(This includes the first 2 weeks of our trip. Any picture can be enlarged by clicking it and, if you want to see more, there are many others here.)

Friday/Saturday Jan 19-20

We drove up to Minneapolis Friday afternoon, got our car settled into its parking space at Dave's (who kindly lent us a spot in his driveway for a month, then he dropped us off at Katie's condo where she had created an awesome taco supper.  Katie kindly took us to the airport early the next morning.  The process wasn't bad - in about 40 minutes we were settled at our gate with muffins and rolls for breakfast and books to read.  The plane was quite crowded.  We did spring for Comfort+ seating but with 3 in a row, it still felt tight.  There was a big festival going on in San Juan this weekend and so traffic was crazy and things were a bit slow at that airport.  But we arrived about half an hour early (4 PM - pictured at left), collected our luggage (since Puerto Rico is part of the USA, there were no customs or immigration to hassle) and got a taxi van to share with several others ($23) into town.  We were tired and things were hectic and somewhere between the plane and the hotel John misplaced his backpack.  The important thing was his Kindle but I set up my "spare" phone with his Kindle account so he could read!  He will also miss his big ear phones and his hearing aids, but he's pretty sure he had an ID in it so we have hope that maybe it will get turned in to a lost and found or someone will call us!

Hotel San Jorge is a budget hotel in Santurce; it's somewhat run down, the room was teeny tiny and it's not in a great area but I felt safe walking around during the day, they have good security at the front door and it was convenient for what we wanted to do the first couple of days.  They have a nice lobby for additional comfortable seating, the hot shower was fine (though the soap holder was broken off the wall) and they have a coin laundry. That night we ate at the Asia de Lima restaurant that has Asian-Peruvian cuisine and is just a few doors away.  I had to be careful since many of their dishes were very spicy - John said it was really good!  He also had a local beer (Blood Orange) that he enjoyed.  I had chicken chaufa with rice and veggies.  It was very good but way more than I could eat!  Fortunately we had a refrigerator in our very tiny hotel room so I made use of it!  We were exhausted from travelling so just went to bed early tonight!

Sunday Jan 21

We were tired so slept well even with just a double bed.  We actually had 2 double beds in two separate rooms but the air conditioner in one was so loud that we elected to share the one with a quieter a/c and use the other for luggage (there was no other place to open a suitcase).  Anyway, we walked up the street to Abracadabra for brunch - it was great and we ended up going back there again on Tuesday.  Quirky decor, very helpful servers and great food at reasonable prices.  Then we set out for the Museo de Arte.  We had a little trouble getting there as the roads are not clearly marked (from our viewpoint anyway).  We saw the muses sculptures (at right, byAnnex Burgos) in front of the Centro des Bellas Artes, which was on our agenda to visit anyway, then turned back and went the couple of blocks up the right street!

One of the treats of walking around Santurce is the prevalence of mural art - example on the left.  As we had hoped, the art museum was a great place!  We spent several hours there.  Admission was very reasonable ($8 included the special exhibits as well as the permanent collection and the outdoor garden).  They were having a grand opening of their new educational unit - we didn't know this ahead of time - and so they had some special guests on site.  One of the curators was just hanging around in the west wing.  He clearly "belonged" there so John commented to him how much we enjoyed a particular painting and he enthusiastically took us on a little tour: pointing out "hidden secrets" in some paintings, explaining others, telling us stories of some of the history.  It certainly added to our visit!  We went through all of the exhibit areas.  A few selections are below. The left is titled "Talisman," the center one is SO like a street in Old San Juan we saw the next day and the "towel dispenser art" on the right just made me smile!
We spent a bit of time in the outdoor garden (left) and then started walking back.  We stopped at Bookmark and got some water (cold water bottles for $1!) then to Pueblo Mercado to get a replacement cable for John's iPhone and finally at Lote 33 - an interesting "food court" with various vendors: some were semi-permanent kiosks, others trucks or trailers.  I found a delightful "waffle shake" (right) that I declared was enough for my supper; John got some small plantain "baskets" filled with shrimp salad and a chicken and cheese croissant.

When we got back, John went to the lobby to read in a comfortable stuffed chair and I spent some time trying to remember how to download pictures onto my tablet.  I didn't want to bring my computer but that meant I had to re-learn the process of saving my pictures each day on the tablet!

Monday Jan 22

Today is Old San Juan day. We took an Uber ($10) from the hotel to the information center.  (Actually the information center we were directed to during our research is no longer in use!  The one that is open is right across the street from the marina.)  We had breakfast at the Cafeteria Mallorca - we discovered mallorcas yesterday morning and were ready for more!  It was a nice place, easy to find, reasonable costs and lots of choices.  The picture at the left is just one of the many narrow streets in Old San Juan that reminded me so much of the painting (above) we saw in the museum yesterday!

After breakfast we walked down to the Paseo de la Princesa that led to the Fuente Raíces - the fountain sculpture by Miguel Carlo that commemorated (in 1992) the 500th anniversary of the Spanish "discovery" of the New World.  It depicts people of Taíno, European and African descent to represent the racial and ethnic roots of the Puerto Rican people.  (photo to the left below) It is followed by the Paseo del Morro - the walk along the old city walls:  beautiful views, some interesting sculpture and the old city gate. The middle picture was taken from a hill above the walk and shows the red city gate as well as La Fortaleza: the large white building behind the gate that was built in the 1500's and is now the official residence of Puerto Rico's governor.  Finally, the photo to the right shows the  Castillo San Felipe del Morro, an impressive military defense fort built at the tip of the peninsula from  1539 to 1787.

