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Location | 4th Floor of Grandma’s Building, Taichung, Taiwan

I’m about to pass out. Since Thursday at 8am until now Saturday (in Taiwan PM, in the US AM) at 9pm… I have slept a total of… 4 hours on an airplane.

I should be out of my mind by now. I think the only thing holding me together is some coffee, then tea, then more tea. Today wasn’t too eventful. I’ll pick off where I left off in my last entry.

So at noon I met up with Doris, a friend I made from my internship at the National Palace Museum in 2005. We went to a branch of Chun Sui Tang ( 春水堂 ) located in a small department store. Yay for bubble tea and snacks. Afterwards we walked around and even went to a Jazz festival!

Myself and Doris at the Taichung Jazz Fest

Then it was back home (but not after meeting Doris’ boyfriend — awww so nice for dropping me off). They came and visited my ah-ma (grandma). Then we went to dinner at a Japanese resturant. 9-course meal for NT$350 or US $10.83. Crazy right? There was salad, fried tofu slice, chawanmushi, hand roll, fried rice, sashimi, miso soup, fruit, and taro jelly).

Sashimiiii!!!

Taiwan food is awesome! Tomorrow is crab + Peking duck + more Japanese!!!! Plus my uncle is taking me to a sashimi joint + all you can eat oysters. Freaking awesome. I love food people and my family is definitely a food family!

Location | Grandma’s House in Taichung

So far so good. People are impressed that I still speak understandable Chinese. They’re also fairly impressed that I can understand their Taiwanese (diabolical I know, I’m taking over the world one language at a time). Already ate 4 pieces of turn-up cake, 4 soup dumplings, cold soy milk and a wax apple. I’m on a roll already with the food. The fact that I can’t suck in my stomach anymore, now that’s an entirely different situation.

Today I’m meeting up with my friend, Doris from Russia. Sometimes we refer to her as Boris from Russia. Anyway, she happens to be in my hometown and will be meeting up with me later to go eat! I haven’t made any plans for the day, but I really should. I got in around 6am and it’s about 9:30am right now. I just have to make it through another 12 hours and I’ll be set with no jet lag. I hope. I HOPE! I need some coffee.

Will post pictures of food as soon as I get my sh*t together.

Location | New York City

About 4-5 years ago, I spent 2 summers in Taiwan. In 2004, I lived on a mountain near the Qizhang (七張) MRT stop (Mass Rapid Transit) station on the main green line going through Taipei. Everyday I would go outside and wait for a van that would take me down winding roads down near the subway station so I could go to class. Oh right, I forgot to mention that I had gone to Taiwan to spend 4 months studying Mandarin Chinese. I hate to admit it, but I really did not learn much… and I totally regret it.

In 2005, I got an internship with the Taiwan Tech Trek program. They sent me to work for 5 weeks at the National Palace Museum in Taipei. During the program I lived in Danshui, near the northwest coast of Taiwan. If you know the geography of Taipei, I essentially lived on opposite ends of the city.

Taipei is such a mishmash of things. In 2005 I wrote an “award-winning” essay [note: when I saw “award-winning” it means I won an award for it, but it’s nothing special, it was for my internship program] about the contrasts between old and new Taipei. You could find a beautiful modern bridge, but underneath the bridge you’d find a fisherman in an old rickety boat. These contrasts can be found all over Taipei (and the rest of Taiwan for that matter).

Taipei is a tricky city to describe because it’s so different depending on what parts of the city you visit. For instance, if you’re visiting Danshui (where I once lived), you’ll get a tourist’s paradise. Cute little shops selling trinkets, Taiwan foods, restaurant stalls, and a smelly fisherman’s wharf. In Shilin, you get the largest night market in the city, where you have vendors (illegally) selling items in the street, store after store with goods, and food everywhere. For first time visitors to Taipei, it’s good to note that Shilin Night Market isn’t actually located at the Shilin Station, it’s located at the Chientan Station.

We made friends with this guy, he's awesome!

Or if you go to the Taipei 101 area, you get a posh shopping area where it’s very clean and tidy. Or Hsimending, which is equivalent to Shibuya in Tokyo, an area crowded with young people and a lot of fun things to do. If you go to the Gongguan or Guting areas, you’re in the college districts, where National Taiwan University (aka Tai-Da) and the National Taiwan Normal University¹ (aka Shi-Da) reside.

