¡Feliz Año Nuevo! / Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! We hope you all had a fun time ringing in the new year. Our friend Mercedes came to visit us for a few days and we had a great time on New Year's Eve. We started off the day touring the Bacardí distillery in Cataño... how can you beat a free tour with free drinks?!? After the tour, we headed to Old San Juan for a Puerto Rican dinner at Mojito's Restaurant. We shared a large pitcher of Sangria, and I ordered the cod stew with tostones while Ethan and Mercedes each ordered the mofongo. It was all delicious! We were a little put off that they did not have any mint to make mojitos... Seriously? A restaurant named Mojito's that runs out of ingredients to make their most famous drink!? In any case, we enjoyed our food. After our meal, we wandered around Old San Juan in the hopes of enjoying children playing in the square and seeing some fireworks. Instead, it seemed like everything was closing early and very few people were out and about. We noticed that Calle Fortaleza was being closed off to traffic, so we asked a local police officer what was going on - this also gave me a chance to practicar mi Español! :-D He told us that the governor's inauguration was the following morning, and the new governor rides down the street around Old San Juan and up to the Capitol building where the inauguration takes place. Turns out, the only new year's festivities taking place in San Juan were in Condado at the fancy hotels which required a fancy cover charge to get into the parties. Era demasiado caro para nosotros. So we then decided to head back to our house on the hill to watch the show of fireworks that would be set off all over San Juan. We were so glad we ended up back at the house to see that!

The video doesn't come close to witnessing the real thing, but it will certainly give you an idea of the quantity of fireworks that went off that night. It was like Gangbusters! (you can hear me saying this in the video, haha!)

We explored quite a bit of the island on several day trips while Mercedes was here. Here are some of the highlights:

The Dry Forest and The Southern Coastline

Passing by Bahina de Bellana or Bellana Bay on

our way to the dry forest in Guánica

Rocky Cliffs off the Meseta trail in

Bosque Estetal de Guánica aka the dry forest

Coves created from the waves washing away the limestone rock

Walking around the cliffs

Interesting limestone rock formations just past 

Bellena Bay

Mercedes on the cliff

Some of the cliffs had tons of little crabs living on the limstone near the ocean. Hard to see in this picture and when you approached them, they ran away fast!

 Dinner in Ponce, PR

After the coast we head to Ponce for some dinner. On the left is the Typical Puerto Rican Christmas dinner at Casa de Las Tias in Ponce that Ethan had and on the right is the dish that Mercedes and I shared.

pork chop, rice with pigeon peas, and a pastele
(pasteles are similar to tamales except they use plantain instead of corn)

 Red snapper stuffed with shrimp
in a spicy tomato basil sauce...mmm!

Exploring Camuy Caves

Mouth of Camuy Caves near Arecibo, PR

Inside the Camuy Caves near Arecibo, PR

 

Hiking El Yunque National Park

 Juan Diego Falls in El Yunque Rainforest

Reaching Picachos Peak along the El Yunque Trail
(This was the best view from the top as we were engulfed in clouds)

 

Bumming on the Beach

Our favorite beach of all: La Playa Mar Chiquita in Manatí, PR. A small cove created by limestone rocks that enclose the beach. It was gorgeous!

La Playa Mar Chiquita in Manatí, PR.

Overall, we had a great visit with Mercedes and got to see more of the island. We can't wait for our next visitors!