I am in Puerto Rico for 6 days! It is my first time here. I am solo for a few days, and then my parents and I are traveling together for a few days. My parents are also blogging their POV of the same adventures, so I highly recommend you read their blog, too. Their blog is rtwstreets.com! My parents travel even more than I do and have blogged their journeys since 2017, so they are a great follow as well. Go check them out. ❤️ (I’m a few days behind on my posting, so you will get a sneak peek in their most recent post.)

Fair warning, I know more Spanish than I know of Japanese, so you will see a lot of Spanish scattered through, but still in a cute, fun, and approachable way! I am enthusiastic, and I also provide adjacent translations. ¡Wepa! (Woo hoo!/Yay!/*Joyful exclamation*).

¡Bienvenidos a Puerto Rico! (Welcome to Puerto Rico!) When I landed in San Juan, I looked for the local bus. I was too shy to ask someone where it was because I am still acclimating. Instead, I called an Uber, and I spoke with my driver in Spanish the whole ride. Although the Uber was more expensive than the free city bus, it was faster and probably more fun than a free city bus. He gave me recommendations of a few places to visit, and one of those recommendations was to go to La Posita de Piñones.

La Posita de Piñones

Piñones is an area to the east of the San Juan with a nice beach, a few boardwalk trails, and a strip of restaurants and bars. I originally considered taking the bus there, but my travel buddy for the day suggested that a 15 minute Uber was a better idea than an hour and 20 minute bus. Fair point!

Piñones means pine nuts, and maybe I missed them, but I only saw 2 pine trees there. We arrived at the beach around lunchtime. We were curious how long we could enjoy the beach before we got hungry because we would have to walk 20 minutes back for food. Luckily, a couple vendors walked down the beach selling treats. I was elated to purchase some once-in-a-lifetime beach treats! One lady was selling something that looked kind of like peanut brittle, but with almonds, and her other item was a shredded coconut chocolate candy looking thing, I think a “dulce de coco”. I bought the coconut one out of curiosity. It tasted like coconut and sugar and was very sweet.

Another man was selling helado (ice cream) with 3 different flavors. I opted for a mezcla (mix), per my request, not his suggestion. It was extremely refreshing, and the flavor was okay, but it was my fault to get all the flavors together. I bet it is better to enjoy just 1 flavor instead of trying to taste the whole world at a time!

I enjoyed speaking in Spanish with the vendors. It felt like an approachable exercise of my language skills. It went something like this?

1. Hola – Hi
2. ¿Qué es? *and pointing at the item* – What is it?
3. ¡¡¡Ah bueno!!! – Good!!! (I would respond this way regardless of what it was)
4. ¿Qué sabor? – What flavor? (If applicable)
5. ¿Cuál prefieres? – Which do you prefer? (If you need a recommendation)
6. ¿Cuánto cuesta? – How much does it cost?
7. ¿Tiene cambio? – Do you have change? (If you need change)
8. ¡¡¡Muchas gracias!!! – Thank you!!!

Both vendors told me:

• ¡Qué amable! *with a thumbs up and a smile* – (How nice!) – which I took as a compliment to my successful Spanish and friendliness.
• ¡Buen provecho, mi amor! – Enjoy your meal, my love! (A lot of restaurant, bar, and hostel workers call people “my love”. It feels similar to how people say “darling” or “sweetheart” in the south of the mainland USA.)

What a rush! I had friendly conversations on the beach todo en Español (All in Spanish), and now I have treats! Increíble!!! (Incredible!)

After the treats, we enjoyed floating in the water. The current was strong and heading to the west. There was a natural rock formation further out which removed waves out of the area, so I was able to lay on my back and take the current down the beach. I love floating! If I floated for 20 seconds, I floated like 50 feet, so I had to make sure to keep taking breaks from floating to swim back up.

It started to rain so we walked into town to get some food and caught some incredible views.

You can see the rain coming down here.

Shortly after, it stopped raining.

I thought the Mary statue among all the beautiful foliage and sky and ocean was beautiful.

I picked up a fried food item that is plantains and ground beef put together and then fried. I don’t remember the name, but it was pretty good!

I got a coconut, too. I’m not a huge fan of coconut water, but it sounded refreshing. I used the straw to scoop out the coconut meat. It got caught in the straw and then became a coconut boba tea like experience because I would just drink the coconut water to get the coconut through the straw too. So fun!

The beach is so peaceful.

I tried my first Mofongo, and I didn’t love it. It’s too soon to write off Mofongo, so I’ll try it again and we will talk more about Mofongo next time.

Condado

My hostel was closer to Condado beach which is nice for looking, but there are a million signs warning of the strength and danger of the waves. I went to Condado for a brief moment between other adventures, but I didn’t have a beach day there. Some people were out in the water. Either they didn’t see the signs, or they don’t have a healthy fear of the ocean.

Escombrón

I didn’t have time to visit this beach, but multiple locals and tourists spoke positively of this San Juan beach. Next time I am back in San Juan, I will visit this beach.

Because I didn’t rent a car, I didn’t have ALL the beaches as options, but I know Puerto Rico has a lot of beautiful places and beaches to visit. I look forward to returning and seeing more of Puerto Rico!

See you in the next post!