Woke up and enjoyed some breakfast and PRican coffee out on the balcony. Last night I could really hear the waves breaking along the rocks below us and it was pretty windy out. There must be a storm coming in. I managed to snag a hammock in the shade and did some relaxing reading The Paris Wife. Then, I got a beach chair and went into the ocean. The water was comfortable and I spent a good 40 minutes in there just floating on my back [the damn swimsuit bottoms don't want to stay on so I can't swim without showing my ass :(]. I took a dip in the salt water pool. I've never been in on [that I can remember anyway] and it was much cooler than the ocean and didn't really feel/taste like the ocean, but my skin did feel kind of weird being in that water. Again since the swimsuit bottoms weren't behaving, I took a quick dip to be able to say I swam in the salt water pool and then got out to go change for lunch in Old San Juan.
I managed to catch the bus into Old San Juan, costing me just 75 cents and arrived in OSJ within 15 minutes. Met Kim and we wandered the streets looking for a place to eat (or more like a place that sold food that I could eat). We struck out 4 times before deciding on Cafecultura, known for the "best coffee in Old San Juan" and was excited that they had a Vegetarian & Vegan section on the menu. However, when I went to order, they said they didn't have any but I could have one of their sandwiches, but we explained that I'm a vegetarian, so I asked if I could just get the grilled cheese on the kids menu and he said yes. So I ordered that and a cafe con leche with brown sugar. It was the best cafe con leche that I've had in PR. It took forever for us to get our drinks, and was tempted to order another one, but didn't. An hour later, our food finally arrived. I got 6 pieces of golden potatoes and then 3 tiny "grilled cheese" on toasted slider buns. However, the freakin "grilled cheese" was ham with melted cheese on the toasted buns. ¡¿QTF?! [That's que? instead of what?]. What part of vegetarian didn't they understand? So I waited an hour for something I couldn't eat. Pissed, I only tipped the guy 10% which was more than I wanted to. This brought a whole knew meaning to lunchtime siestas! I think the chef was sleeping or something b/c it does not take an hour to make this!! ¡Que horrible!
So, I left Kim and went off to find some coffee beans [struck out], looked at the menu of a few restaurants on the map I picked up [didn't feel like paying for another meal] and decided to go to Barrachina, home of the first piña colada. The best piña coladas I've had here in PR! I ordered 2 as I chatted with some military boys from Connecticut. I asked for the check b/c I was partially afraid I'd keep ordering more (the bar tender made the comment that I really like those bc I went through them so quickly) and mostly b/c I was pretty much drinking on an empty stomach. 2 piña coladas cost me $14, not too bad considering how large and tasty they were and there was a LOT of rum in those things! Speaking of rum...
The drinking age in PR is 18 (not 21). Do I look like I could be younger? I'm a little confused b.c every time I've ordered a piña colada, the bartenders have asked me if I want rum. Umm...hello? Of course I want rum in my piña colada, why wouldn't I drink it with rum in PR?
I left Barrachina and walked around the city taking some photos of new areas as I popped into CVS to get some M&Ms for my flight tomorrow and a gallon of water. [After all the drinking and walking and sweating I've done today, I'll need it!] I then went to Aloha, since the map said they had $1 PRican beer. Having not tried one yet, I went in, but they looked closed. I asked if I could just get 1 PRican beer, and he said yes. I was the only one in there, he turned the lights on for me and the AC. When I finished I asked how much [expecting $1] and it cost me $3.25, which isn't bad for a beer that tasted like Coor's Light, but I was mad bc I was totally going off what the map said, otherwise I could have gone to the place that sold BOGO Mojitos and had real food and mojitos and then a beer.
Anyway, having no food in my system, 3 drinks and sweating, I wait for the bus to go back into San Juan. It's 4pm...4:30...4:45...a bus pulls up but is out of service...5pm...I have to pee so bad from all the drinking and can no longer hold it. Problem is I don't want to miss the bus, even though I've been waiting an hour, I was afraid to leave, the bus would come and leave and I'd have to wait another hour. I had to say "eff it" and went to the BOGO mojito place since that was the only place open with a restroom. There was a sign on the restroom door "for customers only, non patrons must pay $2". So I go to the bar and said, "I have to use the restroom really bad" and got my purse out, and she said go ahead. I was so ready to pay to use the toilet at this point. So-much-better!
I get back to the bus depot and my bus is ready to board. YES! So off we go and I'm not going to pee myself! It's about 5:15pm, still no food since being out in the sun and drinking my PRican adult beverages, I decide to take the bus past the hotel to go to the Asian restaurant, Mhan Chung, to get take out of the red soy sweet and sour chicken. I walk back to the hotel and open the container and it looks like chicken (I cut into it) and it smells like chicken to me. Well, I call the place and tell them and walk back (which is about a 15 minute walk each way from the hotel) only to get there and the lady told me that she spoke to the chef and he is 100% certain that was not chicken what he gave me. So, I walk back [the I.d. 10 T that I am] so hungry and so sweaty to my takeout in the hotel. It's a little after 7pm when I finally eat (after not eating anything more than 1 packet of oatmeal and some potato pieces) and having a tummy full of alcohol and water and coffee. I scarf my food down, the day completely lost b/c I wanted to go back to the pool and beach before the sun set. UGH! Island time sucks! I'm very impatient and can't deal with this slow pace when I have so many things I want to do!
It's now 8pm, tummy full of soy bean chicken and rice and I so badly want to go to the pool, but I am craving tres leche cake and I don't want to go walk outside to yet another restaurant just to get dessert, so these are my hopes for tonight. See if the hotel has tres leche cake, go to the pool for a little bit (not going to get a drink tonight!) and then pack stuff. Tomorrow my flight leaves at 1:10pm so I am hoping to go down to the beach/pool first thing in the morning to get some more sun (which btw, I did get red today, missed a spot or something on my thigh and then my left upper body must have gotten more sun than my right b/c it's red and I'm pretty sure I'll have some interesting tan lines if the red browns at all, otherwise I'll have some weird red/white lines). I'm hoping tomorrow works out b/c I'm kind of in a pissy mood right now after all the tests I failed today [thank you Island gods] and really don't want to go back to Boston in as bad as a mood as I left.
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