Hola, Puerto Rico!
/Dail and I arrived at San Juan International Airport Monday, August 10, 2015, as scheduled. It only took a little confusion before we got the rental car, dubbed the "Red Rocket" by Dail, and fired up the air conditioning. We headed out on the interstate toward Rio Grande, following the directions provided by our host, Karl. I'd found his rental apartment on VRBO. Follow the link to read my full review of the apartment.
We managed to get to the right exit but then we were stumped. We found his cell phone number and gave him a call. He offered to meet us at Wendy's near the Outlet Mall--lots of U.S. influence showing here. No worries on the rendezvous, we hadn't eaten lunch and it was almost 2:30. He found us 20 minutes later and we followed him to his house. He and his wife Vivi life upstairs and the apartment is downstairs. Gorgeous location--a view of both the ocean and the rain forest from the front yard.
We were impressed by the cleanliness and modern amenities in the flat. It has a full kitchen, a living/dining area, one bath, and an air-conditioned bedroom. We needed groceries so we got directions to Ralph's supermarket, a western-style grocery only 7 kilometers away along a twisty hillside road. We stocked up on important necessities like breakfast food, beer and wine then decided to grab a bite to eat before returning to the flat with the groceries. We'd passed a restaurant called the Asia Buffet & Sushi Bar just before reaching the market, so decided to eat there.
It won't win any culinary awards but the buffet was bounteous and we had a good meal. We came back to the flat and relaxed for the evening. Both of us were really tired since we started our journey to the Raleigh airport at 3:30 am. Here's a picture of us looking not too much worse for the wear!
The plan for Tuesday is to visit Old San Juan. A successful start to our Puerto Rico adventure!
Clck the image for a little larger Google Camera phenomenal panorama... Looks better on the cell phone, but you can tell this is an amazing location!