PONCE

This morning Matthew and I drove down to Ponce, a cute little city in the southern part of the island.

The city holds a lot of historic sites and is full of museums, which is fine because both of us love museums. I think we've been to like ten different ones since we've been here. There's a nice plaza right in the heart of the city with little shops all around and a beautiful cathedral in the center.



For lunch we ate at Cafe Thomas, a restaurant recommended by a local. It was really good and not too expensive. I had garlic shrimp with tostones.


Another thing Ponce is famous for is this firehouse built in the middle of the plaza next to the cathedral. It looks way bigger in all the magazines, but it was a good background for pictures.



It was all dandy until we got back to our car and found this on our windsheild:

The funny thing is, Ponce's slogan is "Ponce is Ponce, Everything Else is Parking". We found out that they truly take their parking seriously. This is our first ticket since we've lived in Puerto Rico, I thought we were going to leave without getting one. Oh well, I'm glad I can check Ponce off my list now for things to do on the island.

"La Guagua"

My friend Denise from the Hato Rey ward has been wanting me to have a true puerorican experience and ride on the public bus or "la guagua" as they call it here. I was really hesitant because I know how many weirdos ride on public transportation. I told her I would only do it if she came along with me and she immediately said "OK!". So we planned a whole day out of it. She took the bus to get to my place and then we took it back to her house. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, at least it had AC, which I was so grateful for because the sun was blazing that day.

This was a true adventure for me because I don't even use public transportation in California.

When we got to her house she taught me how to make "arroz con salchicha" a puerto rican rice. If you know me, you'd know that I had the time of my life learning a new recipe. Cooking is my passion. She also gave me other puertorican recipes, which I'm so excited for.



We had a great time and good food, that's all I need to make me happy.

Paseo del Morro

Over the weekend Matthew and I decided to take a stroll down Paseo del Morro, it's a small path that lines the shore outside the fort. We've been needing major exercising so we thought we could walk the whole thing and feel good about ourselves. The scenery was so beautiful; the beach was right by our side and the historic walls of El Morro were phenomenal. We both enjoyed ourselves very much and got a good workout out of it. Whoo!
This fountain sits in front of the entrance to the pathway.





This is the formal entrance to old San Juan. At the top, written in Latin is says "Welcome all those who come in the name of God". This is also where the path actually begins.



It's kind of random and weird but there's a bunch of cats that live in the rocks along the beach. The guard told us there's actually people in charge to feed them and they are protected by the city. So as we were walking we saw about 15 different cats.



These are just other pictures we took along the path.



It wasn't raining, Matthew just decided to take his picture with our umbrella. Crazy guy.



I thought this cliff was so beautiful, it looks like it was painted in water color. I think it's like that from the water running down it over the years from the rain.



Behind us are the walls to the fort




This was the end of the path and we could see the entire ocean. I recommend it, it's a good sunday activity!

Little Naomi Star

My little niece is growing so fast so I wanted to add these pictures before I forget how cute she is as a baby. Her father Toafa is Tongan and her mother is Chicana. Don't they make beautiful babies? Naomi is about 13 months in these pictures. I just love her so much and I was so grateful to be able to spend time with her this last time we were home. She's at that age where she just wants to explore and get her hands into everything.