I had
originally started my blog with the intention of tracking all of the
cool/interesting/terrible/random places I would be going over the course of the
coming years as a consultant. To be honest, I had aspirations of being as funny
as “In the Exit Row”…and yet, here I sit, more than six months in(!!) without a
post to speak of. I wasn’t truly inspired (except for maybe that time I went to
Arkansas just for the novelty effect) until this week, when I had the
opportunity to travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico for work!
I know,
right? It’s kind of the ultimate opportunity, especially in January. Although
what was supposed to be six people for “at least two weeks” devolved into three
of us for one, I somehow found myself landing at SJU (after a first-class
flight, mind you) early Monday afternoon. It was a beautiful thing, since work
didn’t even start until Tuesday. I lounged by the pool for an hour or so until
my colleagues (aren’t I such a real person? I have colleagues now.) arrived and settled in. Once we were finally able
to communicate with each other (Puerto Rico might possibly be the only place in
the world that AT&T puts Verizon completely
to shame when it comes to service), we decided to go on the best type of
adventure – one for food and the beach.
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| Not a bad first day on the job, right? |
The roads
of Puerto Rico leave a lot to be desired. Sometimes two-way streets turn into
one-way streets that had a nasty habit of ending up in the direction opposite
of that which you’re going, traffic signals are taken mostly as suggestions,
exits are not clearly marked (if they’re even marked at all), etc. Needless to
say, I wasn’t looking to volunteer to drive. Luckily one of the boys decided
(and/or we forced him via never volunteering) to take on the burden and we made
it through the day (and the week!) totally unscathed.
As we
meandered the streets of San Juan/the beginnings of Old San Juan, our desire to
see the beach quickly gave way to our desire to eat as all of realized that it
had been a relatively foodless day. We went to Punto de Visto (a restaurant right
by where the many, many, many cruise ships stop) and got ourselves the Puerto
Rican specialty, Mofongo. (I had heard of it because I checked with my resident
tour guide, Robyn, who had thankfully been
to PR before.) It essentially seemed like a bowl composed of fried plantains
filled with shrimp (although you could fill it with other things as well) and
covered in one of a couple of different sauces (I went with the tomato-y one
that is the traditional choice). Sticking with the local theme, we got some
Bacardi mojitos to go with it. (Two for one special – how could we go wrong?) I
went with a Watermelon one because I’m a genius. It tasted like candy, or
possibly happiness.
Obviously,
now that we all (or at least I) had giant food babies as a result of our
ridiculous(ly delicious) meal, we thought it wise to go to the beach. We got
there right before sunset – it was at the beach that I first truly realized how
beautiful this island is. The number of
pictures I took on my iphone (I know, I know…I should’ve brought my real
camera BUT I had a suitcase with two weeks worth of stuff already so don’t
judge me) definitely affirms this, though I may have been a bit aggressive in
the quantity. (It’s gotta be in the hundreds.) Regardless, we relaxed in the
water, felt adequately guilty that the other three people were stuck in the 19
degree Arkansas weather, got over it, took more pictures, and headed back to
the hotel to get ready for the quickly approaching work day.
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| The boys were instagram-ing this SO hard. |
We
headed to work bright and early the next morning, sat in a windowless room and
left after sunset. (Okay, I’m probably making it sound a bit worse than it
really was because it’s hard to draw the sympathy card when you’re working from
Puerto Rico.) We got lunch at a shack across the street that literally had a
menu which consisted of two items: chicken tacos and meat tacos. Their liquor
repository on the other hand had pretty
much everything you could think of.
I was pretty unsurprised. The tacos were sooo good and met my expectations
exactly. After work, we headed back to the hotel where my colleagues made me
feel bad about myself for not working out that morning (I promise I’ve become a
“morning workout” person…we just had to get up so early in Puerto Rico), so I
went to the gym. Afterwards, I totally ruined anything I’d gained from the
workout by going to a Brazilian steakhouse (Texas de Brazil?) for dinner. It
was fine but I’m not sure I’d go back.