In 2005, I was working at the National Palace Museum in the Shilin district of Taipei. To get there, you’d want to get off at Shilin station and then walk out the entrance to the end of the street under the subway overpass. There are several buses that will take you to the museum. The Museum completed remodeling in 2006 (boo, a year after I worked there).

Entrance to the National Palace Museum

Fact: The exhibits at the museum change 4 times a year, but the museum houses so much stuff in storage that even if you went back 4 times annually, it’d still take you 11 years to see everything they had in the museum.

If you really wanted to know, behind the building there’s a giant vault that leads into the mountain the museum is built on. The doors are about 20-30 feet high and the security there rivals that of the CIA. Very few people have access to the inside of the vault and visitors can’t see the vault door. In reality, you need a special key card to even get back there (heh, which I managed to get my hands on one). Not that anyone probably really cares, but if you look at the picture below, I marked where the vault entrance is… oh wait, that might be a matter of national security… but then again, it’s probably impossible to even get into a vault. Even if someone was crazy enough to attempt it, they’d probably find a way to get the schematics let alone look at a Google Maps image of an red x.

Red X marks the spot!

What other interesting things can I tell you? Oh, the man made famous by the image “Tank Man” aka the “Unknown Rebel” who faced off against a line of tanks during the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests has been rumoured to be working at the National Palace Museum as an advisor to ceramics. Funny thing is, if so, I probably met the guy, but no one would know his history as he has used a pen name in the past and hidden his identity.

The best thing about Taipei is the night markets. Although the MRT stop running at midnight, night life extends far beyond those hours. Night markets stay open until the early hours of morning, KTV (karaoke) places are open 24/7 and you’ll always find food no matter what time you feel hungry.

Taiwan has the largest collection of 7-11 convenience stores versus any other place in the world.  You’ll often find at least a 7-11 and maybe a Family Mart on every corner in Taipei. The best things to buy inside? Tea eggs, snacks and anything from their large assortment of juices.

There are other great things to do in Taipei, but I’ll wait until I get there to document correctly and show you.

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¹The word normal in the university’s name derives from a usage now archaic for most English speakers. A “normal” college trains teachers. In the first decades of the twentieth century the term was still commonly used in reference to teacher training institutions. The word recognizes the leading role such institutions play in establishing educational standards—norms—for their societies. (from Wikipedia.org)

Location | New York City

Bubble Tea, Boba Tea, Pearl Milk Tea (珍珠奶茶), whatever you may call it was invented in Taiwan sometime during the 1980’s. Very few people know that it was actually invented at one of my VERY FAVORITE tea shops in Taichung: Chun Shui Tang Teahouse (春水堂). Although there’s another tea house in Tainan (southern Taiwan) that also lays claim to inventing bubble tea, we all know that Taichung is superior (heh).

Chun Shui Tang originated bubble tea through experimenting with cold milk tea. If you ever have a chance to visit any of their locations in Taichung, please try their milk tea with small bubbles. You will get the frothiest milk tea imaginable, with perfectly cooked bubbles. Furthermore, their thick sliced toast with condensed milk or peanut butter is mouthwatering delicious for what it is.

Everyone should also try to cook the bubbles themselves! It’s really rewarding when you get the perfect consistency and realize that you can make your own instead of crossing your fingers you don’t get a bad batch every time you go to a tea shop in Chinatown and/or St. Marks.

Taichung is also known for their suncakes (太陽餅). They come in various sizes, but my favorite are the large suncakes. Flaky on the outside and soft, sweet and gooey in the center. Originated by a branch of the Lin Family (not directly related to me) there is a mile stretch of stores on the road into Taichung where you can find hundreds of variations of suncakes.

Suncakes

The oyster omelette is a food enjoyed all over Taiwan (and parts of SE Asia and China).  I bring it up here because my aunts (on my dad’s side) run a restaurant that specializes in oyster omelettes.  A mixture of egg, starch (to thicken) and small oysters then a nice sauce on top makes for a delicious snack! Top that with fried tofu or any other items and you have the perfect Taiwanese street food.

Another perennial favorite is stinky tofu. As awesome as it sounds (/sarcasm), it really does taste good. Because it is fermented tofu, you can literally smell it from a mile away. If you get your wits about you and suck it up, it’s worth a try. Really. Really, just plug your nose and eat it!

How does something so delicious looking smell so bad?

