Day 5 cycling from Salinas to Ponce, Puerto Rico

Just like the previous days, we’ve been fortunate to wake up to sunny skies with beautiful clouds. The humidity was quite noticeable, but fortunately so was the tail wind. 

It was a little more effort getting packed up today because our room was on the second floor and we had to carry the bikes up the stairs. That required us to fully unload the panniers to make it more manageable. The opposite is also true going down the stairs. 

 

Soon after we were on the road we made an almost immediate detour  to a pastry shop that also serve breakfast. It was a very  popular and busy spot with the locals. 

We passed by lots of banana plantations. These have plastic bags on the banana bunches.  My AI research tells me:   Bananas are covered with plastic bags to protect the developing fruit from insects, birds, and animals while also protecting them from sunburn, wind damage and cold. This practice creates a warm microclimate that accelerates growth, reduces harvesting time, and ensures a cleaner, more cosmetically perfect product for market. 

All along our route, we’ve been seeing tsunami evacuation signs … each is better than the last. 

Yesterday we saw a lot of solar power stations that went on for miles. Today we saw lots of  wind turbines humming along.    “Puerto Rico is rapidly transitioning to renewable energy, focusing on solar panels and wind turbines to achieve 100 renewable energy by 2050.”

11:11 shot of  the day… when we were taking an electrolyte break in the shade.

We got to our very fancy looking hotel in Ponce before 1:00. We were thrilled to be able to check in early and even better, we had the opportunity to pack up a bag of laundry to be done for us while we toured around! Yay! 

First stop was Kings Ice Cream right next to our hotel!

Second stop was finding a bicycle shop to repair the broken spoke on Tim’s rear wheel. 

Now we have time to tour. 

Ponce was founded in 1692 and is Puerto Rico’s second largest city and a major cultural hub. 

   

Ponce Cathedral

Inside Ponce Museum of Art checking out the papier- mache of Louis Armstrong and all the papier-mâché masks on the wall

Parque de Bombas - historic firehouse

Plaza las Delicias 

It was nice that we also had time to lounge a little in the small poolside courtyard.

Hooray… how very fortunate we were to not only find an open bike shop on a Monday, it was close by and they were able to squeeze in the repair the same day!  Thanks to  Luis and Anthony for their quick help. 

A short walk from our hotel was a wonderful restaurant with ideal outdoor patio dining. We can highly recommend Rincon Argentino.  The sangrias were great and the huge platter of 6 different varieties of meat for two in addition to the veggies and mashed potatoes was so, so tasty. We must have been really hungry because we finished it all! 

Upon our return to the hotel, our laundered clothes were waiting for us. A great end to a great day.