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- 10 Şub 2023 20:35
- ⛅ 82 °F
- Yükseklik: 26 ft
- Porto RikoRincónPlaza de Recreo18°20’26” N 67°15’8” W
Day 9 - The Rose and San Sebastian
10 Şubat 2023, Porto Riko ⋅ ⛅ 82 °F
For breakfast, we went to the condo owner’s favorite place – The English Rose. This place was a bit outside Rincon, up and down a series of steep, steep hills. Rincon is located at the western edge of one of the central mountain ranges and has hilly (even mountainous) terrain. Last night getting to Cowboys and today getting to the Rose, we had to climb those hills. It’s hard to estimate but some of the inclines could be in the 20% grade category. In contrast, yesterday’s drive down south rolled through almost flat terrain. The English Rose’s motto is, “Keep Calm and Drive Up.”
The Rose sits at the top of one hill looking out over the sea to the west – a fantastic view. It was (another) clear and sunny morning. It was busy there, but we got a table and ordered. Everybody was having morning cocktails and most of the group joined in. Again, the wait staff was largely statesiders with several Puerto Ricans. Our waitress was a long-term PR resident from Seattle (“grew up here,” she said). We had a great breakfast; I had a good ceviche.
Back to the condo to relax a bit. About 12:30, Gail, Andrea and I took off to explore the interior while the rest stayed around to beach it. We headed to San Sebastian, a (according to the guidebook) sleepy town of no particular interest up in the mountains east of Rincon. The road we took, PR 109, was a narrow, winding, up and down along the river. We stopped to look at the banana fields along the sides and passed through the small town of Añasco. There wasn’t a lot of traffic but the road is very narrow in places so driving was tricky. In one stretch the road crew was resurfacing the pavement and we had to wait to pass. We climbed up the San Francisco mountains to San Sebastian and found a relatively large, clean, and vibrant city. Parked at the city central plaza, which is laid out in typical Iberian fashion with the church at one end, the city offices at the other and businesses along the sides. Visited the history museum for the local area in a wealthy businessman’s former home on the square. There, a docent explained (in English) that the museum had recreated the 19th century furnishings downstairs and had local history exhibits upstairs – including some (small) sections on the indigenous Taino population - that had been almost wiped out by the Spanish colonists and the diseases they introduced. I chatted with him in Spanish and he said we should visit the falls nearby (which was not in our guidebook). I got directions (and found it on my Google Maps app).
When we finished looking around, we searched out the falls – Cascada Gozalandia – up another narrow, crooked road but only 10 minutes outside town. We found a very popular and developed tourist spot with concrete sidewalks leading down to the falls, along with a small bar/restaurant. We walked down to the falls (there are three small cascades) where people were frolicking in the pools below the drops and jumping through the water into the pool. Andrea and I walked up to the second and third cascades while Gail went back to the bar. She has been searching for empanadas since we got here and hadn’t found any. This bar had some so she got eight to take back. We joined her and headed back “home” taking a different (and much better) route. The outskirts of the city were built up with modern shopping areas and big box stores. The reality of this little jewel was very different from what the guidebook had led us to believe.
Back at the condo, we prepared a “last” supper of the empanadas and much of the leftovers from our grocery shopping trip at the beginning of the week. We went over to the beach for a final group pic.
Tomorrow will be an early start for the three-hour drive back to San Juan to catch our mid-afternoon flight.Okumaya devam et