PUERTO RICO: Sunday, July 31, 2005

In the morning, we packed up our belongings and checked out of Costa del Oro. When we went downstairs to the office, there was no one there to help us check out. Finally, we located the lady of the house out near the pool. Despite the fact that she spoke no English at all, we finally checked out and headed over to the Hyatt Dorado Beach for a wonderful brunch that Doug & Kelly’s families hosted. There was a breakfast bar, pasta bar, made-to-order omelettes and waffles, a carving station, cereal, and wonderful fresh fruit. Mimosas flowed like water.

 

 

The view from the lobby of the Hyatt

Doug & Kelly arrived at the brunch about an hour late (they’re on Puerto Rico time, after all). It was amusing to watch Doug & Kelly attempt to enter through various sets of (locked) doors before one of the hotel staff finally opened a door and admitted them to their own brunch, to gentle laughter and welcoming applause from the guests.

Wendy & Drew sat with Mel & Rob, Todd from Vegas (hey Todd… did you pick up Guild Wars yet?), and Michael & Lovey (neighbors of Kelly’s family). We had a great conversation with this group of nice people, and Michael gave us much better directions to La Parguera, which worked out beautifully.

After brunch and goodbyes, we were off on our trip to La Parguera, pulling out of Dorado around 1:30. Our trip around the ‘western road’ took approximately 2 1/2 hours, owing mostly to the traffic lights stationed every. 200. yards. once you hit Route 22. Overall, the roads were consistent with the notion that the infrastructure in Puerto Rico is the best in the Caribbean. However, judging from the number of auto body and tire shops we saw, there must be crummy roads lurking somewhere.

 

 

The route we took led us through some amazingly twisty roads (some of which were covered with free-roaming chickens). Finally, we found the little town of La Parguera. The town is very small and touristy (comparable to some small towns in Florida) and was mostly empty. Apparently, it is packed on weekends. Lots of little bars and restaurants around. Our hotel, the Posada Porlamar, was nicely appointed and well-maintained. Annette, the desk clerk, greeted us by name when we walked in. The room was a decent size (more than twice the size of our guest room in Dorado), clean, with a queen bed, and most everything worked (except the TV, the safe, and the telephone!). The small pool was warm and clean (the Spanish sign near the pool indicated the presence of a chemical to detect urine in the pool water!).

Directly behind the hotel was the dive boat, so you could nearly fall out of bed and into the boat. This was very convenient for us, especially since we had complimentary breakfasts provided by the hotel on the patio beside the dive boat.

 

 

The entire place was quiet and peaceful and mostly unoccupied.

 

 

While unpacking, we discovered that we’d accidentally taken Drew’s wedding tuxedo with us. It was supposed to be left in Dorado. Rather than worrying about it, we had a nice dinner at La Pared (The Wall) restaurant, which is connected to Posada Porlamar. The small restaurant was mostly empty. The food was delightful and the service polite. We had crema de pan, a cream of breadfruit soup; portabello with manchigo, proscuitto, peppers, and onions for appetizers. Drew enjoyed a whole fried red snapper (at the excellent suggestion of Lovey from brunch — thanks Lovey!) in salsa and Wendy liked her shrimp in garlic cheese sauce over penne. We had a very nice Irish Creme Flan with Pineapple, kiwi, and strawberry sauces for dessert before heading back to the room to get to bed early.

To view all the pictures from this trip, click here.