“A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.”
Bernard Meltzer
In Carolina, a cool neigborhood in walking distance of the beach in San Juan, I met CK’s dear friends Roberto and Maite, who took us in, fed us all kinds of delicious things, and showed us around San Juan. These two plus their three darling doggos were definitely the best part of the whole trip.
CK’s birthday technically happened while we were camping on Isla Culebra, but Maite and Roberto made sure we celebrated it together before we left town with a beautiful dinner and off-key singing. ❤ They also sent us off with an enormous bucket of different kinds of pasteles, little cakes and cookies and sweets for his “real” birthday, which we happily chomped on over the next week.
Walking around the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan was a great way to spend a day, poking into little shops like Poet’s Passage, looking at the pastel colonial architecture, and lolling around the plazas and the waterfront. We spent an hour or so touring the national historic site Castillo de San Felipe del Morro, but Maite and I kept getting rushed out of the documentary film rooms by the guys, so honestly I think we could’ve spent a lot more time there.
Maite also pointed out la Capilla del Cristo, which is a tiny chapel built at the top of the city walls. She told us that the story goes that two men were racing their horses down the steep street, and one went right over the cliff but survived, a miracle that inspired the capilla.
Our fabulous hosts also walked us by La Casa Estrecha, “The Narrow House” on Calle Tetuan, built into what had been a 5-foot-wide alley. Google says that it’s 36 feet deep and two stories high and is actually not the narrowest house in the world, but geez how.
Once the sun started to go down, we got serious about bar-hopping and made our way to La Perla, a super vibrant neighborhood with live music and dancing filling the street next to La Verguenza, where we got cocktails to go and snagged a table for the sunset.
As the sun disappeared, we walked downhill into the neighborhood and into the raddest spaces: La Factoria, an industrial chic craft cocktail bar with live music and cool art lining the brick and cement walls; La Taberna Lupulo, very divey and hipstery with an outstanding beer list (note: try Ocean Lab. Yummy). Also a very trippy bar with a row of toilets in the front room and a swingset. Tbh I was one foot in a blackout by that point so I’m a little fuzzy on the details, although I do remember going into a cigar bar in the middle of the night so CK could replenish his stash. And… did we go eat something…. ? Smh
At any rate, at some point the night ended and we all ubered home and someone took my shoes off and put me to bed. Lol. Vacation!
(Then we took the ferry to Culebra and did the 3rd part of our trip, which was beach camping at Playa Flamenco and CK’s birthday–see that post here.)
The end of our trip saw us back in San Juan and relaxing with our friends again as we wrapped it all up and prepared to go home… and as coronavirus started to become big news. The day before we left, my friend Mary texted me to stay on the island, and holy moly I wish we could have just stayed there forever. In fact, is it too late? Maite and Roberto, you guys have room for us plus two more dogs, right? Wepa!
Cairns and Cócteles (and Frances) 