Puerto Rico Trip Day 5: Journey to Old San Juan

Today, we left our Airbnb to head to Old San Juan for a night. We were pretty sad to be leaving the rainforest, so we took care to drive through the rainforest as much as possible. Here's a video to see what the driving experience was like.

We first drove to a small cacao farm that I had found online, but were dismayed to find it closed due to the weather. We then began our journey westward, towards San Juan. We stopped at a nature reserve in Loiza, where we had read there were good mangrove viewing spots. Unfortunately, the boardwalk along the mangroves was closed. We were still able to climb the observation tower, and saw lots of lizards, but didn't get as good of a view of the mangroves as we were hoping.

We continued on our journey to San Juan. We had booked a room at Fortaleza Suites in Old San Juan for one night. When we arrived in the city, we found it mobbed with tourists, and several cruise ships docked at the terminal. We had been told that street parking was reserved for residents, and to park in one of several parking lots or garages. They were all full, and we drove around for about an hour until we finally found one with some room. We were exhausted, stressed, hungry, and needed to do the bathroom, so we immediately found a place to eat, since we couldn't check into our hotel. We walked to Pirilo Pizza Rustica, and everyone felt much better. The girls were thrilled to see some familiar foods, like garlic knots and pizza. (Side note: we walked back to the parking garage more than once to get things from the car, and found the garage much emptier, so we definitely arrived at a bad time.)

After a late lunch, we walked about a block to our hotel to check in and rest for a bit, then headed back out into the city to explore. We walked down Calle Fortaleza, which is famous for the umbrellas hanging over the street. Unfortunately, there were no umbrellas, as they were activity removing the Christmas decorations that had been hanging up. At the end of the street, we popped out by Parque de las Palomas (Pigeon Park). As per the name, this is a park full of pigeons. You can buy a bag of bird food for two dollars to feed the birds. As a fair warning, the pigeons will swarm you. Pumpkin thought this was incredibly fun, but Sweet Pea was unsure about it.

After visiting the pigeons, we walked to the Paseo de la Princesa, stopping for popsicles at Senor Paleta on the way. 

We found a lovely playground along the Paseo de la Princesa. At the end of the promenade is a fountain. We walked past the fountain onto a path that runs along the water.

We walked through the Puerta de San Juan (the old San Juan gate) and back into the city. We walked even more, until we reached the Save a Gato rescue/park. The girls both took lots of cat pictures with their cameras.

At this point, we were hot and tired, so we stopped for some limbers. I had heard that there was a woman in that part of the city who sold them out of her home, and we happily stumbled upon it. We rang the bell at her window, ordered in Spanish, and we enjoyed our frozen juice cups for a dollar each. Frozen juice cup in an understatement, by the way. So refreshing and delicious! 

Then, we meandered back to our hotel and were too exhausted to do anything else, so the girls watched a bit of TV and then we went to bed.