Exploring Ponce

The Ponce Yacht and Fishing Club is located on a spit of land to the southeast of the city centre. Just in from the Club is La Guancha, a boardwalk that features lots of local artisans, snack bars, tourist crap, and incredibly loud salsa particularly on Friday and Saturday nights. It is a draw for tourists and locals alike. We had visited it on our first night in Ponce. It fairly vibrated with life.

Next on the agenda (WW has a very demanding Cruise Director) was a visit to the old town and a search for fuel filters, our supply being low. At a chandlery, we finally got a PR courtesy flag. I really wasn’t happy about flying the U.S. flag, although it is, strictly, correct. Our search for fuel filters, though lengthy, was not so successful. In the end, WW ordered some in Canada to be delivered, along with charts and courtesy flags, to the yacht club.

We had noticed the Museo de la Música Puertorriqueña across the street from our restaurant. WW was very keen to visit it, so it was our first stop. It was, alas, closed. So we visited the excellent Museo de la Historia de Ponce, then headed for the central Plaza des Delicias. On the way, we stopped in at a music store where WW informed himself about the cuatro, a 10-stringed instrument like a miniguitar, but plucked like a mandolin, never strummed. The cuatros were priced at $120 US. The salesman explained that they are mass-produced. A really good cuatro will start at about $500 but they can’t be sent back to North America because they crack without the high humidity.

We wandered around the central plaza looking for a place to have lunch. It is here that Ponce’s extraordinary old Parque de Bombas (fire hall) is to be found. Constructed in the Arabian style and painted in vivid red and black stripes, it was built in 1882 as part of an agricultural exhibit and operated as a fire house till 1990. It is now a museum dedicated to Ponce’s many fires and firefighters.

After lunch on the square, we went to the Nueva Plaza del Mercado, full of fresh produce that had my mouth watering. However, since we were leaving for San Juan the next day, we bought none. I have been having a slight back problem and WW was determined to find a curandero to prescribe a charm that would realign my astral energies. My natural reticence restrained him.

On our way back to the car, WW popped into the music shop again. He and the salesman sat and noodled on cuatros. There was a cuatro in a bag on his back when we left the store.

On our return to the boat, we met Sharon and Gary from Gabridash. They had sad news: Bill (of Bill and Sue on Unchained) was in the hospital. His amoebic dysentery had not responded to treatment and they suspected it might be something else. On top of which, he needed his gallbladder removed. That surgery was not to happen until they had determined the source of his intestinal complaint.