Sunday, December 02, 2018

Puerto Rico Adventure - Day 4 - Rum for Breakfast and Hot Dogs for Dinner

[Composed 11/23/2018]

No trip to the San Juan area is complete without a visit to the nearby Bacardi Factory. We took in this tour earlier today and it was delightful. Perhaps the best part was waiting for the tour to begin. Shira sipped on a Bacardi Rum Sunrise and I had a classic Mojito in hand. We leisurely hung out in the bat-shaped pavilion without a care in the world. The historic tour was interesting enough and I have a newfound appreciation for rum.

While waiting for the tour I noticed interesting bird activity in the nearby trees. It seemed to me that there was a pandemonium of parrots flying among the palms. I even managed to capture a picture of one specimen flying by. Could this be an endangered Puerto rican Parrot? Seems unlikely, but from a distance it seems like a match.

After the tour, I had plans for us to visit the nearby Parque Nacional Isla de Cabras for a picnic lunch. Alas, it wasn't meant to be as the gate to the park was locked. I'm not sure if it's a temporary or long term closure, but either way, it wasn't going to work for lunch. Ultimately, we found our way to the nearby Balneario Punta Salinas. This was a picturesque beach, but at $5.00 for parking it was overkill for our relatively quick picnic. Still, the stroll along the beach was a pleasant one and you can hardly complain about supporting the local economy.

After lunch we stopped at a supermarket to pick up supplies for Shabbat. We were happy to find that they had challah, Welch's 100% grape juice and even Hebrew Nats. Our hotel-room improvised Shabbat meal was looking complete. One oddity in the supermarket: the coffee was in a locked case. We're not talking about gourmet, expensive coffee. No, we're talking about $3.00 a bag coffee. A quick Google search explained what was going on: coffee is apparently the most stolen item in supermarkets. So while you have easy access to alcohol and everything else in the store, coffee requires that you ask during check-out and a team-member will run off and return with your requested order.

After watching a perfect sunset from the hot-tub we headed inside for Shabbat dinner. Shira cooked up hot dogs courtesy of the coffee maker in the room. Here was her recipe:

  • Cut up the dogs into 2 inch chunks and place in a 2-cup tupperware container
  • Fill the coffeemaker with 2 cups of clean water
  • Place the tupperware with hot dogs in the coffeemaker and hit the brew button
  • When the two cups of water have passed through the coffeemaker, cover the hot dogs and let sit
  • After 10 minutes, drain the water and enjoy your perfectly cooked Hebrew Nats!

Tomorrow's adventure is exploring Old San Juan - stay tuned!

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