/>Wednesday, the first official day of the two-week tour, had us up and rolling down the road at 8 a.m. Blah.
Our tour guide/driver for the day was Ronald, a lively native who took his calling seriously, but was laid back as everyone else here. He knew a little bit about everything relating to Puerto Rico. Road marks, history, current socio-economic problems. A well-rounded individual with a disarming persona and infectious laugh. Unfortunately, he's not driving for us again during the trip.
To be brief (cause it's 1:15 a.m. and I have to be up at 6:30 a.m.), the day featured Ponce sights. Named after Ponce de Leon, the dude who settled Puerto Rico, it's a nice city of 250,000 in PR's southwest portion. There is a saying among proud Ponce residents. In English, it goes "Ponce is Ponce. Everything else in Puerto Rico is a parking lot." Very Texanish I thought.
The drive to and from San Juan yielded nice mountainous views and once in Ponce we hit a coffee plantation museum and saw how it was grown and produced in the 1850s. Typical slave labor with cool water-powered engineering thrown in.
The mansion-tour of the creators of the Don Q. rum company came next. Built in the 30s in Spanish style artchitecture. Has 14 rooms, 5 bathrooms and was built with air conditioning. All for $85 grand. Don Q. makes numerous brands of rum, producing 45,000 gallons of the devil's drink daily.
We rounded the day off with authentic comida. Some good stuff from a local open air restaurant. Come' arroz, una tomale, frijoles, plantains y una Medalla cerveza. Oh, I also got a free beer-bottle coozy with the restaurant's name on it. Score.
The day's disappointment: Eating at Subway for lunch. How boring. It was convenient though and we had little time. Boo capitalism. Damn corporations and their evil exporting franchises.
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