    

During our wanderings that afternoon, we enjoyed gelato (it was over 90°) at Anita's, visited several art galleries, saw the Christ Chapel and several other sculptures around town.  We passed Calle Fortaleza, formerly known as the "Umbrella Street".  Now, instead of umbrellas over the top of it, the decor changes seasonally - right now it is many globes of tiny lights so during the day you can hardly even see it, but apparently it lights up nicely at night.  We had a hard time finding a place to eat - many places that were "always" open were closed today while they recuperated from the huge weekend festival.  It seemed all we were finding were bars and very loud music.  We started walking back to Plaza Colon to pick up a cab and spotted a fortuitous "abierto" sign.  It was Los Domirriqueños, a great Puerto Rican-Dominican diner.  John had a fish plate and I had chicken and rice. Yum.  We felt much restored after that and continued on to Plaza Colon to the taxi stand to get a cab back to the hotel ($16).  We pretty much crashed when we got back - had some of our leftovers for a snack and packed up a bit for tomorrow's move.

Tuesday Jan 23

This morning we were rather rudely awakened by our phones at 7 am by a "Pink Alert."  This is like an "Amber Alert" except for adult women who may be missing or in danger.  I don't mind the general idea but I re-set my phone so that such alerts are subject to my "Do Not Disturb" settings!  So - I went ahead and took my shower, finished packing and woke John (who has "go back to sleep" skills that I never developed).  We went back to Abracadabra for breakfast; as we walked back, I took this picture of the mural on the side of our hotel.  We called for an Uber to the airport ($13 - I like that I could pick a larger vehicle to hold the luggage).  We processed the rental car at Enterprise, then put the luggage in the trunk and went across the street to see what we could find out about John's missing backpack.  We knew the driver's first name but nothing else - apparently many of the drivers that come in and out of airport dispatch are individuals, not associated with a particular company.  However, we found a taxi supervisor who went above and beyond and tracked down our driver who did, indeed, have the backpack - he said there was no ID in it - since we were in a shared van he didn't even know where he had dropped off the owner so he was just holding it to see if anyone called.  He brought it up to the airport and we thanked him - and especially the supervisor who found him - profusely.

So, we took our brand new Corolla (next time we get a Jeep or SUV but we were first time visitors and didn't understand Puerto Rican roads) and drove down to Luquillo where we spent the next 3 nights.  We stopped at the Kioskos - a collection of about 60 individual stores and restaurants on the beach - for lunch.  We walked down the beach side and then had lunch at A Fuego, a delightful place with a firefighter decor.  (You'd have to see it to "get it" - includes a piece of a fire truck that kids can play in and ring the bell.)  My coconut shrimp is at the right!  We then drove to the Luquillo Sunrise Inn that was a very nice place - we had all the comforts of home - chairs, table, Queen bed, a nice balcony, etc.  It was, however, our first clue that maybe a sedan wasn't the right car to be driving - it was very hard to get into the parking lot without scraping the bottom.  We went back to the Kioskos for supper at Terruño then stopped at Walgreens for some supplies, including paper plates we could use in the microwave tomorrow - it sounds like it will be stormy all day so we might just take a day off and hunker down!  View at left is from our balcony.

Wednesday Jan 24

As advertised it was windy and rainy!  Compare this morning's balcony view to yesterday's.  There was a musician out by the ocean (not visible to the left of the picture) playing a flugelhorn.  He had speakers and set up several umbrellas as a shelter - fun to listen to!  The hotel provided fruit, coffee and some snack bars, pastries or doughnuts in the lobby so that kept us fed until lunchtime.  Between rain showers we walked to La Fonda Gourmet 2 blocks away for lunch and then down the street to the Molasses Bakery.  Tonight is leftover night and so we got some cake for dessert and pastries for breakfast tomorrow.  Later in the afternoon we went to Amigos grocery and got some "grab and go" sandwich/wraps for lunch tomorrow plus yogurt for breakfasts and some sauces for John's leftovers.  We caught up on email, etc., read, took a walk as the rain let up and got packed up for hiking tomorrow!

Thursday Jan 25

Today was El Yunque day - the only tropical rain forest in the US Forest system.  We left around 8:30 am and it only took us about 20 minutes to get to the gate so we had no problem getting in.  (They limit entrance to 200 cars and apparently on weekends or nice days, they can hit 200 quite early in the morning.)  This was our second clue about the car - there was a lot of construction going on and roads were narrow, requiring driving on "shoulders" at times and parking along muddy, rutted roadsides.  We stopped at the pulloff area for Juan Diego Falls, donned ponchos (it was still sprinkling) and hiked up to the second of the Falls.  Cascades along the trail on left and the falls on the right.

The next stop was at the Palo Colorado Information Center - we didn't really need information but they have restrooms!  And across the street is the trail to the Baño Grande site.  That includes a bridge, dam and pool built in the late 1930's by the CCC.  The pool is up over the spillway, beyond the wooden bridge you can see in the picture at left; the brick bridge is on the far side of the pool and leads to an old building - a nice walk.  It wasn't raining when we got there so we were able to get a "souvenir photo" but when we got over the second bridge to the building, it poured.  Fortunately we could wait it out in shelter! Then we drove on up to the end of the road and the trailhead for the Mount Britton Tower trail.  The tower itself is closed (much of the recreation area is closed due to continued reconstruction from the damage from hurricane Maria in 2017) but the trail is a nice, brick path and really gives a good feel for the rain forest environment.

The picture on the left below is just a typical view along the trail - you really can see what the rainforest is like.  The one in the center is higher up, when we were actually in the clouds!  And the one to the right was taken - with a zoom lens - from the Yokahu ObservationTower (our next stop on the way back down).  You can see all the way to Luquillo and the Atlantic Ocean.