I have this thing about taking pictures of clouds from the airplane. The pictures almost always turn out questionably acceptable at best. I thought this one turned out kinda cool, though. It is like a bed of cotton to sink into for the most wonderful night of sleep ever.
We visited the Bacardi Rum Factory. Near the entrance stands this cork screw palm tree. Nobody could tell me what caused the tree to grow in such a curious way. Any thoughts?
The tour is free and two free drinks of Bacardi is included. Not a bad bang for the buck, huh. To get to the factory we took a ferry and then a cab. The ferry only cost 50 cents. The cab was $3.00. Not bad, huh.
Upon entering the Bacardi grounds you enter into an open air covered pavilion. They pick you up in a tram and the driver tells you a little about the company on the 1 minute drive to the tour building (we could have walked there!). You do not go into the actual factory - but a new tour building. They then show a movie about the Bacardi family and the rum making process. Next you go into a reproduction of the original factory and the guide tells you how the rum was made and shows you how it is stored in burned oak barrels. Then you can look at all sorts of old Bacardi family memorabilia - pictures, original bottles, documents and a section to smell the types of rums. hen you go into a "bar" where a bartender shows you how to make Mojito’s and a Cuba Libre. He also explains what Bacradi rums are available and how to use them. No samples here. (darn it). Then back to the original visitor center for our free drinks. I had Bacardi Coconut rum and orange juice. It was really, really tasty. Gerard had the audicity to ask for a rum and coke. He was quickly corrected that it was Bacardi and Coke.
I thought this was a cool display of Bacardi. Notice the bat? I never realized the Bacardi Logo is a bat. It symbolises good health, family unity and fortune.
Unfortunately, traveling to the Bacardi factory, the tour and waiting for the ferry to return to Old San Juan took up most of our San Juan hours. It was time to check out of our hotel and get our luggage to the boat.
The previous evening was spent walking the streets of Old San Juan. We happened to arrive the last day of the St. Sebastian Festival. According to our cab driver there were 300,000 extra people in Old San Juan that day. We were very lucky to have booked our hotel room way in advance.
13 comments:
What a cool visit in San Juan! The most I saw of San Juan was the airport, waiting for a plane, lol. And I never knew the logo was a bat either. Great pictures!
The cork screw tree is certainly a mystery....
Di
The Blue Ridge Gal
Hey Punkn. A possible reason for the tree being twisted is that it could have been improperly tied to a stake when it was young, and not given the proper room to grow straight. Also, this is something kind of freaky. A guy came to our house today looking for my husband, he is a friend from work. You'll never guess what his name was.......John Anderson. He looked like he could have been related to Jo. He kind of looked like Santa.
((((Landlvr)))) Maybe someone tied it to the stake improperly on purpose.
That is kinda freaky about your visitor. I see Pete's all over the place when I'm out and about. There are a lot of old hippies running around out there.
I like the last picture the best.
Nothing batty there and nice straight posture (unlike the misbehavin' slouching tree)
And the puffy cloud picture came out nice! Hmmm... to package it up and make pillows huh?
I never met Jopete in person - but there is a white and (stained) yellow long haired, wizened old(er) guy that drives "the" Lansdale Taxi that looks a lot like the pictures I have seen of Jopete. I'll have to get his picture on the sly sometime. :)
Nice! Love those clouds. Always looked so soft and fluffy from topside of them.
I've always wanted to go to Puerto Rico...Maybe someday!!!
I knew the logo was a bat... I've seen it a lot in the past... Baccardi is my Mam's favourite alcaholic drink, so there's often a bottle at their place... Especially around Christmas time. LOL!
Great pics, Punkn. Cool display of the Bacardi, too. Sounds like you had a good time in San Juan.
Mmmm....RUM!!!!
Beautiful pictures and that is strange about the tree. I just can't get over 2 free drinks!!
Love the pictures hope you show us more. Sounds like you had a good time there Drinking the Baccardi (LOL) for the short amount of time on San Juan.
I was in San Juan while in the navy, we had to stop there on our way to Cuba but we never stayed long enought to go ashore we were waiting for our surport ships to catch up. We had gone thought a hurricane and got seperated. ( as far as the tree goes. its planted to close to the factory and the fumes have done they job ) ( just my guess>) lol JR
lmao jr you may be onto something there! the fumes!
That tree could have been twisted by any strong winds in the area. We had a couple pine trees at my high school in Syracuse that were bent at unusual angles because of the buffering of the winter storms. One of them actually grew perpendicular to the ground because of the storms they get up there.
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