As I further my hunger… other favorites:

• Oily Rice (油飯) – rice baked with oils, pork, shitake mushrooms and dried shrimp
• Ba-Wan (肉圓) – a bowl with a translucent dough stuffed with meat, served with a sweet or spicy sauce and cilantro
• A-gei (阿給) – Danshui’s (north of Taipei on the coast and my home for the summer of 2005) specialty – fried tofu stuffed with clear noodles and fish paste
• Oyster Vermicelli (蚵仔麵線) – clear noodles thickened with oysters and in soup
• Ground Pork Rice (魯肉飯) – what NYC Cravings is pretending to make, but in reality it’s not a glop. Ground pork marinated in soy served over rice with pickled mustard greens
• Radish Cake (蘿蔔糕) – using white radishes that are mashed into a paste then steamed until it solidifies into a gelatinous “cake” shape. Pan fry, serve with soy sauce, AMAZING.

Radish Cake

I am so hungry as I read the Wikipedia article on Taiwanese cuisine (to remind myself of what else to write about). My goal is to eat my way to Taiwan. If I come back about… 20 lbs heavier, just be nice.

Location | New York City

*Note* This letter is a work in progress. May have new additions and be edited at any time… I also don’t mean to offend anyone. Don’t kill me.

Dear Puerto Rico,

You, the most random of travel destinations, are like the bastard child conceived from the union of Los Angeles and Detroit. You are the wasteland of American territories. For you, I’d like to outline a few issues I encountered on your island and perhaps some solutions to some seemingly easy-to-solve problems. I hope that this letter does not come as a surprise to you or is too complicated to understand.

Signs

A visitor is driving along, reading their guidebook, when they realize that the directions to a location is something to the likes of “Carretera 110, km 8.7.” This is one of those moments when I’d like to express that I am not a person that gets easily lost. In fact, I have an excellent sense of direction and am also skilled in reading maps. So why on earth are your landmarks impossible to find? Probably because there are, in fact, no well placed signs found anywhere in the country. Firstly, you must spot the small kilometer sign. 1 kilometer. 1.5 kilometer. … and so on. Where’s 8.7? Well it’s not marked. Where’s that lovely mangrove you wanted to visit? Well that, it’s DEFINITELY not marked.

I could make millions on becoming a sign consultant in your country. With some well placed (and possibly well-lit) signs, the island could stand to make so much more in tourism revenue! The best signs we found were to Arecibo Observatory, yet, you definitely didn’t want you to leave, because there were no signs pointing you out of the mountain forest of winding roads back to the main road.

If there are signs, the signs are overly descriptive. Want to know that it’s a bus stop? A picture of a person standing under an awning with a bus.

Signs are very descriptive

What about the rainforest? Would you like to know what a rainforest is like in a sign?

Outline of Puerto Rico + mountains + rain cloud = Rainforest

Turning signals, right of way, speed limits, from what I could tell, none of these things were observed in Puerto Rico. Taking a nice drive along the road, often you’d find yourself in a situation where you couldn’t locate the lines defining the left lane and right lane. You’d find yourself in roads so narrow that you’d have to pull off to the side to allow another vehicle to pass. Want to get into a gas station? So does half of the other cars on the road. Want to turn around in the middle of the road and block traffic, go right ahead! We’re in Puerto Rico! You can do anything here! Car stalled on the side of the road? Well, don’t mind me as I drive 2 miles per hour to gawk and block traffic for 6 miles behind me.

Emergency Vehicles

Is there perpetually an emergency in Puerto Rico? With your red and yellow siren lights always flashing, I would think so. Even as you are behind us, lights flashing I wonder, should I move out of the way, but it doesn’t seem as if you are in a hurry to get anywhere. In fact, you are driving slower than most of the other traffic.

Um. Should we move out of the way?

Suggestion? Save the light bulbs. Why… WHY!? Would must you continuously flash your lights?

Underwhelming Beaches

Somewhere in a guidebook I had read about white sand beaches with crystal clear blue water. I’m wondering if the tour book author actually went to Fiji instead and confused it with Puerto Rico? I mean Puerto Rico kind of sounds like Fiji. Kind of. Or not at all. Or perhaps the west coast of Puerto Rico should just be described as “regular brown sand and regular blue-green water that isn’t that clear.”

Maybe all the photos online are photoshopped? Or maybe I’m suffering from some sort of color disorder. I must have been hallucinating when I saw pictures of bright blue water.

