Puerto Rico Vacation Continued

While in Puerto Rico, we managed to pull ourselves from the beautiful sunsets, calm ocean breeze and had some adventures. First we played golf at The Trump International Golf Course. Which is where the PGA plays the Puerto Rican open.
The views were absolutely breath taking. All the holes had panoramic views of El Yunque Rain forest and some other holes were over looking the ocean. It had the best looking views I had ever seen on a golf course. 

For lunch we ate at the golf course restaurant. It was a nice restaurant for a golf course. It offered a full bar, the menu included the typical Club, chicken, and tuna sandwiches, Burgers and also some Puerto Rican entrees. We ordered some club sandwiches with fries. It was exceptional, especially coming from a clubhouse restaurant, but then again this was Trump golf course.

Viejo San Juan was our next outing, it is a great place to visit and venture into. Our first stop in Old San Juan was to take a ferry and visit the Bacardi Rum factory. It was an interesting tour and trip. First off they give you a history of Bacardi and walk you though a museum like building. They also give each visitor two drink vouchers, which you could walk up to the bar and order your favorite Bacardi cocktail, or ask for some suggestions. The tour and drinks are free of cost; it was a good way to spend part of our day. 

Then we walked the streets of Old San Juan, the buildings had beautiful architecture with interesting history, No two buildings were the same. 

For lunch we found our selves at Mojito's restaurant. It was a casual dinner setting. The food was great, I finally ordered pork mofongo, and Anna had the churrasco with rice and beans and yuca mofongo. Now when I say that I finally ordered pork mofongo, I mean that before I only ordered it as a side dish, but when I ordered it as a main course it was an absolute flavor explosion. I highly recommend everyone ordering the pork mofongo. Anna’s Churrasco was cooked perfect and great flavor. The yuca mofongo was good but it was more of fried yuca and we thought it was missing a mojo sauce. It was a filling dinner, very authentic exactly what Old San Juan was all about, our day at Old San Juan was relaxing and eventful. 

Another day we visited one of Puerto Rico’s most famous beaches luquillo beach. Luquillo beach is what an ideal Caribbean beach looks like. The water is Crystal clear with the sparkling sun shining off the water, baby blue skies, and amazing panoramic views.

There were a couple of men walking up and down the beach with an ice cream cart. We walked up to him and tasted a pacha ice cream it was more of a sorbet it had no cream, and also coconut and pineapple. It was amazing and refreshing. Pacha is passion fruit they use it a lot in Puerto Rico, it is tart and sweet very original taste, I am hoping we can find that flavor at home. 

After spending the afternoon at the beach we headed down the street where there is a line of restaurants called Kiosk. All the restaurants offer typical Puerto Rican cuisine, and also some “American Fare” such as Burgers and hot dogs. Most of these restaurants if not all have a sitting area in the back over looking the ocean. We ate at the La Parrilla and ordered two plantain soups one of Seafood and one of pork. Then we shared a whole grilled Lobster stuffed with shrimp and crabmeat.

After the beach Seafood was the perfect choice. We were in a bit of a rush as we wanted to go into El Yunque Rainforest (link) as they closed at 5:00 pm. Driving on winding roads up a mountain was quite an experience. The roads were narrow and it was only two lanes one lane up and one lane down. Every winding turn was a blind turn and often met with a car traveling opposite of us, it was an adventure of it self. We stopped by a small waterfall to take photos and then I was informed of another waterfall with a swimmable river about 5 minutes away. What we then found out after arriving at the next waterfall was that it was a thirty-minute hike down the mountain to reach the river and waterfall. I was super pumped and I thought we could make it in about 15 to 20 minutes, long story short I was wrong. But the hike inside the rainforest was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. The wonderful sounds of rushing water afar, the birds chirping these frogs called Coqui, which make this curiously relaxing sound unique to Puerto Rico. It is what every spa tries to reproduce in their soundtrack, but nothing compares to  hearing it live. We couldn’t make it to the main waterfall but we did stop at some rushing creeks, and walked inside the ice-cold water. We were intercepted by a park ranger who advised us we had to start heading back up as the rainforest was closing for visitors. As we were heading up we had the opportunity to ask him questions about the rainforest, and even asked about tasting the water. He quickly and enthusiastically responded with yes the water is delicious and he showed us where was a good spot to cup our hands and taste pure natural clean water. It was very good and refreshing. Driving back down the mountain it had amazing views over looking the ocean. This was the last full day we spent in Puerto Rico and it was a wonderful ending to a great vacation.