Today we paid a visit to Casa Bacardi, home to the world’s most popular rum. Several years back we started a habit of visiting distilleries and breweries when we travel. Up until this point, we’ve had great luck with our experiences. Generally the visits are educational, fun, and include good times tasting good beverages. Sadly, Casa Bacardi was a bit of a letdown. It was a somewhat educational experience, but we were really annoyed that we could not tour the actual distillery. Instead, our docent led the tour group through a replica distillery. Speaking to this, I’m not quite sure why we couldn’t take pictures of the “fake” exhibits. In any case, I found the experience to be highly annoying. It felt like the entire tour was one disgusting marketing campaign. Our visits to Appelton in Jamaica and Woodford Reserve in Kentucky were much different, and for the better. On the plus side, we did get to try a couple of rum drinks for free. I also got a good deal on a bottle of 8 year old rum. As a side note, until today I wasn’t aware that Bacardi also owns Grey Goose vodka and Bombay Sapphire gin.

Today we continued our culinary escapade of San Juan. We grabbed lunch at Tio Danny’s (see my Yelp review) upon returning from Casa Bacardi. This was the first time I had fish tacos made with red snapper! These rank among the best fish tacos I have ever eaten. For dinner we ate Aureola (see my Yelp review), which is just a few blocks from our hotel. This place was a real shocker! We were tired, hungry and not very picky at this point in the evening. The menu appeared to be so-so. However, the food was right on! I really enjoyed the ceviche salad. Dharma had the same dish, and she too thought it was delectable. I have a feeling we’ll be trying to make ceviche salad when we get home.

Tomorrow we are heading to the center of the island to explore coffee plantations and then we are driving south to Ponce. It will be our first day braving the roads with a rental car.

From Puerto Rico: Day Three

– Devon Akmon

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