Day 10: Historical Ponce on the way to Rincon

Sunday, Feb 8, 2015

My expectations for cruising were pretty low, but it's a sad moment when the time has come to pack up our carry-on luggage and close the door to our room for the last time. For one thing, who is going to provide me with turn down service and towel animals when we get home? This cruise has been a lot of fun!

The lido deck dining area is packed with people waiting for their debarkation zone to be called. It hasn't been remotely as crowded as this, but now that everyone has to leave their room and gather in one of select few areas deck space is limited.

Deepa whips up one last omelet and we walk all the way to the adult pool area back of the ship before we manage to escape the crowds. 

We're assigned to zone 10 (out of 31) and by the time we're done eating breakfast they are calling for zone 4-6, so we walk back to hang out on one of the loungers in the sun. This means walking past the most dangerous place aboard: the soft-serve ice cream machine. Gah! It snagged me again.

Happily munching on my ice cream, I pull out the Puerto Rico guidebook and start working out a route for the day. I haven't quite finished when they call zone 6-9 and all non-US citizens. Sandy gets to debark with me from deck 3 as a honorary alien and we clear immigration in a matter of minutes.

Our luggage is waiting for us in the designated zone, but it takes a while to move through the line to clear customs. Along the way posters inform travelers of bringing ashore prohibited items, such as fruit, sugar cane, and … parrots?

San Juan has a great taxi system; there's a small canopy set up outside the terminal and two girls direct both taxi's and tourists, while pricing out the fare. After just a few minutes we are loaded up and on our way to the Alamo car rental agency at the airport.

Here too everything runs smoothly and we get to pick out our own car (out of only 2 left but at least we got one with a covered trunk). “Guapo” the white Kia is ours for the next three days.

Driving through Puerto Rico is a strange experience in that you'll find all of your mainland establishments, except most of the signage is in Spanish. I feel like I'm on an instant immersion class!

Leaving San Juan airport across the Teodoro Moscoso toll bridge lined with US and Puerto Rico flags.

A few scenes from the highway

You'll also find a lot of farm animals tied down by the side of the road, or in one case, two horses ambling freely along a busy inner city freeway with no grass in sight. Even the locals seem a bit perplexed by that one and I was relieved to see everyone slow down to pass them.

At least this one was tethered.

We are taking the southern approach to Rincon, which leads by Ponce and Bosque Estatal de Guánica, a dry forest.

Like Hollywood, Ponce has it's own sign.

This might seem a bit much for the town we are about to enter, but Ponceños take great pride in their city. As the saying goes:

"Ponce es Ponce, y lo demas es parking" - (Ponce is Ponce, and the rest is parking)

Ponce is the third largest city in Puerto Rico, but the downtown area with its 19th century neoclassical buildings has more of a small town feel.

Calle Atocha

We park near Teatro la Perla (1864) at the corner of Calle Mayor and Calle Cristina

It's just a short walk to the heart of the city, Plaza las Delicias. Strangely enough the square is actually made up of two squares separated by the Ponce Cathedral, Plaza Frederico Degetau to the south and the smaller Plaza Luis Muñoz Rivera to the north.

Plaza Luis Muños Rivera

The centerpiece: a statue commemorating Puerto Rican poet and politician Luis Muñoz Rivera.

At the center of Plaza las Delicias stands the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de Guadelupe (1835).

Facing the church, at the western end of the square you'll find Casa Armstong-Poventud (1901), its ornate facade a great example of Ponce creole architecture.

Fuente de los Leones, the lion's fountain, on Plaza Federico Degetau was undergoing repairs, but I bet it is amazing when the water is flowing!

Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first set foot on Puerto Rico around 1508 and was later appointed governor. It's easy to think that Ponce was named after him, but it was actually named for his great-grandson Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, who was one of the driving forces in colonizing southern Puerto Rico.

Anyway, the symbol for Ponce to this day is the lion and in an effort to boost tourism in 2012 fifteen local artists were provided with white lion statues and asked to render their own impression of Ponce.

Fourteen of this Parada de los Leones are now a permanent fixure around Plaza las Delicias.

 

Having now looped all the way around the square we happen upon this 1931 Chrysler Old-timer.

But the real reason for visiting Ponce was its unusual fire station Parque de Bombas (1883)

Hungry, we step into Utopia, a cafe/gift store combination located right on the square. The menu is a mix of English and Spanish and I'm mostly decided on a ham, egg and cheese sandwich when a small sign catches my eye: it's pictures of the main choices and it shows what bocadillos look like. Not quite a sandwich but similar and it's enough to make me change my mind.

My bocadillo with cassava chips

Apologies for the blurry picture.

A few more scenes from Ponce before we hit the road again.

We leave Ponce behind, just minutes before the 1.5 hours we put on the meter expires and head northwest where ominous clouds are gracing the mountains.

We had planned to head down south to visit the dry forest and then to Playa buye for some relaxation, but we're both pretty knackered so we drive straight to Rincon instead.

Our hotel, the Lazy Parrot Inn is really cute with a, duh, parrot theme throughout. We booked an economy room, but it appears we have been upgraded to a deluxe room with a balcony overlooking the pool. The only downside is the many flights of stairs we have to lug our stuff, but that's well worth it.

  

Rincon is a sleepy surfer town that's bustling with action today, because there's a big swell moving through the area. It's so big that I get a call from Puntas Surf School, asking to move my early morning lesson back a few hours to let the likely still overhead waves (gulp) die down before we head out tomorrow. What can you do? Safety first!

The Rincon lighthouse is just a few minutes from the hotel so we head over there first, dodging a girl riding a pony while leading three others (all saddled), then a little herd of sheep that someone is crossing the street with and I can't help but think, “What's next, a llama?”

There's some kind of street party going on near the lighthouse and traffic is a mess. An rapid-fire announcer spits out endless sets of numbers in some kind of raffle. There are food stands, crafts, a bonsai salesman, people riding in on little ponies, as well as a man in a batman costume.

Rincon sure knows how to party!

Horses tied up near the tree line ... doesn't that look pretty.

Faro de Punta Higuero

The lighthouse is pretty, but the main attraction is the big waves in the distance and whole families are lined up along the fence line to get a better view.

~ ~  Please continue to part II for some big wave surfing ~ ~