Caribar, the beautiful bar inside the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, boasts that bartender Ramon ‘Monchito’ Perez invented the piña colada there in 1954.
Piña colada at Caribar
No, wait, that’s Barrachina a Spanish restaurant in Old San Juan, where traditional Spanish bartender Don Ramon Portas Mingot created the original recipe in 1963.
Piña coladas in Barrachina
Neither side is backing down. Which bar is the birthplace of Puerto Rico’s iconic drink? That may never be settled. So in our opinion, the real question is, which bar makes the best piña colada?
And can either version approach the deliciousness of Lisa’s piña colada recipe? Bob gives them the taste test! Enjoy the video:
Caribar‘s address is Calle Los Rosales, San Juan, on the lowest level of the Caribe Hilton Hotel. Barrachina is located at 104 C. de la Fortaleza, Old San Juan.
Please sign this petition to help preserve the wonderful Tres Palmas Marine Reserve in Rincon, Puerto Rico. It was created in 2004 to protect Puerto Rico’s rich marine biodiversity, especially its elkhorn corals. It is now threatened by development in the watershed.
Sign This Petition!
Please sign this petition. It only takes five seconds. But it will help save one of the world’s last great spaces.
We came to see the rocks in Laguna Guaniquilla, not far from Buye Beach.
But we found so much more in Punta Guaniquilla, an amazing nature preserves full of natural wonders!
We encountered distant vistas.
Unexplained ruins.
Mangroves seen from a different angle.
Spectacular Caribbean views.
Salt flats that hosted 10,000 skittering crabs.
Jagged boulders rising from the water of Laguna Guaniquilla.
Hidden caves with signs warning of potential seismic activity.
More hidden caves.
Sleeping frogs.
Interesting plants.
Termite nests, some fallen on the ground.
You reach this hike by heading south on foot from the local favorite Buye Beach, down a puddle-mucked, narrow road through a neighborhood of ramshackle cottages that face the Caribbean Sea. Bring lots of water, and definitely bring a camera!
People go to Vieques for island life, a legendary bioluminescent bay, and fantastic snorkeling. But it is truly a one-of-a-kind experience in so many other ways, whether you’re passing a group of wild horses in the roadway, finding a secluded beach spot to call your own, or watching a tropical sunrise from a beach bar.
Ever wonder where chocolate comes from? It starts its life inside a pod that grows from a plant called cacao on a lush mountainside in a wet forest in the tropics. How do I know? I went there to find out.
We recently visited Finca Hekiti (Finca means “farm”, Hekiti means “one” in the Taino language) for an educational experience in a cacao forest in the Las Marias Mountains west of Mayaguez. In addition to learning the farming practices used on an agro-ecological site to grow and harvest fine-grain cacao, we learn about the importance of agroforestry, permaculture, and nature conservation.
Our tour guide was Ricardo, who purchased these four acres of extremely hilly, lush land with his wife Vivienne in 2014.
The family lives in this tricked-out shipping container when on the farm
Ricardo, a tall, rangy man with a curly beard, taught us that cacao doesn’t grow in neatly tended rows, like you’ll find on a farm, but as part of a symbiotic forest ecosystem. It nestles among other trees, many of them bearing fruit such as bananas and oranges, and plants that all have their own roles. The cacao tree does need to be pruned and maintained, but there is no irrigation. It gets sun and water at the whim of nature, including enduring a six-to-seven-month-long rainy season every year. Ricardo explained how he uses a process called grafting to improve new plants and make existing ones stronger.
Ricardo beside a cacao tree. The orange pod is ripe. The green one is not ready yet.
He took us on a half-mile hike around the extremely steep and windy agroforest, stopping frequently to show us medicinal plants and explain their purposes (in addition to letting us smell and taste them). We chewed a plant that numbs the mouth, and one that is used for brushing teeth!
Images of Cacao
Cacao on the treeA cacao podThe inside of a podThe pulp (which tastes like mango)A cacao seed, cut in halfDark chocolate for tasting
We tasted dark chocolate with hints of cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Delicious!
Finca Hekiti doesn’t process the cacao, so we didn’t get to watch him turn the cacao beans into chocolate. That actually takes a long time, including fermenting, drying, winnowing, roasting, and flavoring. He is planning to produce cocoa nibs, which are small pieces of crushed cacao beans that have abundant health benefits. Learn more here.
If you’re ever in Puerto Rico, you can find this tour through AirbBnB Experiences or on the Finca Hekiti Facebook page. The cost was $25 each, plus tax, quite reasonable for 3 1/2 hours.
Why do I love kayaking? It’s hard to explain, but today’s excursion on the Caribbean Sea really has me thinking about it. Let me try to explain.
