Looking toward the El Morro Lighthouse from Cementario de San Juan
After nearly five months of planning, our family trip to Puerto Rico was becoming a reality. The sweat and bother of packing, waiting in a security line, and no airline food service, was soon to be a memory.
We finally lifted off the ground from Charlotte, NC to a part of the world I’d never been to. For the first time, I had my children and grandchildren with me on a flight. There were 14 of us. The cotton ball clouds faded into night. As we made our approach into San Juan I saw the lights of the city. The island was defined by gold lights with an edging of blue. The iridescent glow gave it the look of jewelery.
The glow of the jewelery became tarnished by 1 am when we finally reached our resort after being given the wrong directions by the Budget rental guy. The areas outside of the resorts in Puerto Rico can be very scary looking especially at night for a carload of gringos from South Carolina.
The next day we raised our heads into the morning light of Sol Melia Resort, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, nearly an hour from San Juan. Our room was reminiscent of a luxury compartment on the streets of Hong Kong. There were seven of us in a ‘sleeps six, but four privately’ room. The South Carolina branch of the family became well bonded over the week. No thirty-five year-old guy should have to sleep with his mother and no sixty-three year-old mother…you get the picture. Nightly, we ejected one child to the New Orleans branch of the family downstairs to ease the crowded conditions.
Igor Iguana with Mohawk
Each day, as I walked toward the swimming pool, I came face to face with one of the resort’s friendly iguanas. His profile reminds me of a guy with a mohawk and a bad face job. They are ugly, but harmless. The employees of the resort were cheerful; always with the desire to make us comfortable. Ulysses, the towel guy, was great. He kept us in beach towels, and reserved our outdoor ‘bali bed’, and promised me the world for a tip.
We were within a few miles of one of the nominees for the New Seven Wonders of the World, El Yunque National Rainforest. I decided I could hike the jungles with the rest of the young pups in my family. It really did rain in the rainforest and our ponchos became like a wet piece of cling wrap after less than a half mile into the trek. Three miles later, I was holding my son-in-law’s hand and my daughter was holding up my sagging rear end, but I made it. We ate at a wild looking…it wasn’t a restaurant or really a grill, but one of Puerto Rico’s ‘food things’. The Yuquiyu, ‘food thing’ had an awesome hamburger. One thing I learned, if you want to eat local food there, you just have to give your stomach to the Lord and trust that all will be ok. Many local ‘food things’ look awful, but the food is great and God did take care of our stomachs.
We celebrated my late husband, Bill’s, 80th birthday in a Luquillo Beach open air, open bathroom, eatery. We only waited 2.5 hours for our food, but, hey, we were beginning to get used to island time. They open a business when, or if, they want to and close it when they get tired. Items are cooked to order, outside on a grill big enough to feed four people, when there are 30 people waiting to eat. This would never play in the United States of Microwave America.
Many moons before any of the fourteen of us knew that we would ever be family, Bill worked for a short while in Ponce, Puerto Rico, on the opposite coast from where we were staying. It was a beautiful seventy- five mile drive. The mountains were reminiscent of the green of Ireland and the beautiful contours of the Blue Ridge. Before arriving in Ponce, we stopped at El Rancho Original Pigo Restauranto, (heck, I don’t remember the whole nameo!) We ate pulled pork from a pig twirling on a skewer. Ponce is a very old town with majestic churches and a beautiful old town plaza. We stopped for a picture there before the family scattered. That day we wore t-shirts with Bill’s picture on them.
El Rancho Original El Pigo Restauranto outside of Ponce
Ponce also has a beautiful observation tower in the shape of a cross, unfortunately, the cross was closed for the day, geez, I’m glad the cross of Christ is never closed to us! It’s there if we choose to cling to it each day!! After taking some pictures around the tower, we drove on over to the Caribbean side of Ponce and waded into the water just to say we had.
Traffic patterns are interesting in Puerto Rico because there aren’t any. I white knuckled a few times when we’d be sitting at a light and a car would come through, full speed and pass us as he ran the light. It was like the Old West and I just prayed that none of us would be caught in the crossfire.
The outside of the resort was much like our country in many places, shiny car dealerships, Kentucky Fried, and Wal Mart. My daughter Stephanie, the Spanish teacher, was thrilled with every new Spanish sign she saw. She walked through grocery stores and shopping areas with her camera turned upward. My patient son-in-law, Clay, followed her with the video camera as she interviewed roadside vendors and gas attendants about their lives and work. This year she’s teaching three levels of Spanish and they will all have Puerto Rico I, II, III, IV, and V, I’m sure!
To be continued: The Donald Trump Audacious Resort
Mike Massey, Me, and Stephanie McMann, my kids and me on the shore of the Caribbean
Home of the Whopper Rio Grande Puerto Rico
Sounds like a fun trip.