Now that we’re car-enabled, we spent most of the day to the East of San Juan.

Our first destination was El Yunque, the large, lush, tropical rainforest in the mountains. It was raining on and off most of the day so while we didn’t see the long distance views.. in a way we saw it in its prime.

We did the short hike up to Mt Britton Tower, which is only about 1.5 miles there and back.It’s all paved, either asphalt or concrete and stones.

Lots of little gems along the way..

Our philosopher tour guide…

Ashok’s wild hair is like a 5th member of our party at times!

It was totally clouded in at the top, but still a cool, etherial location. Had to capture it in 360˚ of course.

We were predictably famished when we got to the bottom, having snacked for breakfast. Time for a real treat! We drove farther East to Luquillo and had lunch at La Fonda Gourmet. It turned out to be a small restaurant tucked into a pretty dead area but.. inside it was colorful and lively. Our waitress was great, and we got a big collection of tacos, mofongo with garlic cream sauce, and jibaro sandwich (like a wrap but pressed between sheets of fried green plantain). It was all delicious, and the garlic cream sauce maximized the mofongo experience!

Now sweaty and full.. we looked for ice cream. The options were underwhelming in the Luquillo area, but we did find this cool shipping-container-based beachfront snacker area.

We put the ice cream dreams on hold for a bit and went to the Balnearia la Monserrate Beach just Northwest of Luquillo. $4 for parking but it was quiet, the beach was clean and super soft, and the water was fairly tame and not too cool. We laid around and swam for a while.

Now refreshed and tired, we drove back to Old San Juan, this time parking at a new facility near the fort, Parking Ballaja. It seems to have the best prices around, is closer to Calle Cristo, and is easier to access since it’s on the quieter north side of town.

We went back out a bit later for dinner at Pirilo PIzza Rustica. It was a LOOONNGG wait to get in and an equally long wait to get our food, but it was tasty and had good atmosphere.

On the way back we stopped at our beloved Anita Gelato. One of the managers recognized us immediately, laughed, and told the team to take special care of us. They are an expensive place, but they always deliver excellent gelato and fill the little cup to its absolute maximum capacity.