Boqueron Bay, February, 2022
Kayaking in Vermont
I have spent the past two summers on Lake Rescue in Vermont, where I spent hours paddling around that 200-acre body of water in the Green Mountains. Nowhere do I feel more at home than tucked into my little orange boat, floating in the middle of Lake Rescue.
But that watery home was always changing, a metaphor for life, I guess. Sometimes I would slip out of bed at 6 AM and waft my boat into the early morning fog, beckoned by the haunting calls of the loons. Sometimes I would escape my family (this was the pandemic, after all) for some quiet time to myself after dinner, and watch the bald eagle father interact with his child as the sun set over the lake.
Misty morning Vermont, August, 2021
Sometimes I would kayak fiercely down to the Red Bridge at the far end of the lake, only to see a storm coming in that would soak me as I fought the winds to get home.
On weekend afternoons in summer, I would soak up the energy of my neighbors as some people water skied, another set up a lemonade stand on the family dock, kids dove off platforms out on the water, and a giant inflatable pink pelican bobbed up and down.
Come fall, the people would leave, and Lake Rescue would become a place of peace and solitude. Most of the local birds would leave, but then visiting ones would arrive, stopping for a few days here and there on their way south, sometimes providing a thrilling show.
Kayaking in the Caribbean Sea
Kayaking in Puerto Rico is a completely different animal. We’re currently living in the southwest corner of the island, and the Caribbean Sea is an impossibly glorious shade of turquoise, or deep blue, or aquamarine, depending on the angle of the sun and the invisible organisms living in the water. The sea itself is a living being, breathing in and out onto the shore. Its waves can welcome your boat and gently accompany you on your ride, or they can toss you around, throw up obstacles, and remind you that you are a tiny speck on a huge ocean.
The calm before the storm
Kayak out a ways from shore and the world looks different. The palm trees wave from a distance. The sky becomes huge. Sometimes it grows angry, and besets you with torrents of water. It slaps you and resists you and makes you feel small and powerless.
Sometimes it teases you with beautiful weather, only to reveal its true nature when you’re far from shore and see the black clouds moving in, the ones that were hidden from view when your feet were on land. The waves grow restless. The thunder rumbles. The surging water decides which way you will go. White seabirds glow as they soar above you, reflecting the sun to your right, a stark contrast to the black clouds to the left.
Here comes the rain again
The views are spectacular. Sailboats pose in front of black skies like supermodels strutting down a runway. You want to take pictures, but the sea takes your boat where it wants while you are focusing and shooting. You wrest control back from the sea as best you can — you, an insignificant mortal, vs. the sea, the turquoise lifeblood of the planet.
A rogue wave hits you. You are covered with water. It’s all over you; it’s around you; it’s under you. You are soaked. The sea is still restless. The strong wind pushes your hat off. You are glad you don’t have shoes; your bare feet are connected to the plastic boat. You keep paddling. You are soaked but still upright. You feel invigorated. You lean back in your seat, put your feet up, stop paddling, just experience the moment. Out in the middle of the sea. Water all around you. Sun above; storm approaching. You are part of the ocean. You are inside the water. You are physically connected to the planet.
One paddle, two blades. Dip left, dip right, left, right, one fluid movement. Get a rhythm and fly across the water. Or not.
Who would expect to see so many kinds of cacti on a tropical island? We were intrigued to view the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea from a desert trail in Guánica State Forest, on the southwest end of Puerto Rico.
A United Nations International Biosphere Reserve, the Guánica State Forest, also known as Guánica dry Fores , is one of the most extensive tropical dry coastal forests in the world, totaling around 9,000 acres. It’s a paradise for birdwatchers, and we saw many. Read all about it.
Enjoy Bob’s video of our 3.7-mile hike along the rocky coast and through the desert.
Our day spent hiking and beaching also presented us with captivating flora and fauna! Lisa took a few pictures of her favorites, especially the red-billed oystercatchers. She guessed the name after watching them in action!
Weird cactus treeCactus by the seaMr. CrabOyster cathingPelican and egret fishingCactiHe can catch oysters with that strong long beak.
A hike in the nature reserve around the Cabo Rojo Lighthouse (Los Morrillos) served us up spectacular vistas, with stomach-dropping white and red cliffs, fascinating rock formations, crystal-clear Caribbean Sea, and even cacti!
We found the loop trail, part of the Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge, on the All Trails app. It took us around the rocky coastline of this peninsula, then past the salt flats, before dumping us out on Playa Sucia, or La Playela, a gorgeous beach.
It’s located on the southeastern point of Cabo Rojo, on the Morrillos Peninsula, in the southwest corner of Puerto Rico. Learn all about this destination at the Discover Puerto Rico website.
Make sure you come between 9 AM and 5 PM, because the park rangers lock the gate!
