Glad to hear that you're having a great time!

I have a cookbook from a trip to PR a few years ago. There are recipes for mofongo. One reciped is Mofongos con chicarron de cerdo or Green Plaintain Mofongos with Pork Cracklings. :-) Another is Mofongos con ajo y aceite or Green Plaintain Mofongos with Garlic Oil. I'd choose that one! LOL The recipe book is Rice and Beans and Tasty Things by Dora Romano.

My favorite was eating empanadas stuffed with picadillo. The best ones were from a street vendor at the beach (can't remember the name, but it was near El Yunque).

El Yunque is so wonderful! One of the most gorgeous hikes in my life.

Have a great time! We expect photos!

Cameron

Hey John, wow, what a wonderful trip, sounds like you're having a great time too. Have fun and look forward to the pics. Maybe you should practice this summer with the corn ice cream and bring some to the fall swap!! :)

I'm aliveeeeee.

Finally got somewhere with internet access.

Yes, El Yunque is magnificent. I'm here on the weekends so it gets pretty crowded but it is still fun. Remember the person I told you all about, the person who lived on the island Culebra (which means 'snake' though there are not any snakes on the island???),, well she eventually returned to the mainland and her identical twin sister moved down here with her husband - I am not making any of this up. Well, SHE worked for the wildlife department at the El Yunque rainforest so I got to see it everyday way back then when I came here on vacation. I've even seen Puerto Rican Parrots which are highly endangered. I haven't seen any this trip because their population crashed a few years ago and there are now only 5 pairs remaining in this forest.

My fotos should turn out ok but I warn you, most of the flowers are not native to this island,, they're just your normal ol' tropical flowers.

When I called my friend to tell her about my new found love of all things Mo-Fo she said that the BEST is the one made with ground up pork cracklins or pork rinds - NO WONDER I LOVE IT!!! Not sure where I'm gonna find fresh conch in NC but I'm still gonna try.

The ice cream place was owned and operated by a Chinese couple (go figure). He said that the ice cream was made with the corn cobs cooked for a long time in water to get out all the sugars. You do use some corn kernels also but the sweetness comes from the boiled cobs.

The sad part of this trip is that May is not the best month to be here. Not much is in season. Mango will be by the end of the month. Pineapples are available for have no flavor. All the fancy small or unusuall tropicals I was hoping to buy are not for sale - at least I haven't found them.

I have so far been here for a week without getting a sunburn (record heat wave going on and a drought), thanks to some spf 70 junk I smear on religiously.

Tomorrow will be another trip to the small islands and then prep for the big drive back to San Juan and hopefully a visit to the botanical garden.

Hasta Luego

Well, I'm thinking that if things are not in season there is only one remedy ... a return trip when things are in season.
Its neat that you have an insider's view and not just a tourist trip. I can't wait to see your fotos. So are you bringing seeds across the border? And where is Tammy? Southern Living just published a recipe for boiled corncob broth. It seemed really simple even for a novice cook like me. Enjoy and I'm glad that you are using sunscreen. A sunburn can really hamper a vacation. Shannon

Are the bromeliads still plentiful in El Yunque? I thought those were so beautiful "as nature intended". I also remember a very romantic waterfall down one of the trails. There may be many, I just saw one on my trip.

Your trip sounds so great!
Cameron

I'm back now, but yes, the bromeliads were blooming and looking their very best along the trails. My favorite forest plants this trip and those many trips long ago has to to be the tree ferns. Imagine ferns with fronds that spread over 10 feet wide!!!! on 25 foot trunks!!! If you cut one frond off the plant and stood it up I could hide completely behind it (and I'm a big boy!!). I have tree ferns here in Raleigh that I religiously haul inside the hoop house each winter - but mine are the Australian Tree Ferns which have a tiny hairy fiber they give off when you brush against them which is irritating to your eyes and inside your nose and throat, so they look good but you have to be careful where you place the plant.

Yes, we're hooked on PR too. We like the combo of tropical beachy and history in old city (400 yrs?) and fort. Streets cobbled with gunmetal-colored ballast stones of old sailing ships. Snorkeling and rain forest. It's just got everything. Yummy whatever empanadas cooked in open cauldrons on the roadside on way up to El Yunque. Picked up a nasty amaeba last time we swam in that waterfall pool in the rainforest, but hey, the emergency room at Duke is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon, lying back and remembering all the fun we had in the sun. We're going again in October. Conch is an aphrodesiac you know. For real. At least that's what the locals believe.