Giant Empty Parking Lots

I left for your small island with the understanding that it was the low season for tourists, but I did not expect to find myself one of 5 tourists there. Arriving at one of the “most secluded” beaches, there were 3 parking lots the size of 3 football fields.  In the parking lot sat 2 other cars. Where are all the people? From what I have seen, there is no tourism.  When you say “low season” you mean “ghost town.”

Fast Food Mecca

Have you read Fast Food Nation? I’m pretty sure your island is obsessed with it. Or why else would the left side of the road have a Church’s Chicken… and oh! the right side of the road has one too! Go a few more feet, McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell… I predict major health problems…

Fried food? Fried potatoes, fried chicken, fried fish, fried dough, fried… anything else. Like the shrimp soliloquy from Forrest Gump, only with fried food and you’ll get the national foods of Puerto Rico.

Roaming Dogs + Chickens

Drive carefully, or you may run some poor dog or chicken over. More than once did we run into the occasional almost-accident with a stray dog that just sauntered out into the middle of the road (and then proceeded to chase us as we drove away). Also, chickens on the side of the road?

Chickens??

Oh, that’d be dinner if we hit that.

Chicken!

Now I’m a little hungry, but I think I’ll stay away from the fried food mecca of the world and save my stomach. Thank you very much.

Puerto Rico, I’m not sure I have hope for you, but I do hope that there is hope for you somewhere… out there.

Sincerely,

Joanna Lin.

Location | New York City

Introduction: I completely forgot to write an itinerary entry for my trip to Taiwan & Australia… so in the introduction here, I’ll set out my itinerary for my trip…

October 15, 11:50pm – Depart from Newark to Taipei

October 17, 6:30am – Arrive in Taipei, head to Taichung

October 23-28th – Fly to Brisbane and Sydney in Australia

October 31st – Depart to return to NYC

As part of my pre-preparation for going to Taiwan, I’m going to write a blog series about Taiwan and everything it has to offer. For the first part of the series, I’ll focus on Taichung and surrounding areas. It’s where my family is originally from. For the second part of the series, I’ll focus on Taipei. I know about Taipei the best because I’ve spent the most amount of time there (in total about 7 months). Hopefully I’ll be able to provide some insights into what characterizes Taiwan to be it’s own unique nation.

It’s really not a love story, rather my own love for Taichung. This is going to focus on general information on Taichung as well as some stories from my family history.

Taichung, A Love Story

Taichung (台中 simplified or 臺中 traditional) is located approximately 86 miles SW of Taiwan’s capital city, Taipei. The third largest city in Taiwan with a little over a million people. Located in a valley surrounded by mountains with the Taiwan Straight to the west.

My ancestors left China in the mid-1600’s to move to Taiwan. In the present, we are at the 14th generation of the Lee family (my mother’s side) while my father’s side it remains unknown on how to trace a scattered family tree. To tell the story correctly, I’ll have to discuss my mother’s side of the family because there is more information readily available. My hopes is that I’ll also be able to find pictures and collect more stories during this trip when I have time to talk to my grandmother who is turning 80! (Happy Birthday Ah-Ma! 生日快樂阿姨!)

My Grandma and me in 2006

The Lee family left China and moved to Taiwan sometime during the mid-1600’s. As most historical sources have stated, during the 1600’s mainly men were allowed to travel/immigrate to Taiwan, therefore, to establish themselves, they’d often marry aboriginal women. So it’s relatively safe to say that besides Han blood, I also have aboriginal blood.

My great-great-great grandfather was a wealthy man who was a part of the local government in the early to mid-1800’s. He was well known in Taichung and his eldest son was also growing in popularity and power.  In those days they were carried around on palanquins through the street. One day, the eldest son was stuck behind a palanquin while crossing a bridge. He yelled out at the palanquin ahead of him, cursing the person for blocking the way. Unfortunately the person ahead of him peeked his head out of the curtains and it… was… his father! Oh my… a story we often laugh about in our family.

So much of my family history is steeped in Taichung that it’s easy to understand why I love a love affair with the city. Known as a very friendly city with it’s own uniqueness that can be described as a big city with a little town’s personality.

My great grandfather was a doctor (as his son was and so on… there were apparently many doctors in my family). His friend was also a doctor and tried to convince my great grandfather to start a hospital together. My great grandfather declined, because my great grandmother felt that his services should be offered to those who really need it, who are often those who couldn’t afford hospital care. My great grandmother was an extremely devout Buddhist. She devoted her time to helping those in need. So my great grandfather would often help those who needed a doctor and accept what they could give, monetary payment or not. Meanwhile his friend went on to be the founder of one of the top hospitals in Taichung.

