{"id":4545,"date":"2025-01-21T07:51:40","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T06:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4545"},"modified":"2025-01-21T09:55:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T08:55:26","slug":"week-01-entering-2025-in-puerto-rico","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4545","title":{"rendered":"Week 01: entering 2025 in Puerto Rico"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

1_1<\/strong>
\nWe 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:
\n\"DSF3285\"<\/p>\n

1_2<\/strong>
\nMother and son making a NYE selfie:
\n\"DSF3294\"<\/p>\n

1_3<\/strong>
\nDamarys lives in a subdivision called La Encantada. Many of her neighbours decorated their houses for the holidays:
\n\"DSF3292\"<\/p>\n

1_4<\/strong>
\nThe fireworks at midnight:
\n\"DSF3296\"<\/p>\n

1_5<\/strong>
\nDamarys has a little dog, now a senior citizen at 14:
\n\"DSF3304\"<\/p>\n

1_6<\/strong>
\nOn 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):
\n\"DSF3308\"<\/p>\n

1_7<\/strong>
\n\"DSF3306\"<\/p>\n

1_8<\/strong>
\nLater 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:
\n\"DSF3312\"<\/p>\n

1_9<\/strong>
\nChicharrones<\/em>, one of the most popular Puerto Rican dishes. Deep-fried pork is not something to be eaten daily, but it sure tastes good:
\n\"DSF3310\"<\/p>\n

1_10<\/strong>
\nA plate of traditional Puerto Rican food–rice and beans, chicharrones and \u00c3\u00b1ame<\/em>:
\n\"DSF3313\"<\/p>\n

1_11<\/strong>
\nI explored my father-in-laws large garden. There is chihuahua here too:
\n\"DSF3320\"<\/p>\n

1_12<\/strong>
\nMy father-in-law also keeps chickens in his back yard:
\n\"DSF3323\"<\/p>\n

1_13<\/strong>
\nThere are lizards everywhere in Puerto Rico:
\n\"DSF3325\"<\/p>\n

1_14<\/strong>
\nI have no idea what these flowers are, but they do look pretty:
\n\"DSF3326\"<\/p>\n

1_15<\/strong>
\nSan Lorenzo is a town of 38,000 people. My in-laws live outside the town centre, in a barrio<\/em> called Jardines de Cerro Gordo, along this main road through the neighbourhood:
\n\"DSF3387\"<\/p>\n

1_16<\/strong>
\nThere are not many places to walk in Jardines de Cerro Gordo, but one morning I walked to the nearby cemetery:
\n\"DSF3337\"<\/p>\n

1_17<\/strong>
\nI came across the family mausoleum of my father-in-law’s family:
\n\"DSF3339\"<\/p>\n

1_18<\/strong>
\nMy wife’s grandfather lived to a ripe old age, the last couple of decades as a widower:
\n\"DSF3340\"<\/p>\n

1_19<\/strong>
\n\"DSF3341\"<\/p>\n

1_20<\/strong>
\nLater 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:
\n\"DSF3349\"<\/p>\n

1_21<\/strong>
\nWe stopped at the Pozuelo beach:
\n\"DSF3359\"<\/p>\n

1_22<\/strong>
\nThe area around Guayama is known for its roadside restaurants, and we stopped for lunch at La Casa De Los Pastelillos<\/em>:
\n\"DSF3369\"<\/p>\n

1_23<\/strong>
\nThe holiday was also in evidence here:
\n\"DSF3368\"<\/p>\n

1_24<\/strong>
\nThe food: mofongo<\/em> (a plaintain stew, one of my favourite dishes), alcapurrias<\/a><\/em> and a pastelillo<\/em>, a meat turnover. Everything was simply delicious:
\n\"DSF3378\"<\/p>\n

1_25<\/strong>
\nThere were a couple of cats in the restaurant, and one of them visited us briefly:
\n\"DSF3380\"<\/p>\n

1_26<\/strong>
\nThe 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:
\n\"DSF3443\"<\/p>\n

1_27<\/strong>
\nFor 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:
\n\"DSF3489\"<\/p>\n

1_28<\/strong>
\n\"DSF3487\"<\/p>\n

1_29<\/strong>
\n\"DSF3480\"<\/p>\n

1_30<\/strong>
\nIn 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:
\n\"DSF3481\"<\/p>\n

1_31<\/strong>
\nThe 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 Le\u00c3\u00b3n in front of the Iglesia San Jos\u00c3\u00a9, which I remember from my first visit to Puerto Rico back in 1980:
\n\"DSF3504\"<\/p>\n

1_32<\/strong>
\nI had a coffee at this lovely little square called Plaza Felisa Rinc\u00c3\u00b3n de Gautier:
\n\"DSF3508\"<\/p>\n

1_33<\/strong>
\nThe owner of this car takes Christmas seriously:
\n\"DSF3546\"<\/p>\n

1_34<\/strong>
\nAs a Dane, I am always pleased to see the presence of Danish companies in faraway places like San Juan:
\n\"DSF3582\"<\/p>\n

1_35<\/strong>
\nFabian led us to a craft beer bar called La Taberna L\u00c3\u00bapulo. I liked it very much:
\n\"DSF3594\"<\/p>\n

1_36<\/strong>
\nThe beer selection is extensive, just look at the number of taps:
\n\"DSF3597\"<\/p>\n

1_37<\/strong>
\nAn amusing “trophy cabinet”:
\n\"DSF3591\"<\/p>\n

1_38<\/strong>
\nMy wife and Fabian at the table:
\n\"DSF3598\"<\/p>\n

1_39<\/strong>
\nAfter our walk in Old San Juan it was time for lunch. For that, we drove to a seaside area called Pi\u00c3\u00b1ones, along this main road. As opposed to the famous Condado beach of San Juan, full of hotels housing mainly tourists from the mainland, Pi\u00c3\u00b1ones is almost exclusively frequented by the locals. You just drive along this road and stop at a roadside bar that strikes your fancy:
\n\"DSF3606\"<\/p>\n

1_40<\/strong>
\nMan at work:
\n\"DSF3601\"<\/p>\n

1_41<\/strong>
\nBut my companions were not yet ready to eat, so they had some tropical refreshments instead:
\n\"DSF3604\"<\/p>\n

1_42<\/strong>
\nOur destination was at the far end of Pi\u00c3\u00b1ones, a roadside bar\/eatery called Kiosko La Comay:
\n\"DSF3610\"<\/p>\n

1_43<\/strong>
\nThe cook in contre-jour:
\n\"DSF3613\"<\/p>\n

1_44<\/strong>
\nA well-dressed dog:
\n\"DSF3614\"<\/p>\n

1_45<\/strong>
\nSocial interaction:
\n\"DSF3615\"<\/p>\n

I took many hundreds of pictures during the trip, and there are 3 separate galleries. A collection of photos from San Juan is here<\/a>. There is another gallery from the rest of Puerto Rico<\/a>. And a third gallery<\/a> focuses on art I saw at the Puerto Rico Museum of Art and a gallery in San Juan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4543,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4545"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4545"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4551,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4545\/revisions\/4551"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}