It's Not All About the Beaches

As I previously stated, we do not go to Boquerón on the weekends. I guess we could drive over there sometime just to see how busy it is, but it is really enough for us to see the traffic on the main highway into the town and beach. Our favorite source for Pollo al Carbón (basically rotisserie chicken cooked over charcoal) is located on that highway to Boquerón. They are one of several vendors of comida de calle or street food that pop up along the highway on weekends. They show up on Friday with their small trailers and large home-made rotisserie things and don't leave until Sunday afternoon. Three of these sell chicken and we have tried two. The one that is our favorite is the second one we tried, and we have not been inclined to move on from there. The chicken is fresh tasting, tender, juicy and wonderfully seasoned. They also sell a yucca dish that is made with lots of onions and seasoning and is cooked and simmered in liquid. Yucca is the main substitute for potatoes here. We usually get just one chicken ($7.50) and a container of the yucca and make a couple meals with it. On Saturday, we went to the location after deciding we would get a couple chickens and make our own Arroz con Gandules to go with it. So back to the condo we came with the chicken making our mouths water and stomachs growl the whole way. We tested it and pronounced it as good as ever. We then set about making our own version of Arroz con Gandules. That is supposedly the national dish in Puerto Rico, and it is pretty generally available anywhere you go outside of the tourist areas. It's not complicated: Rice with gandules (pigeon peas), chopped up onion and green pepper, Goya seasoning and either capers or chopped olives for a little bit of saltiness. It's the seasoning that really gives it the flavor. The recipe we use says it serves eight which is enough for four meals for us. So, that was our Saturday. We were debating whether to go out to our favorite local restaurant or stay home and have chicken and the rice for dinner, when one of us fell asleep (that would be me) and we decided to just stay home and have a salad for dinner. It actually was better that way. I think I was still suffering from jet lag or something.

Sunday, we decided to go to San Germán to do some shopping and look around the town. San Germán is a small but very old town that was founded in the early 1500s and was the most important city in the western part of the island. It is second only to San Juan in age. We had never gone into the town and we wanted to look around a bit. As it turned out, there was something of a fiesta taking place in the main plaza of the town. We never did see any signs announcing what it was, but it seemed to be a gathering of fat tire bicyclists (and their bicycles) and model collectors. The models were primarily cars and trucks, and ranged from Hot Wheels to big hand made trucks that were made of wood. Of course, there was music and food, too, as well as a few restored old cars from the 1950s and 60s.

After a run through all the exhibits and some shaved ice to cool us down we checked out the remains of the original capilla (chapel) that was built in 1606. Those are adjacent to the Porta Coeli church that sits high above one end of the plaza. Port Coeli church is very similar to the missions that are located along the coast of California with a peaked front that contains a small bell in an opening near the peak. It is the main landmark (along with the remains of the original chapel) in the city. As we climbed the steps to the front of the church, I thought that you would really have to want to go to church to go up those steps. I suspect most the parishioners of the 17th century were a bit more nimble of foot than I am, however.

It seems that every town has some sort of fiesta in its town square every weekend, but we haven't been able to confirm that. It's just that every town we have visited on the weekend has had some sort of a party going on. Each town does have festivals, but those occur more often in the middle of the year and celebrate the town's patron saint, famous event, or something they just made up as a reason to celebrate. Hopefully, we will get around to some of the other local towns during our stay.

Oh, yeah. Sunday night we had salad, chicken and rice for dinner along with one of our favorite Argentine chardonnays. I actually think Medalla may be the drink of choice for Pollo al Carbón, but the wine went very well with it, too. Sitting on the balcony, enjoying local food, watching the sunset and listening to the waves... it doesn't get much better.