A Day Trip to Ponce

A bunch of us still left at the station (tree census crew and a few chronosequence folks) left early this morning to go across the island to Ponce and a few other areas nearby. At 8:30, we loaded into a rental van and got on our way. After a couple of circles and u-turns in San Juan, as well as the revelation that Puerto Rican speed limits are in MPH and distance posts are in kilometers, we made it to our first stop in Guavate to pick up lunch. Guavate is known for their roast pork, so we stopped at a place right off the highway. We walked in and ordered a couple of pounds (they recommend 1/2 a pound per person) and got to see one of the guys working there take a fresh bit off a whole pig on a spit in the kitchen. He then cut it up in true Puerto Rican fashion, with a machete.

After this stop, we made our way to Ponce with our lunch. As we entered the city, we saw huge letters spelling PONCE across the highway, each on its own separated by several lanes.  We shortly made it to the beach and enjoyed lunch in the shade of some trees right on the sand. The pork was delicious and melted right off the bone.  The skin was crispy and salty. It was an excellent meal, but so fatty that I think it would be best for my health to go a few months before having any more. I made sure to take out my camera after lunch to get some pictures of the birds flying over us, including several frigatebirds. The one in this picture is a male, as it has the red gular sac.

This beach had a boardwalk adjacent to it, which went along a small marina. There were tons of birds flying and fish swimming around feeding on the food people dropped (or likely fed to them) into the water. I’ll post pictures of these in another post in the next few days. There was a small tower at one end of the boardwalk with stairs up to the top. Walking up to the top, we could get a good look down below us, out to a few islands off the coast, and inland at the mountains we had crossed to get to Ponce.

After walking the length of the boardwalk (it was lined with restaurants and bars), we got back in the van to head into downtown Ponce. There was some sort of festival going on in the central plaza, so we parked and walked over to a nearby ice cream shop. The ice cream there was homemade and reminded me a lot of the ices from Lemon Ice King of Corona. Across the street was the old Ponce firehouse, a brightly-colored building made entirely of wood. This is really unusual on an island where most structures are build of concrete to withstand the elements.

After a walk around one of the touristy shops and the fountain in the center of the plaza, we headed back to the vans to travel to our final destination of the day. We traveled a bit north to Adjuntas, where there was a swimming area on a good-sized river. The area was nice, but I stayed up on the rocks while some of the others were enjoying a nice 30+ foot jump into one of the pools below a few waterfalls.

Following this adventure, we finally headed back across the island and I got to finish the leftover pork for dinner. Nothing like Puerto Rican food to make you feel healthy.