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| Definitely a reasonable proportion of bottles to meal choices. I have no qualms. |
The
next day was pretty much the same, with the key differences being around food.
(It should come as no surprise that this entry is to focus largely around food,
since I’m alllll about a good meal.) For lunch, we were looking for a little
American flair so we found the nearest Starbucks and headed to the mall. We got
typical food court stuff for lunch (although I think I threw “Mr. Sandwich” off
by ordering a salad as it became an ordeal which took excessively long), and
then headed to Starbucks. The real highlight of our mall adventure was
navigating back to the car. We had chosen the wrong row (these things happen)
and to get to our car, we had one of two options: walk all the way around or
cut across via a hill that had to be at an 80 degree incline. Obviously the
rest of the team chose the incline, and because I’m a healthy combination of
not bright and stubborn, I thought I’d follow suit…in heels. (Okay, wedges. But
STILL.) I was focusing about 90% of my brain power on not falling and dying (no
small feat, mind you) when suddenly I heard a cacophony of noise. It seemed the
group of ladies getting into the car right after the edge of the hill had a lot
of feelings about my descent. (I’m feeling like I need to clear this up –by
hill I mean the entire experience lasted like 13 seconds. I’m not sorry for the
build-up because the emotional rollercoaster I endured was totally real.) They
were at once trying to express their fear for my safety, their anger at the
rest of the team for not helping me, their encouragement, and I’m pretty sure
their surprise at my ineptitude as a human being for thinking this was a good
idea…don’t worry, you guys. I’m fine. We headed back for an uneventful
afternoon.
After
work, we headed into Old San Juan for dinner. Old San Juan is the type of area
I love to spend my time in – old, cobblestone streets, historic sites, super
kitschy tourist shops, locals trying to sell you things – it’s the dream. We
decided to go to Raices, a restaurant someone had heard of/got good reviews on
Yelp. (Note: Yelp works in Puerto Rico and it’s awesome.) This also led to some
interesting social situations. It is first of the place where I confirmed that no one who actually speaks Spanish thinks
that I have the capacity to speak Spanish. Our waitress talked to everyone
else at the table in Spanish, gave me a once-over, and went for English. This
happened all over. Rude, Puerto Rico. Just rude. I expressed this when she was
within earshot, and then she gave my pity-Spanish for the rest of the night.
(She’d say something in Spanish and then look at me sadly, as though waiting
for me to ask her what it meant.) I made the excellent call of ordering a
mojito which came in a glass I got to keep (and I didn’t even have to steal it)
and a salmon for dinner, which was really good. More interesting than the meal
though, was the fact the two girls from my high school who I haven’t talked to
since high school sat down literally at the table next to us. What is my life?
I should have said hi, but didn’t get the chance. SORRY FOR BEING THE WORST.
Anyway, I was still pretty entertained that it happened. We walked around Old
San Juan for a bit and headed up the El Moro, the famous fort. They were
setting up for the famous street festival of San Sebastian, which was beginning
the next day though, so we were unable to drive all the way. We walked up and
around, but couldn’t see all that much at night.
The
next day, I had to head out for just a night. I ran a recruiting event at Duke
with two other recent graduates who work at my firm and while I was thrilled to
be back to campus, I was pretty bummed that I was missing out on San Sebastian,
and flying into a pretty heavy snow storm. I was pretty ill-prepared for the
weather and the fact that there was a taxi-line, but otherwise, it was nice to
be back. I got to have breakfast with Anne and the event went really well!
Unfortunately,
I was unable to get a very early flight back to PR, but I did get upgraded
again, so I didn’t have too much to complain about. I got into the hotel at
about 1230 the following morning, and while I knew the boys were out and about
at the street fair, I could just hear my parents telling me that it was a
horrible, horrible idea to go find them, so I decided against it. (You’re
welcome, parents.) Although I missed out on the fun, I made myself feel better
by deciding to wake up early and get some exploring in while the whole of Old
San Juan recovered.