Although I’m not religious myself, my morals and values have come from a mix of Buddhist & Taoist teachings. It’s so deeply entrenched in the teachings that have been passed down from mother to daughter in the Lee family. There are many shrines and temple throughout Taiwan. My grandmother grew up in the nearby town of Dajia (大甲). Dajia is well known for it’s temple to Matsu, a goddess of the sea that protects those associated with water. My family goes to Dajia annually to pray at the Matsu temple (Chenlan). There you can actually find my name in one of the many (hundreds if not thousands) of lights. Those seeking guidance can have any of the monks put their name in a light (or a prayer book) to be prayed over for protection. Offerings include food (particularly Taiwanese pastries and fresh fruit), the burning if incense as well as the burning of ceremonial money.

My hopes is to further explore temple culture in my short visit to Taichung.

On a side note, all I know of my history of my dad’s side in Taiwan is the Lin Family Shrine, dedicated to the Lin’s that traveled from the Fujian province to Taiwan.

I’m hoping to continue my love affair with this city with a photo journal. I’d like to find some books on the history of Taiwan to translate. We’ll see how it goes.

Location | New York City

Back after the trip. I miss laying out on the beach. Would you like to see Greg’s sad face?

Greg's Sad Face

We got to the airport in Aguadilla, put the car in the parking lot, went through the agricultural inspection, then got breakfast, then went through security then got on the plane… when we realized… we never returned our keys to the car rental counter! Now we need to get those keys sent out ASAP back to the airport. We’re getting charged per day until we get it back to them.

It’s funny because it’s fitting that our trip ended as it did. With some sort of big absentminded mess-up. Maybe that’s karma hitting us in the butt? (After we got out of our original hotel).

Anyway, I’ll be writing an “open letter to Puerto Rico” in my next entry, but not tonight. Maybe tomorrow. A final picture for you:

Goodbye Puerto Rico!

Location | Rincon Beach Resort

Today was a day to not do anything. We woke up late (11am-ish) before we headed down to find breakfast. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed, so we went back upstairs, packed up all the food that we had, and carried it down to the beach. We spent the morning and early afternoon laying out reading magazines and books. We were drinking piña coladas that did not turn me red, so Greg went out and bought some rum, which we then added to our next piña coladas. Greg is my hero because he brought back a roasted chicken! It was delicious to finally eat some street food. Earlier we had eaten the papaya we bought from a fruit stand, and we had kiwis too.

Roasted Chicken

Then there was swimming on the beach until the sun set. Even though there were storm clouds in the sky, the sun was still bright and it couldn’t have been more perfect. The storm clouds passed right over us and we had some great weather! The sunset was beautiful, a bright red (and HUGE) sun on the horizon.

Sunset

After sunset was more twilight swimming, dancing around in the pool (yes I said, dancing), then hot tubbing. More beach, then hot tubbing. Essentially I’m surprised my skin is withstanding all the water.

Instead of going out to dinner we ended up staying in eating snacks… beer – Medalla Light – apparently the Puerto Rican beer of choice; salted cashews, canned pulpo (octopus), and pan de agua. Now it’s just reading and chatting late into the night…

Location | Rincon Beach Resort

We started out relatively early. Set out with the El Yunque Rainforest in mind. We got some coffee and drove off. We decided that we should check out the Arecibo Observatory, a giant radio telescope in the mountains. It’s the most sensitive radio telescope in the world. It’s been featured in movies like GoldenEye and Contact. Anyway… if you’re pressed on time, Greg and I made the decision it’s not worth visiting. It’s $6 a person… but apparently we walked in w/o paying, and we went outside, bought tickets and went back in… We could’ve gotten away without paying for anything at all.

Radio Telescope at Arecibo Observatory

The size of the telescope is incredibly impressive, but there’s nothing else to see besides that. Especially for how long the drive is to get there. After the telescope, we headed toward the rainforest, but since we were starving, we decided to make a quick stop in San Juan. We stopped in Ocean Park to go to Kasalta Bakery for lunch. I had a Cuban sandwich that I’d consider one of the best of my life. We also ordered empanadillas, pan de agua and Greg got rice pudding. Clean with a lot of variety, not too expensive either. A great place to grab lunch (and from the number of people inside, it was a popular place).

