Puerto Ricans are f'ing crazy! (trip report)

[Empty V]

So the woman and I just got back from a week long vacation in PR and it was amazing. We hiked through the rainforest, walked around La Fortaleza - San Juan's wall and sea-side gates to the city, drove to the other side of the island and jumped a ferry to this tiny island called Guilligan's Island which is nothing but white sand and mangrove trees, hung out at the Bacardi plant, Drove up in through the hills and ate rotisseried whole pork @ El Rancho Originale, drove up to the Aericobo Telescope which is the world's largest and finally on our last day sat at the beach behind our hotel and relaxed all day.(breath) We drove over 600 miles and in that time we came to the conclusion that Puerto Rican drivers are f*ing nuts. They don't signal EVER, run red lights(legally) between midnight and 6AM, stop for no reason on the freeway, feel the need to cut you off and just cruise right in front of you 20mph under the posted speed limit, park 1/2 way on the sidewalks and 1/2 in the street, are all on their phones and have busted tail lights. They actually have maximum AND minimum speeds posted because they're such s*** drivers. I've lived in Los Angeles my entire life and they make our drivers look like driving instructors. Regardless the trip was incredible and long overdue, here's a few pics.

From our hotel balcony

[Empty V]

Ohh yeah almost forgot to mention that I saw more R50's and WD21's (both pathfinders) then any other vehicle out there. The rest were pretty much Monteros and Suzik's. I would guess that every 5th vehicle was a pathy.

[skydragoness]

Cool! I've always wanted to see that!

Sounds like you had an awesome time, I've gone to the Dominican Republic last March (with my mother, she's Dominican) and we didn't get to do ANYTHING
because it poured the entire week we were there. I was annoyed. I definitely wanted to explore.

Also the drivers are the same in D.R. No rules, pass who you want and as close as possible. We saw an over-turned car at an intersection the 2nd day we were there. In fact, the only traffic light was for the airport and after that I didn't see any. (We stayed on the north/atlantic side of the coast.. Costa Dorada/PuertoPlata).

[Mr1der]

did they shoot the end of Goldeneye there?

also, sausage om nomm nom nom

[Otto.]

Looks like a fun time.

I would have had a ball at that telescope and the fort thing.

[93coupe]

I need to travel It all looks so pretty.

IB4Tito!

also, sausage om nomm nom nom

[ScrapMetal]

did they shoot the end of Goldeneye there?

That's the same thing I was thinking.

Pictures came out great, makes me want to go visit.

[Empty V]

did they shoot the end of Goldeneye there?

also, sausage om nomm nom nom

They shot Goldeneye and Contact there along with an independent feature. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. FTW the sausage was made with the pork's blood and was phenomenal. They had a very different texture, extremely soft not like normal cured or Italian sausage.

[numbnuts240]

the sausage is called "morcilla". "ll" is pronounced as a "j" in pr, not a "y" like in all those other crazy spanish speaking places. more-see-ja. blood sausage. DELICIOUS. also, you should have gone to luquillo beach. arguably, one of the most gorgeous beaches on the island, and the food stands are delicious. failure on your part for not having more frituras (fried food) with your meal.

drivers there do suck, but that's typical in the caribbean islands. i almost s*** my pants being a passenger in jamaica.

[sx moneypit]

Nice pictures,sounds like you had a good time.If you want to get training on how to deal with f**ked up driving you need to come to Elvisville and get first hand experience.

[HashiriyaS14]

FTW the sausage was made with the pork's blood and was phenomenal. They had a very different texture, extremely soft not like normal cured or Italian sausage.

Morcilla. It is beyond delicious.

http://spanishfood.about.com/od/sausage ... aintro.htm


I've always wanted to go to the Bacardi operation, looks like a lot of fun.

[numbnuts240]

bacardi tour is always cool. they're always adding something to it and i make a point of going every time i visit the island. idk if they still do it, but you used to get 2 vouchers for free mixed drinks at the bar on the property with the purchase of a tour ticket.

[sentrastace]

fantastico :p

[MellowZ32]

Puerto Rico is a beautiful place!
I want to go to there!
post more pictures!

[numbnuts240]

you and me jota, let's turn that island upside down. or get stabbed trying

[Empty V]

Thanks guys it was a long overdue honeymoon. They just called it blood sausage but probably because I'd speak to them in Spanish, they answer, then I'd say "que?" and it quickly turned into an English conversation.

Ohh man I wish i knew about luquillo beach, I'm looking at pics now and it looks amazing. Trust me, we had plenty of fried fruit and enough mofongo to last us a lifetime. I'm gonna start looking for recipes and maybe give mofongo a shot. We also went on a search for chicarones and came up short almost every time. the best we had were El Rancho Original which was where we had the blood sausage. I'm ready to go back and think I'm going to plan a diving trip there next year.

The Bacardi tour was free and included the mentioned drink tickets. I look up BevMo's website to compare prices and the alcohol @ Bacardi was significantly more expensive so we passed on that.

I needed a small P&S for the trip so I stopped by Costco and picked up a Panasonic Lumix was very impressive. The zoom and digital zoom are crazy and the quality of the sensor and lens are pretty top notch. Here's a few more pics including 2 examples of the zoom. Please keep in mind that I have cropped or color corrected any of these pics because I'm too damn lazy.

Check out the 3 little dots in the top right of the top pool.



Here's those dots



So that's the optical zoom, here's the digital zoom. Look at the very middle of the frame where the water meets the beach.





Here's just some more random pics





























This is behind El Rancho Original

[srpowered240sx]

looks like a bitchin trip. im jealous.

[MellowZ32]

you and me jota, let's turn that island upside down.

f*** yeah dude!

or get stabbed trying

[numbnuts240]

i know it sounds weird, but one of my favorite places to grab a quick dessert is mcdonalds. they still deep fry their apple pies down there.