbe. Which means three b’s being bueno, bonita, y barato (good, beautiful, and cheap). This is a local saying and Tresbe was just that! It was a bright yellow shipping crate surrounded by street art, tables and string lights. We asked the waitress what was there to do in town and she was so excited to tell us about Santurce es Ley when she saw us looking at the art.

The food was amazing, being that Moe is vegetarian he was able to get vegetarian empanadas that he had been talking about since before we left. His veggie empanadas were better than our MEAT ones. We loved this restaurant so much we came back for tacos another day

DAY 3

We went to the rain forest which was sooo beautiful! Locals told us we would love it and that it was so big we would not be able to see it all in one day. Photos could not even capture the things we saw and we didn’t get to see it at all! There were leaves as big as us all over the place and bananas and bright tropical flowers everywhere. We drove 11 km (about 7 miles) up one of the mountains in the forest to hike  to La Mina Falls. The hike was about 2 hours but it was worth every bit of it. And as we got deeper and deeper into the forest the rain began to pour down harder. I was in love with every minute even being drenched in rain. On the way back down the moutain there were little shops you could eat at and get souvenirs. So we stopped to try pincho (chicken on a skewer) and got fresh coconuts to drink coconut water from. I have to go back because apparently we missed so much by not driving to the top.

We visited Old San Juan and drove to Castillo San Felipe del Morro (Morro Castle, which isreally a fort) unfortunately we were not able to go inside because they were setting up for a wedding but we were able to walk around and see other parts of the area like the historic cemetery right below. We later walked to Raices (another great restaurant) where we ate and tried Mofongo, fried mashed plantains. It was the bomb!

DAY 4

We woke up and walked to Santurce es Ley. We spent most of the day there.You can read all about that here.

I would totally go back! I may even stay in a different part of the island. I felt there was a lot that we missed like the bio bay, underground cave tours, and art museums. I would totally use the same Airbnb listing because it was gorgeous and in a great location but searching for a rental car took up half over our day, so lesson learned I will make a reservation for the the future. I can’t wait to go back again.