Monday, July 21, 2008

Vacation pics - part 2

Again, scroll down for more photos from the previous days of our trip. These our from our time in Puerto Rico!

Here's the first thing we saw as we sailed in to port. We also had a nice machine-gunned Coast Guard escort. These people don't mess around.

Here's more views of the island from where we docked.

Another view.

Here's us as we wait to disembark.


And this was a sign in the marina where we went to meet our fishing charter with Captain Nico.

This is some Puerto Rican graffiti.

Here's a very crowded beach full of people soaking up what little sun was out. It looked like it could have rained most of the day, but we didn't get too much thankfully.

This is Captain Nico casting a net out for bait. I like how I caught the action just right for the picture.

This is a bridge near one of the lagoons we fished in. It's the bridge out to the airport there in San Juan. Very patriotic.

Here's the hubby doing some fishing for tarpon. For those of you (like me) who didn't know - tarpon aren't fish for eating. They are fighters and take a LONG time to wear out and reel in. The hubby fought one for over 30 minutes before he broke the line and got away.

Here's a picture of how they wear the fisher out - by jumping high and fast out of the water and then dive back down deep - taking all the line you already reeled in back out.

Here's a snook he caught. Didn't fight much at all compared to the tarpon.

Here's another fighting tarpon. I LOVE this pic.

Here he is all worn out - FINALLY!

And the fish in the boat with my sweetie. WHEW. And by the way, that's a small tarpon. The big ones can get up to 160-170 pounds.

Here's an iguana. They were everywhere in the mangroves we went through to get to (and back) from the lagoons.
Happy after a day's work fishing!

And then it was time for dinner. We found this local place in Old San Juan. Very nice.
Here's a plate of fried plantains (green ones - the ripe ones are sweeter and more like bananas. The green ones are like potatoes.) and Yucca and some sort of corn batter. All very yummy.

This is mofongo. It's a local dish in Puerto Rico and is basically mashed up green plantains that line the deep bowl with some sort of meat (I had beef, the hubby had pork) and meat gravy. It was super delicious.

And this was a painting in the restaurant.



And that concludes our day in Puerto Rico. We really didn't see anything touristy or much of Old San Juan. Instead we saw the bays and lagoons and the nature of San Juan. The one thing that's really noticeable was the litter we saw all over the place. Our guide said even if you wanted to eat the tarpon (which you don't) you wouldn't eat anything since the water ways are so polluted.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

love the flora and fauna....tropical flowers are so brilliant and vivid!

and the fish are too! I kept reaching for them just to see them scoot away before I could brush them with my fingertips.

not that I got to vote, but I choose the castle tour over fishing, etc. Not that I was asked.