Photos
Weds., 2/2/2005
We had spotted Diamond from San Cristobal and after further walking and map checking followed by actually arriving at the piers we found that Diamond was really at Pier 4. It was being dwarfed by a Celebrity ship. We walked from El Morro through small hilly streets to Ben & Jerry's (Calle del Cristo 61) and bought some very cool t-shirts. (Discovered after we got home that the cashier had put an XL and an XXL in the bag, oops, no shirt for Debbie and I get 2. Didn't really want 2 because though they had a cool graphic on the back they were 50/50 material, yuck.) Turned the corner at Ben & Jerry's and headed down Sol for Tanca where Debbie's next restaurant should be. It is El Jibarito (Calle Sol 280) and specializes in criollo, which is said to be a blend of the island's African, Spanish and Taino Indian heritage that is flavorful and inexpensive. Just what I am after. We found the place easily on Sol near Tanca and it is charming indoors and air conditioned, ah. It is busy with mostly local business people having lunch with a few obvious tourists in the mix, including us, very obvious tourists. I get the cabrito stew (goat) and Debbie gets the pork tamale or its equivalent. We follow the waiter's recommendation and she gets the fried green plantains and I get the sweet fried plantains, she gets the yellow rice with pink beans and I get the white rice with red beans. The red beans come in a separate bowl and I pour mine over the white rice because it seems right. Later I see a local guy in a tie do the same thing, so it is right. Debbie orders ice water and I order a Medalla, a local beer and it is served ice cold, perfect. Debbie puts our mascot, Little Bob the stuffed airedale terrier, on the table by the beer and I photograph the table. Debbie smiles and waves to someone and then I hear a man behind me ask her how many places in the world that airedale has been before today, she tells him around the world once and he offers to take our picture. How very nice. Everything is delicious, I get cabrito on my shorts and the bill is under $20, all is right with the world.
We leave rejuvenated. (Debbie made me take an Aleve. I hope it doesn't kill me later. You know my knee wasn't really that bad until the flights, I think the pressurized cabins and sitting still in cramped quarters made it really balloon up.) We take a meandering walk to look around on our way down to verify the Diamond's location for the taxi ride later. We stop at Maria's for cold drinks. (Calle del Cristo 204) Frommer's awards them best drinks. I have a lime freeze and though Debbie orders a chocolate frost, she gets a banana frost. Both are good and cold and hit the spot. We take them to go and keep wandering, we follow the old city walls down to the docks. We reconnoiter the dock area and then approach a cabbie about a ride to Condado to Holiday Inn Express and back to Diamond with 2 bags. We did not even get to ride the trolleys around Old San Juan like we had planned, but I am ready to quit and we have had a good day. Diamond, here we come.
