Sunday, November 23, 2008

PUERTO RICO DIARIES

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Follow your Bliss. The bottle and the card was the first thing I saw when I entered my room at Hotel El San Juan and that is what I did on all my days in Puerto Rico. In this post I want to highlight a few "To Do"s when there. PR has beautiful beaches, the people are very friendly and helpful & the weather is perfect. I wish I had more days.

  

 

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After sipping Mimosas on the beach all day long we finally got off our butts to the first "To Do" which is a visit to the Bio Luminescent Bay; It takes about an hour to get to Fajardo Biobay from San Juan. You will kayak through the sea and a mangrove forest in pitch dark to get to a beautiful lagoon that glows - absolutely breathtaking and unique. You can also visit Vieques, Puerto Rico for the Biobay experience.         

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We took in some culture food and drink on Day 2. Old San Juan is a must visit. Going down the winding cobblestone streets takes you back to the days gone by. Take a Taxi to Old San Juan – get dropped off at one of the main squares and then just explore. One of the streets that you should definitely wander through is Del Cristo – rather steep but full of fun shops, bars & restaurants. Some other spots in OSJ are: Plaza de San Jose, La Fortaleza, San Juan Cemetery, Castillo de San Felipe.

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Food & Drink in Old San Juan: Definitely stop by at Nono’s which is at the top of Del Cristo street; they make great margaritas on the way up to Nono’s you will find El Batey which is a fun grungy bar. Right next to Nono’s is El Patio de Sam, go there for some fantastic Puerto Rican Food – we ordered the Mofongo Relleno and the Beef Steak Encobollado – Yummm ! Cafe Princesa is worth a stop, they usually have live music playing.    

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The Nightlife: We did not do much nightlife stuff on this trip. The Water Club Hotel has a very cool roof-top lounge from where you have a view of the the beach on one side and the city on the other; it has a cool (blue) vibe. The hotel we were staying at had VERY happening bars and clubs. So if you want to party it up I suggest a visit to El San Juan Hotel.

Puerto Rico is lovely – beautiful beaches – three days was too little time. I am definitely going back.    

12 comments:

"Lady Namu" said...

thanks! we will surely use these tips when we visit next month

rittika said...

lovely pics alef! the water club roof-top looks totally awesome!

Alefiyah said...

Have fun nammu in PR .. it is awesome

Thanks Ritti - the trip was great and the rof top was pretty cool too :)

Sav said...

my fav is the day 2 photo with the old building and balcony. stunning. love shots like that. is there any way you can increase the size of the images when clicked on? these shots need to be viewed in as large a size as possible. get to work ;)

Unknown said...

There are so many lovely places around the world... and no opportunities to see them. Getting a glimpse through your talented eye is a good option!

Anonymous said...

The roof-top lounge looks brill. Was the lounge as great or is it your spy eye that makes it so awesome.... Alef talent unleashed!! Keep 'em coming....

Nutty said...

The pics are awesome ...

I feel like packing my bags now and leaving for PR ..

Its great that you had a nice chilled out weekend after sooo long :)

Alefiyah said...

Savu - go to my flickr page - wwww.flickr.com/alefmerch - you can view as big as u want and download :)

Thanks mom

Puneet - the place was awesome - u shud come to teh US so u can go visit cool bars like these :P

Nutty - pack away !!!

Raj said...

A picture is worth a thousand words! And there's definitely no better way to tell a story....and you're best at this form of story telling :-)

I remember my childhood days when I could understand a story by just looking at the pictures, your blog is just like that.

Keep up the great work!

Alefiyah said...

honey - you're too sweet :) and biased; glad you like the story-telling in pictures :):)

philo said...

Aunty Asks Tiresome Questions:
Why did you go and whom did you go with? Your response is optional.
Dear Alef, you are going from strength to strength.
Love
P

Alefiyah said...

Thanks Aunt Phil ... now I am wondering what my next post should be :) to get some more questions from you :):)