On New Year’s Eve, we flew from Madrid to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to begin a 10-day visit with my wife’s family there. We actually celebrated the New Year twice, first on the plane at midnight (Madrid time), and then at my sister-in-law’s house in Trujillo Alto, a suburb of San Juan, taking advantage of the 5-hour time difference.
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We landed in San Juan around 9 p.m. local time, picked up the rental car and drove to Trujillo Alto. We sat down for some food and drinks with my sister-in-law Damarys and her son Fabian who lives with her:
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Mother and son making a NYE selfie:
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Damarys lives in a subdivision called La Encantada. Many of her neighbours decorated their houses for the holidays:
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The fireworks at midnight:
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Damarys has a little dog, now a senior citizen at 14:
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On New Year’s Day I went for a short walk in the neighbourhood to look at the decorations. Like in Spain, the most important day of the Christmas celebrations in Puerto Rico is Three Kings’ Day (January 6th):
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Later in the day, we drove to San Lorenzo, the town where my wife’s parents live, about 45 minutes from Trujillo Alto. The kitchen was buzzing with activity:
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Chicharrones, one of the most popular Puerto Rican dishes. Deep-fried pork is not something to be eaten daily, but it sure tastes good:
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A plate of traditional Puerto Rican food–rice and beans, chicharrones and ñame:
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I explored my father-in-laws large garden. There is chihuahua here too:
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My father-in-law also keeps chickens in his back yard:
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There are lizards everywhere in Puerto Rico:
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I have no idea what these flowers are, but they do look pretty:
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San Lorenzo is a town of 38,000 people. My in-laws live outside the town centre, in a barrio called Jardines de Cerro Gordo, along this main road through the neighbourhood:
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There are not many places to walk in Jardines de Cerro Gordo, but one morning I walked to the nearby cemetery:
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I came across the family mausoleum of my father-in-law’s family:
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My wife’s grandfather lived to a ripe old age, the last couple of decades as a widower:
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Later in the day, we drove to the southern coast of Puerto Rico, our favourite part of the island. We passed this mangrove swamp near Guayama:
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We stopped at the Pozuelo beach:
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The area around Guayama is known for its roadside restaurants, and we stopped for lunch at La Casa De Los Pastelillos:
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The holiday was also in evidence here:
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The food: mofongo (a plaintain stew, one of my favourite dishes), alcapurrias and a pastelillo, a meat turnover. Everything was simply delicious:
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There were a couple of cats in the restaurant, and one of them visited us briefly:
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The next day we drove back to San Juan to spend the night with my sister-in-law. During the day, we went to Santurce, a cool and artistic part of San Juan. The parking lot where we left the car was decorated with a mural of Puerto Rican sports heroes:
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For me, the main attraction of Santurce is La Placita, a rectangular square housing a small indoor market and a multitude of bars and restaurants. It is a favourite spot among the locals. I had a couple of Cuba libres and took in the people around me:
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In the past, La Placita had a reputation as a bit of an unsafe place, but today it is a place where families with children feel comfortable too:
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The next day, Saturday, we walked around with Damarys and her son Fabian in Old San Juan. This is a beautiful part of the town, of course, but it is also infested with tourists. Still, I enjoyed seeing some familiar places, like this statue of Ponce de León in front of the Iglesia San José, which I remember from my first visit to Puerto Rico back in 1980:
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I had a coffee at this lovely little square called Plaza Felisa Rincón de Gautier:
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The owner of this car takes Christmas seriously:
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As a Dane, I am always pleased to see the presence of Danish companies in faraway places like San Juan:
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Fabian led us to a craft beer bar called La Taberna Lúpulo. I liked it very much:
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The beer selection is extensive, just look at the number of taps:
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An amusing “trophy cabinet”:
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My wife and Fabian at the table:
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After our walk in Old San Juan it was time for lunch. For that, we drove to a seaside area called Piñones, along this main road. As opposed to the famous Condado beach of San Juan, full of hotels housing mainly tourists from the mainland, Piñones is almost exclusively frequented by the locals. You just drive along this road and stop at a roadside bar that strikes your fancy:
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Man at work:
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But my companions were not yet ready to eat, so they had some tropical refreshments instead:
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Our destination was at the far end of Piñones, a roadside bar/eatery called Kiosko La Comay:
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The cook in contre-jour:
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A well-dressed dog:
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Social interaction:
I took many hundreds of pictures during the trip, and there are 3 separate galleries. A collection of photos from San Juan is here. There is another gallery from the rest of Puerto Rico. And a third gallery focuses on art I saw at the Puerto Rico Museum of Art and a gallery in San Juan.