PR Part 1: Spaceships, Caves, and the first Mofongo

Puerto Rico!

Beaches and cocktails, and more beaches and more cocktails ... right? Well yes, but there's so much more!

the beach outside ESJ Tower

We (B,D, J, and K) started our trip by flying into San Juan, the capital city, for a quick overnight stay (the hotel included a free welcome cocktail!) before heading into the interior of the island to Arecibo Observatory.  B, a movie buff, suggested visiting this place because it is featured in so many movies.

B, J, and K by the radio telescope

along the walk from the parking lot

Arecibo Observatory is not exactly a spaceship -- in fact, it's not in any way a spaceship -- but people sometimes (incorrectly) believe that the scientists at Arecibo communicate with beings from outer space.  It's actually the home of the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, which operates 24 hours each day, providing opportunities for radio astronomy, planetary radar, and terrestial aeronomy.

(So says the website.  Note that the interesting educational movie about the observatory is offered in both English and Spanish.)

one of the towers at Arecibo Observatory

At Arecibo, we learned a little about Puerto Rican karst, which covers more than one-third of the island.  Geologic processes over many millenia have created "haystacks," landforms called mogotes, which are unique within the United States.

"haystacks"
(To learn more about the karst region, check out this website.)

view while waiting for the cave tour

From there, we headed to the nearby Rio Camuy Cave Park, another of B's finds, which is actually a cavern instead of a cave because it's open on both ends.  To get to the cave, guests ride a tram down~down~down a curvy, windy road, and then walk further down to the cave entrance.

the view from inside the entrance

J and K ready to explore Rio Camuy Cave

The walk down to the cave and the walk through the cave were over slick, slippery surfaces.  I fell pretty hard early on and, from then on, followed the guide's suggestion to hold on to the rails along some of the walkways.

About halfway through the walk, we found the other big entrance to the cave.  Word is that more than 10 entrances to Rio Camuy Cave have been discovered, but these are the only two we saw.  This entrance was caused by a cave-in of some sort, leaving a large circle open to the sky.

the other entrance to Rio Camuy Cave

Between the entrances and the walk out, we saw stalactites, stalagmites, and bats.  We could hear the Rio Camuy flowing below us, but the cave was too dark and the river too far away to see very well.

After our adventures in space and underground, we were starving! On the recommendation of people from the area, we headed to a nearby restaurant whose name now escapes me (a problem when waiting 8 months to blog!).  There, our waitress taught us about local cuisine and gave us advice on things to see and do while in Puerto Rico.

One thing to try on any visit to Puerto Rico is mofongo.  It's a delicious native dish made with mashed plantains, olive oil, and garlic.  It's served in this traditional dish, topped with your choice of protein.

mofongo with skirt steak

Our waitress advised us to empty the container of mofongo onto a plate before eating ... which led to respect when eating in other restaurants later in the trip.  Little did those later restaurant know that we'd just learned the proper way of eating!

We also tried the flan, made by "old grandmas" who make them fresh daily.  Choices included coconut and ricotta, among others, and all were absolutely delicious!  I'm not normally a flan fan, but wow, these flans changed my opinion!!

After dinner, we rushed back to San Juan and onto Casa Cabuy, an ecolodge that was to serve as our home for a couple of nights.  More about this in PR Part 2 ... and trust me, you'll want to read it!