Puerto Rico Day 4: Seafood, Shopping, and Sandwiches

Finally the rain seemed to be gone! It was the 4th of July and our plan for the day was to drive out to the seaside area of Pinones to visit the food kiosks on the beach. We walked the block to our Jeep and up to our reserved parking spot. The parking spot was a lifesaver as there was nowhere to park on the street near the apartment. But wow this was the smallest parking garage I've ever seen with hairpin turns and parallel parking!

We drove the hour or so to Pinones, in traffic most of the way. It was then I realized that I made an uncharacteristic planning mistake. I read that Puerto Rico doesn't celebrate 4th of July and that seemed to be confirmed by the lack of fireworks or anything else. But what I didn't realize is that it was still a holiday and that meant everyone would be at the beach. The roads were crowded and the beach was crawling with tourists and locals alike. We finally found a spot and walked down the hot, sandy road to the kiosks. When we arrived at the kiosks, we were overcome by a strong sewage smell. We basically walked to the end then turned right around and walked straight back to the Jeep.

We drove back towards Old San Juan getting hungrier and hungrier so we stopped off for a seafood lunch at a restaurant along the way.

We got back to the apartment with no plans for the afternoon so I decided to go souvenir shopping in town while Alex hung out there. I took some pics of town as I left the apartment and walked from shop to shop.

The colorful entrance to our apartment.

The entryway. I have no idea what the white, fluffy basket is but it looks like a bassinet.

The outside of our apartment.

The Plaza de Armas in front of our apartment.

We didn't have dinner plans so we set out form the apartment to see what we might find. There was a guy in the plaza playing Imagine Dragons on a violin!

All the building around the plaza were lit up.

We ended up at the Cave, a Cuban restaurant on the corner of the plaza, where we had the best Cuban sandwich and yucca fries I've ever tasted.

We stayed for a few drinks and the live music.

Alex helped out with the maracas.

After we got home, we walked up to the rooftop of our apartment building to see the view.

We headed back in after enjoying the quiet view to get packed up to leave for Vieques the next morning.