I got
to the city with the help of my awesome taxi driver who gave me some helpful
tips and was just generally very nice. If you ever need a ride, I have his
business card and could hook you up. When I arrived at about 830, it truly
seemed like everyone was in recovery mode – most of the stores were closed, and
very few people were around. I took a walk along the water then decided to head
up to El Moro to see it in the daylight. While en route, a couple of touristy
shops opened up, so I popped into a couple and ultimately decided to buy a few
stupid things (including, of course, a Christmas ornament) from the first one
I’d gone to. (Typical.)
I made
it up to El Moro by about 10:30 – I was planning to take a free shuttle my taxi
driver had told me about, but it didn’t arrive instantaneously at my whim so I
quickly lost patience and decided to walk. I wandered a bit, took some
pictures, and even requested someone take a solo shot of me! (This is very not
my style, but it felt necessary.) I didn’t have too much time though, because
we were heading to an island off the coast, Vieques on a flight leaving at 1PM.
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| #soloshot #sorryimnotsorry |
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| El Moro, in all it's glor-o! (That's gotta be the Spanish for glory, right?) |
I made
my way back down, and stumbled into the heart of the fair. While I’m sure it
was very different in the day time,
there were all sorts of stands selling every food you can imagine, beer, beer,
and more beer, and locally made jewelry and art. I casually ran into a parade
of sorts which involved masks that were laughably big as well as some singing,
dancing and clapping. I admired/clapped for a little then continued on my trek.
My colleagues had switched hotels for the night, so were staying right in the
city. I brought them some Starbucks to help them rally because I’m a wonderful
person, and we prepared to head to the airport. I was getting a little stressed
out for time because I like to be at the airport fairly early, but they assured
me we would be fine. It turns out that the “airport” is walkable from our hotel
and literally a one-room building. There were no boarding passes, there was no
security – heck, there wasn’t even a loudspeaker. They asked me how much I
weigh so they could balance out the plane, and I ended up sitting behind the
pilot who I made pose for a picture before take-off. It was a 30 minute flight
and it was incredible. We snagged some awesome pictures and touched down at a
bigger, but still pretty pathetic (aka awesome) airport. We picked up our
rental jeep (not quite a wrangler, but still moderately rugged) and headed to
our hotel, the Hacienda Tamarindo in Esperanza (along roads that were not quite wide enough for two cars but were
all two-way streets nonetheless. Sometimes wild horses would just walk along
the road, not caring at all that you’re there.)
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| Nope, this isn't our gate. THIS IS THE ENTIRE AIRPORT. |
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| That's a thing I rode in. |
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| Who says you're not allowed in the cockpit? He was excited - in his own words "It's windy out. This is gunna be fun." |
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| Psh? No phones during flights? As if. |
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| View from the Hacienda (aka my future residence) |
There was some debate as to whether
we should stay at the W Retreat and Spa (since we’re all about Starwoods) or a
more local, homey place. Luckily, we decided to go with the latter. I’m
obsessed with our hotel and think I want to live there. We arrived and got a
personal tour of the hotel and amenities from the only person working there at
the time. Everything at the hotel is on the honor system, which I think is
pretty reflective of the island. They don’t really keep track of what you do,
but if you drink from the bar, just write down what you had; if you use
chairs/beach towel/cooler, just bring them back; if you buy sunscreen or bug spray,
just write it down. It was very cool. It was beautiful – pretty much every
window you would look out of or balcony you would sit at required many pictures
to be taken. We settled down and headed to “Blue beach”, a favorite of the
locals. Along the way, we stopped at a food truck along the downtown strip and
got some fried conch, which were incredible. The beach was perfect – sun, sand,
drinks and ocean.
