South coast P.R.

We dropped out of the central mountains to end up on the southern coast, about midway across its length, at Ponce. This city was described as elegant and cultured and a rival to San Juan “back in the day”. I was looking forward to driving through its historic central area and gazing at “hundreds” of ornate homes and buildings. Unfortunately, it was way overhyped. I don’t know if it was just bad timing because of Covid restrictions, but no fountains had water, everything was shuttered, and the whole place just looked sad. The city cathedral on the center square had been damaged in the earthquake a year ago and was still closed. It looked like no restoration was being undertaken at all. However the facade was still pretty.

A very interesting building was just around the corner, also on the main square.

This was Ponce’s fire station, before being turned into a museum honoring their firefighters.

Our favorite stop was actually north of town at Castillo Serralles:

This 4 story Spanish style mansion was built in 1934 for a leader in the sugarcane and rum industry. The tour inside was magnificent, but no pictures were allowed.

And that was Ponce. We’ve been there, so you don’t have to.

Now, on to Guanica, just about 45 minutes west, and near the Guanica Dry Forest Reserve. We did two great hikes in the area.

The “air plant” shown above - well, that’s what I always called it when I was young - is an epiphyte, and doesn’t need soil. I have always associated them with higher humidity, but they were all over the trees here in this desert like environment. (I just looked that plant up, and it’s a Ball moss.) The yuccas here grow crazy big -

On our way back down the hill, we could see what we were missing behind us, as we trudged up -

I thought this “cactus tree” was pretty unique -

On our second hike in the reserve, this little guy (about 2 inches across) greeted us at the beginning, but looked a little off balance -

This hike was a 6.5 mile out and back trail along the coast, with gorgeous views…

…and unique flora:

Spanish dildo cactus

We thought the fruiting bodies of the barrel cacti were quite striking:

Every time we would come ‘round another point, all I could say was “wow!”

Even though the hot sun was beating down, we didn’t mind walking along these cliffs for the great breezes, but we were careful not to get too close to the edge -

This point sure reminded me of Bryce, in Utah:

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a “double window” before:

I’ll close with the view from our dinner table that night, where we treated ourselves, after our long, dusty trek -