Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, is the perfect mid-winter escape from New York. In our school district, we’re lucky enough to have a week-long mid-winter break in the bleakest days of February. Non-stop, inexpensive flights to San Juan are plentiful with some advance planning. We decided to split our week between the culture and colorful urban ambience of Old San Juan, and the more rustic, classic Caribbean destination of Vieques, an island just off the east coast of mainland Puerto Rico (more on that later!)
We spent four nights in Old San Juan. Nate and I had visited more than a decade earlier, in the first weeks of my pregnancy with Asher, and we loved it and knew the kids would have a great time as well.
We decided to stay right in the heart of Old San Juan, at the storied Hotel El Convento.
Our room, a standard double, looked out on the cathedral square, and a big ceiba tree with trailing vines. Our room was designed in traditional style with heavy dark wood furnishings, wrought iron headboards and comfy beds. The best part of the hotel is the breezy open-air courtyard. We spent much of our down-time in the hotel enjoying this area, which is full of leafy plants and trickling fountains. We had breakfast under the white trellises of El Patio Nispero, the main courtyard restaurant. There’s a tall and twisty ceiba tree growing in the center of the courtyard, and if you go onto the interior balconies on the upper floors, you can look down into its canopy, rustling gently in the tropical breeze. Asher noted that Hotel El Convento looks like the Encanto house, and he’s absolutely right. From the outside, it looks austere-but inside- so breezy. All the hotel’s activity seems to revolve around this central courtyard. It rises up around you, three levels of arcaded yellow stucco, fronted by dark wooden railings. The impossibly soft Caribbean breeze gently lifts my hair, and I’m surrounded by leafy plants and trees in large containers, and contemporary ceramic fountains in soft colors, the whir of ceiling fans, the sound of gently rushing water, salsa music spilling from the tapas restaurant on the patio above. I’m reminded of Hemingway and the dulce de leche scene from Guys and Dolls.
Asher was dying to check out the rooftop pool deck, so I went up with him. It was basically a plunge pool, five feet deep, a small turquoise rectangle set against the sunny ochre color of the hotel’s walls. From anywhere you stand on the rooftop terrace, there are beautiful views of Old San Juan spreading out below you. Stone frogs spout streams of water from the corners of the pool. Asher was determined to get the most out of this tiny pool that he could- he was rolling over the edge, begging to do a full jump. I finally relented, as it was really only other kids and families out on the pool deck, and a young European dad next to me said, “I think a *little* splashing is okay, no?”
Another fun surprise at Hotel El Convento was a daily, complimentary wine and cheese Happy Hour, served on the airy third floor. I have never been one to decline free cheese and crackers, so we made a point to take a break at the hotel each afternoon to enjoy this.
Our alternate choice for a hotel in Old San Juan was the Gallery Inn. Nate and I stayed here during our first trip to Puerto Rico, and it is a magical space, a maze of rooms filled with art, antiques, even carousel horses. There are parrots and fountains tucked into every corner of the historic walls. Only children over the age of 12 are allowed, so we couldn’t stay here during this visit, but we did content ourselves with a tapas meal and drinks at their restaurant, The Cannon Club. We sat in the bar area of the Cannon Club. There’s a Steinway piano in an adjacent room, and its dimly lit, full of antiques and dark wood tones and a crystal chandelier radiating golden light. We explored a bit, walking around the leafy bohemian terrace and the sculptural pool, that resembles some kind of beautifully crumbling, swimmable ruin. Nate and I ordered a couple of drinks- a negroni, some white wine, while Delphine slept for an hour in her stroller (!!), and Asher enjoyed the mysterious ambience.
The best part was when the bartender walked by and deposited a cantankerous parrot onto a perch directly behind Asher’s chair. The parrot, grey with a red tail, was a source of great entertainment for Asher as it nibbled on a straw, ate seeds from a bar glass, peed, and cawed and screeched shrilly. The bartender, coming over with more seeds to appease him, warned ominously, “If anything, he bites…” As we left, the owner of the Gallery Inn, swept into the bar area, bearing a magnificently fluffy white parrot on her shoulder. Her name is Jan D’Esopo, and she is an intensely glamorous octogenarian. Her white hair was pulled back in an elegant French twist and she wore exquisite, dramatic jewelry and accessories. She is a reknowned artist in her own right, and the Gallery Inn is adorned throughout with her evocative sculptures and paintings. A goal for my own later years!
Elsewhere Together 