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| You know it's gunna be good when it's endorsed by a painting of Homer Simpson. |
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| I don't think anyone's ever felt blue at Blue Beach. |
We hung out there for a few hours and then headed back into
town to prepare for our bioluminescent bay tour, something the island is famous
for. The bay seems to light up because of the dinoflagellate plankton which
give off light when they’re disturbed – (SWE does an activity about it for
FEMMES. You should totally check out our website and learn more about it.) It
was very neat, especially since I somehow finagled my way into doing no work
during the kayak tour. (We were a group of three and I snagged the middle
seat.) We headed back to the hotel after the tour and prepared for dinner. My
one complaint about this otherwise awesome hotel is that there’s no
conditioner. (First world problems?) I somehow managed to struggle through
though, and off to dinner we went, to El Quenepo. The restaurant we ate at was
definitely my favorite of the trip. I actually wanted everything on the menu. I
ended up getting some beef over pasta with spices, peppers, and all good
things. It was deeeeeelicious. After closing the restaurant down, we walked
along the “downtown strip” of beach-shack bars to go see how Vieques spends its
Saturday nights.
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| Sunset waiting for our tour van to come pick us up |
We
settled on “Lazy Jack’s” bar since it seemed to have the vibe we were going
for. We got a truly local experience, since one of my colleagues is notorious
for chatting up any and everybody and he did just that. We ended up going to a
bonfire on one of the nearby beaches which was definitely an interesting
experience…
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| Oh, you know. Just a casual evening out. |
Although
we got back sort of late, we still wanted to make the most out of the next
day/take advantage of the free breakfast at the hotel. After picking up the car
and wandering around a bit (which definitely concluded with me trespassing on
private property…oops), I did my best to make sure everyone was rallied before
the 10AM deadline. After enjoying some eggs, we tried to decide how to spend
our last day. We wanted to try out paddle boarding and tried a few places with
no luck. As we were driving downtown, however, we saw that the “fun brothers”
shack offered paddle boards. There were only two, but we got them and some
snorkel gear. They paddled and I swam out to one of the nearby (like, very
nearby) islands. (So this is an island off the coast of an island which is off
of the coast of an island which is off the coast of the states – it’s
essentially Inception.) I was feeling like a champion until I was climbing
around the rocks and noticed they were covered
in sea urchins, at which point I became (perhaps irrationally) paralyzed
with fear. It was cool though, with the help of some people we met, I was able
to navigate my way to the paddle board and give it a try. I was more surprised
than perhaps I should have been, but let’s just say I don’t think I have a
future in it. At one point, a boat came over and asked if I needed to be saved.
I think they were offended when I said I was fine. (“We watched you going
backwards for awhile...”) Whatever. I’m going to blame the current? (It was
flat and there was hardly any wind, but you weren’t there so you don’t know
that.) Anyway, once I finally made it to the “beach” part of the island, I had
the chance to do some snorkeling. The fish I saw by the coast were much cooler
than those I had seen on my swim over (aka one lonely fish and a single Medalla
light can). We paddled (okay, I swam) back, took some pictures (photo op!), and headed back to
the hotel.
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| No, it's fine. I wasn't trying to drive here anyway. You do you. |
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| Ignoring the above commentary, I look like I could totally paddleboard, right? RIGHT? |
We said our last goodbyes and left to go check out what we were
missing at the W…frankly, not too much. It was fine (it was really nice), but it had none of the local charm and
was set up such that you would never leave so you wouldn’t really get any of
the true Vieques spirit. We got to the airport with a solid 15 minutes to spare
(so at this airport, we were probably early), and headed out right around
sunset. We snagged some good pictures (obvi), landed, and walked back to our
hotel just in time to catch the end of the 49ers game. We watched the game over
a light dinner at one of the restaurants right at the hotel that was pretty
mediocre. We checked in for the night, and while I was excited to have been
upgraded to my awesome executive suite, I was kind of bummed that I was only
there for a single night!
Today was sad. We worked until about 2 then headed to the
airport. We got to our gate with just minutes to spare, and are currently en
route to Chicago (and then to Arkansas). When the pilot announced Chicago’s
current 9 degree weather at the beginning of the flight there was an audible
groan from the entire plane. That pretty much sums up my feelings about leaving
this beautiful place – I hope I have the chance to go somewhere else as
exciting soon!
