Turkey-less Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving started early this year. On Tuesday I had an afternoon meeting in San Juan, which coincided perfectly with my daughter's arrival.

She arrived in the evening and wanted to do some Christmas shopping in Old San Juan, so we stayed overnight in the city. After a year spent in Puerto Rican towns and villages full of ugly concrete bunkers enveloped in even uglier metal cages, I truly enjoyed the architectural grace of Old San Juan, without holding a grudge that it lured me to Puerto Rico under false pretenses (I first visited Puerto Rico on a cruise , and naively thought the entire island was as charming as old San Juan - a big, big mistake)
Enjoyed the gracious buildings, the pretty balconies,

even the early Christmas decorations ... although I, as a principle, oppose Christmas before Thanksgiving. It feels so out of place.

But I LOVE old San Juan, no matter what!

So we spent Wednesday shopping, doing our dardenest to stimulate the economy in a typical American way: spending money.

Still, it was not easy: both old San Juan stores and the stores in the outlet mall in Barceloneta, where we shopped on our way back to the west coast were so full of bargains, almost everything seemed to cost a lot less than a year ago.

During the rest of the week we mostly enjoyed the sea and the beaches:

the one in front of my condo in Punta Arenas,


with its panoramic view of Mayaguez coastline ,

and, of course, the Playuela
so quintessentially Caribbean ,
and so full of fun!

We also went to Bahia Salinas, where we enjoyed another beach,
a spa, with its sybarytic lounging beds
around the infinity pool overlooking the typical glorious, west coast sunset

and had a great dinner at their renowned Meson type restaurant Agua al Cuello,
eating ? (see top picture) FISH! Without even a slice of turkey in sight!