March 7, 2016 Puerto Rico:  The Island of Enchantment

Puerto Rico: The Island of Enchantment

 

By: Nancy Esteves

[email protected]

In need of a quick, sunny getaway for Spring break?

San Juan Puerto Rico offers an easy breezy more- than- just-beautiful-beaches vacation perfect for R&R and unplugging with a twist of adventure.

There are a lot of nice things to say about the island, but most fascinating are the very friendly, happy locals. When you stroll around the town, they more than often greet you.  They actually go out of their way to offer assistance, so you can count on friendly service, and that can make or break a vacation.

There’s an enchanting culture here: A mélange of indigenous Taino culture combined with European and African influences that are depicted in their cuisine to the lively music and from its colorful history to the beautiful art and architecture.

I don’t know what I like better– It’s a toss-up between the salsa music and the “mofongo” (local dish). Both definitely are stand outs on this island!

Accommodations:

If you like oceanfront luxury, the San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, a four-diamond hotel on Condado Beach offers an unbeatable location just steps from white sands and crystal-clear waters — ideal for water sports enthusiasts and sun worshippers alike offering the best beach in San Juan to bask in.

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A variety of electrifying nightclubs like their Red Coral Lounge, great  restaurants and extreme outdoor activities are nearby as well. It’s conveniently near San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, just a 5-mile drive away and minutes from Old San Juan. What’s great is that you can actually walk to many places for sightseeing and dining.

San Juan Marriott Resort_Beach View

The 21-story Marriott features 525 upscale rooms , plush Revive beds and balconies with breathtaking ocean views. You’ll find a lushly landscaped oceanfront pool, swim-up bar, kid’s pool with water slide, a hot tub, tennis and volleyball courts. Also on-site are the Stellaris Casino, fitness center with sauna, arcade/game room, Italian restaurant, buffet restaurant, a Latin grill and lounge with pool-and-ocean views. Spa services are available at their Ocean Club Wellness Center.

If you want to just hangout by the beach or pool, you should try their mean Dragonberry Mojito, the signature cocktail of the resort’s Red Coral Lounge, a complement to a perfectly blissful afternoon. The hotel also offers a taste of Puerto Rican culture with an authentic lechon experience overlooking the beach. Inspired by Guavate lechoneras in the island’s mountains, this lechon pig roasting is a unique way to spend some time by the beach while having lunch.

Their La Vista Latin Grill offers a never ending breakfast buffet and an amazingly scrumptious Eggs Benedict. For dinner, they have great tapas, their sea bass is delicious, and they have the mofongo of the day Yucca Mofongo or Trifongo (Yucca, Sweet Plantains, and Plantains) and an excellent selection of wines. The chef prepares son terrific appetizers.

www.marriottsanjuan.com.

 

TOURING PUERTO RICO

There are plenty of things to do including hiking through El Yunque rain forest, kayaking at night in a bioluminescent bay and touring Old San Juan.

The old, walled city has, particularly in the past few years, been exquisitely preserved and, between visiting its sprawling forts and distinctive blue-glazed cobblestone narrow streets filled with antique shops and art galleries, it’s definitely a first-stop on any new visitor’s sightseeing agenda. Its mainstream attractions include the imposing El Morro fort, which dates back to 1539; the Cathedral of San Juan, where the island’s first governor, Ponce de Leon, is buried; La Fortaleza, the oldest governor’s mansion on U.S. soil; several colonial plazas; and Calle del Cristo, Calle San Jose and Calle Fortaleza streets for the best shopping. Calle del Cristo, in particular, is replete with art galleries, artisan studios and distinctive boutiques.

Our group took the “Walk & Taste Tour”, http://www.spoonfoodtours.com with the amazing [email protected] . During the walking tour she took us to Don Ruiz – Roastery, Museum & Café.

As visitors enter Café Don Ruiz, one of the newest artisan coffee shops to open in Old San Juan, you’ll find it overlooks the courtyard of Cuartel Ballajá, a former military barrack. The coffee shop houses a small museum showcasing coffee-growing and related antiques. Coffee is a family tradition and has been since 1900 when Don Ruiz began to live his dream, cultivating the richest and best tasting coffee possible. His legacy remains, with the family taking great pride in its product, inviting visitors to smell it, taste it and feel the enchantment of Puerto Rico one cup at a time.

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We made our way to the famous Hotel El Convento (100 Cristo Street;elconvento.com), an Old San Juan institution. The name derives from the grand building’s history: founded as a convent — the first in Puerto Rico — it housed Carmelite nuns for 250 years and for a time was a flophouse. The structure was rebuilt years later as a hotel. The bar and restaurant overlooking the grand open-air courtyard is the perfect spot to grab great local tapas, dinner or a drink.

Later we moved on for some serious business at Princesa Gastrobar, http://www.princesapr.com. La Princesa, a former prison facility is located in La Puntilla section of Old San Juan. The building, constructed during the XIX century, in the 1837 by the Spanish government. La Princesa (The Princess) building was named to honor the Spanish Princess of Asturias. The Paseo la Princesa was designed following the same architectural design model found at the El Prado Promenade in Madrid and the Habana Promenade in Cuba. Here you can sample the Rums of Puerto Rico, and I mean any kind. Their rum connoisseurs will give you a lesson on rum and cocktails, mojitos and other specialty drink. Pair it with the Tostonachos, Fried Plantain topped with “Ropa Vieja (shredded beef stew)” and Chicken stew covered with melted mozzarella cheese for a terrific meal.

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ECO ADVENTURE

So we headed out for Island Kayaking at Las Croabas, Fajardo for a “Once-in-a-Lifetime” Bioluminescent Experience with www.kayakadventurespr.com. Fajardo’s bioluminescent bay is one of few scattered around Puerto Rico – and one of the last that remain on the planet. I experienced this rare phenomenon of nature gliding through the tranquil “Laguna Grande” surrounded by mangroves.

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One of the most spectacular sights on this night trip was to witness hundreds of tiny star-like bioluminescent plankton scintillating as you move through the dark water. When you wave your paddle through the water in front of you, and you will see tiny glowing specs of plankton or Dinoflagellates which are tiny unicellular marine plankton also known as fire plants.

Eco Adventure guides call the flotilla of Kayakers together, and then we launch our kayaks and head for a hidden opening in the mangroves at the northern end of the beach. Upon entering the mangroves, we follow a channel for a mile that leads to the “Laguna Grande”.  On the way back it is pitch black through the mangroves with a little light in the front of the kayak. Mangrove trees provide nutrients for the glowing plankton; it is also a habitat for bats (yes bats). So as we traveled through the pitch black, when we flashed our small light, that’s when we saw them, many of them, and I totally freaked, apparently for no reason. There are approximately thirteen bat species in Puerto Rico which mainly eat insects and although they are scary looking, they are apparently harmless.

Dining/Nightlife

There are a lot of great restaurant in Puerto Rico, I visited Condal (Condado) and sampled an assortment of tapas in a beautiful ambiance.  And the nightlife is more than lively; we went to La Placita, almost like a little block party, a great place to have drinks and food with a lot of ambiance.

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I ended up back at the Marriott’s Red Coral Lounge to listen to some great salsa and learn the local salsa moves.

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