Puerto Rico, You Lovely Island

From the moment I booked my flight to Puerto Rico I've had the songs of West Side Story stuck in my head. I've watched this video about 1,000 times during February.

Fun fact: in 4th grade I was a "Shark girl" in my school's production of West Side Story. I appeared in one scene -- the "America" song -- wearing a puffy dress and trying to blend into the background.

Anyway, my trip to Puerto Rico was amazing. I just wish it was about 3 weeks longer! We flew overnight on a Thursday (arriving super early Friday morning) and left around 4:30 am on Tuesday, so we had 4 full days on the island.

We stayed in the Marriott Stellaris Resort & Casino in Condado. It was about a 15 minute cab ride ($20) from the airport to the hotel and the perfect location for everything we could have wanted or needed. We were a little worried to be arriving in Puerto Rico at 5 am -- we didn't book a hotel room but assumed we'd be able to just hang in the lobby or on the beach. As soon as we arrived we all passed out on couches in the lobby and were thrilled when they told us a room was ready around 7:30 am! So awesome.

Most of our time in Puerto Rico was spent eating, drinking, laying in the sun, and swimming in the ocean or pool. So glorious. Our hotel had a huge pool with a swim up bar and direct access to a private beach.

giant lizard!

After laying around for a few hours on our first day, we walked down Ashford Avenue to check out the restaurants and bars in the area. The whole street is lined with great places (and two 24-hour pharmacies, which came in super handy). We made a short stop at a taco truck called Kabanas for some food. I had the most delicious seared tuna taco and some tostones (fried plantains). The tostones were served with ketchup mayo and were so awesome. They tasted like McDonalds' hashbrowns. Ha!

Later on we had our first fancy dinner at Casa Lola. We were given complimentary sangria and then I ordered a margarita. For my entree I ate some amazing jumbo grilled shrimp with rice and plantains. We also got a free dessert -- the manager loved us!

We were so exhausted from the red eye that we passed out fairly early, but not after watching some salsa dancing in the hotel lobby. The hotel gave salsa lessons every Friday and then had a huge dance party. I was so jealous of all the dancers! I wish I had had a partner to dance with!!

The next day was another full day of sun and sand. But first I woke up early and did my BBG workout! I was so determined not to skip it and am glad I fit it in. The hotel had a pretty great fitness center. Much larger than most hotel gyms. I met the girls at the pool after and still had a solid 8 hours in the sun. During out laying we of course had to get some pineapple drinks from a nearby shop. Mine was filled with pina colada and was yummy as it looks.

Despite wearing tons of sunblock me and Kathleen were burnt to a crisp. Like SERIOUS pain. The CVS next door to our hotel came in super handy when we bought a jumbo size bottle of aloe and oatmeal lotion.

Somehow we managed to get clothes on over our sunburns and made our way to beautiful Old San Juan for dinner and exploring. Our first stop was Barrrachina, famous for inventing the pina colada! The drink was good for sure, but not the best I've had. At least it was cheap (~$7).

Next we headed over to Punto de Vista for dinner. The restaurant is on the roof of a hotel and super cute. I believe it's one of very few rooftop restaurants in Puerto Rico -- which is surprising considering the beautiful weather. Punto de Vista is also known as having one of the best mofongo dishes in all of Puerto Rico, so of course I had to try it. Mofongo is a traditional and popular Puerto Rican dish where mashed plantains are formed into a bowl and filled with meat or seafood then covered in sauce. It kind of reminded me of a pot pie. The one I ordered from Punto de Vista was filled with steak and covered with the most amazing garlic sauce. This picture sucks but it was dark out:

It looks kind of small in the photo but it was super filling. I could only eat about half of it. Puerto Rico is just like Europe, where it takes hours to get through a meal. We probably sat waiting for the check for 1.5 hours after we were done eating. Luckily it was a beautiful evening so we just enjoyed the fresh air!

After dinner we spent a little time walking around Old San Juan before heading back to the hotel. Again, it was dark so my pictures aren't great.

The next day was adventure day! While Erica went scuba diving, Kathleen and I rented a car from Enterprise to go explore the El Yunque national rain forest. It was about an hour drive from our hotel and it was so fun to just drive through a bit of Puerto Rico. Once we got to the rain forest we explored a few different trails. The rain forest was gorgeous and the sound of the rain hitting leaves almost put me to sleep. I was seriously smiling ear to ear the entire time we hiked.

We hadn't planned to explore the popular La Mina Waterfall trail but thought it would be a quick and easy there and back. I knew it would be raining in the rain forwst (obviously) but I never expected it to be torrential down pouring the way it was while we trekked to La Mina. We ended up walking for about an hour with BUCKETS falling on us. It was so crazy. Finally we made it to the fall and we were absolutely soaked. It was actually a lot of fun and felt like we were in a theme park (or the rain forest cafe...ha).

After spending a few hours in the rain forest we dried off and drove to Luqillo beach -- a beautiful, public beach with far more local people than the beach near our hotel. Adjacent to the hotel is a row of about 60 food kiosks/bars/restaurants that are open on both sides. We had so much fun walking down the row and sampling food and drinks. I had some fresh coconut water, ceviche, and some cheap fried food.

After we dropped the car off we stumbled upon a little jazz festival. It was a great way to kick off the evening!

For dinner that night we went to Cocina Abierta, a trendy tapas style restaurant. We ordered a bunch of items off the menu to share and everything was absolutely amazing. This wasn't only one of my best meals in Puerto Rico, but one of the best meals I've had in the last few years! Here's what we ordered:

Manchego cheese croquettes with red pepper jam (special of the night)

Plantain carpaccio brulee with tuna tatake, shitake mushrooms, avocado and a soy truffle glaze

Duck tacos with orange-grape pico de gallo, chipotle crema and grilled corn

Squid ink risotto with jumbo prawns and fried cauliflower

Malbec braised short ribs over cous cous

Ricotta gnocchi with gorgonzola cheese and prosciutto

Beef wellington with foie gras sauce

Seriously this meal was so good! I'm so happy my travel buddies like to eat as much as I do! After dinner we went over to Serafina for a night cap. I tried a great local beer -- Crash Boat IPA by Boqueron Brewery.

On our last day in Puerto Rico I woke up early and took an outdoor yoga class being offered by the hotel. There were only 3 other people with me and it was glorious. Such a great way to start the day! After yoga I walked down to Bajuice and grabbed a breakfast of champions:

The rest of the day was spent reading by the pool, eating gelato, drinking cocktails, and just basking in the final few hours of sun and warmth before heading back to Boston. BTW, I read Luckiest Girl Alive in PR and loved it.

For our last dinner we ate sushi! Sounds strange for the Caribbean, but we were all craving it and every time we walked past the restaurant the food looked so delicious. I didn't take any photos but have developed an insatiable sushi craving since this dinner!

We went to bed pretty early since we had to get up at 4 am to head to the airport. I was so sad to leave and wish I was still in the Puerto Rican sun. Such an awesome getaway weekend with my two best friends! Now where to next??