Afterwards, we headed out to El Yunque. We got there relatively late, around 4:30pm. The gates closed at 6. We drove up to Coco Falls, the “most photographed” falls in the rainforest.

Coco Falls in El Yunque National Rainforest

We looked for a trail that we could complete within an hour. We ended up at the Big Tree Trail – which was supposedly 0.5 miles long. We hiked and hiked, but it felt a lot longer. It was an easy trail, partially paved or at least covered in gravel. Up and down, we saw trees, trees and more trees. We listened to birds calling and the sound of the rainforest was deafening. We didn’t finish the trail before we turned back. Apparently we missed seeing La Mina Falls, where you can also go swimming at the bottom of the falls.

Trail Map for El Yunque

After going through the trail, we wanted to go to Luquillo Beach. We headed there as twilight was setting in. The beach was pretty pristine (minus the kelp on the shore).We headed back to San Juan in our wet bathing suits. When we arrived in Old San Juan but traffic was terrible. There was a motorcycle accident and too many cars on narrow streets. It took us 30-40 minutes just to park. We walked around before we settled on a place called Raices to eat. All the other restaurants seemed emptied out at 10pm, but Raices still had a wait. We were seated at the bar (yay!) and I ordered the Kan Kan Super Porkchop w/ sweet plantains (I’m not sure what it was… but it was aweeeeesome when it came out). Greg ordered the Dorado, fish under some vegetables w/ rice and beans. The pork chop was totally awesome, but parts of it were overcooked. I love sweet plaintains, so I’m glad that’s what I ended up ordering (no more rice and beans for me!).

Afterwards we set out for the 2 hour drive back to Rincon. We got back around 1:30/2am and went on a twilight swim and dip in the hot tub. It has been a late night, but a great set up for tomorrow!

Location | Rincon Beach Resort in Puerto Rico

After an early morning dip in the ocean and pool, we were off to Boquerón. Apparently it’s one of the best beaches in Puerto Rico, but tourists rarely make it out there. In the low season (and on a Thursday) it was only about 10 people on the beach. Quiet, ours, it was pretty great. We drove along the peninsula trying to find the perfect stretch of beach. At the end of the peninsula there was a resort, but it was boarded up (closed for the season?). We decided to offroad a little and check out the beach. Unfortunately there wasn’t much beach at the end of the peninsula and the only part we’d want to swim in was across a small channel. At least there was a small convenience store where we bought some Coronas. We headed toward the giant parking lots back toward where we came in.

Boqueron Peninsula

The beach was nice, but underwhelming for the description our tourbook had given us. We swam around in the water, lay out on the beach, I took a nice nap after reading a magazine… then it began to rain and we were running back to the car.

Boqueron Beach

We decided we were going to head southeast toward Ponce to find dinner. We ended up offroading to figure out what was on this strip of land I had spotted from the highway.

Random Lagoon, Random Strip of Land

The exit was very strange, as it lead to a hotel (that was closed?) and then to a racetrack (which was very full). Then there was the deserted racetrack and parking lot that was dilapidated and falling apart. We couldn’t find a way in since all the roads were blocked, so we exited, but right as we were about to get onto the freeway, I spotted a dirt road leading away from the exit. Greg thought we should turn around, so we turned around on the freeway and took this dirt road which was along the wall to the race track. The wall was very long, made of cement and the top had barbed wire. We might has well have been driving along the walls of a prison.

Tall Cement Wall and Barbed Wire...

There was a small cluster of houses which seemed deserted or closed for the season, and we got to the end of the road where we found a group of people running and training along the shore. Greg and I headed to a mangrove to take some photos. Unfortunately I left very quickly due to myself being attacked by mosquitoes.

Fishing Boats near Ponce

After driving out, we headed to Ponce. Ponce looks like any other town. Strip malls, some narrow roads, a lot of dilapidated old buildings. A mix of Detroit, Los Angeles, and a little bit of a Charleston/Havana feel. We ate dinner at an Argentinian-Italian restaurant. For an appetizer, we ordered fried yuca. Greg got a skirt steak, I got chicken stuffed with shrimp. Dessert? Dulce du leche crepes.

We drove back to the hotel and took a dip in the completely deserted beach (also, completely unlit dark ocean). I have a slight fear of the dark (more of the fear of the unknown) but it was liberating to swim out there without freaking out. After a dip in the pool and hot tub it was up the stairs to pass out.