To each his Lechón

Warning: this post may not be suitable for herbivores, vegans, vegetarians... read at your own risk!

One of the most delicious foods of Puerto Rico is lechón, a whole pig that is slowly roasted over charcoal. Scattered along rural roadsides, you are likely to come across something called a Lechonera. This is where they prepare and serve the delicious slow roasted pork. 

Ethan and I first noticed these restaurants on our way to El Yunque one afternoon. As we were driving down one of the back roads, we noticed a huge line of people outside a building with someone out front furiously chopping up cuts of pork served alongside amarillos or sweet plantains, and arroz con gandules, also known as rice served with pigeon peas. And the cooks are there bright and early 6am to get ready for the day! 

After asking our landlords about these restaurants, they recommended a place nearby - Los Piñones - and we had to go check it out. When we first got there, it was not so easy figuring out where to place our order, where to pay, or where to pick up, since they display their food outside right next to the front door. However, this makes it easy to point at what you want because we didn't know the names of the dishes! Most of the Lechoneras also have a dining area, but we wanted to takes ours home since it was just around the corner. 

We also enjoyed some lechón at a different location after exploring the Camuy caves outside of Arecibo. Ethan overheard a tour guide informing his group that an excellent place to have lunch after visiting the caves was at "Rancho T" just down the road. We heeded his advice and it was quite delicious indeed. We even caught a glimpse of one of the cooks preparing to serve up some pork, hot off the skewer. Check out his sweet machete!

For more information on this famous Puerto Rican specialty, this article describes eating lechón in Puerto Rico quite eloquently: http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/travel/eating-roast-pig-in-guaynabo-puerto-rico.html

¡Buen Provecho!

¡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!