ISLA VERDE - San Juan, Puerto Rico

After arriving at the international airport of PR, we proceeded to our motel called Coqui Inn. According to my friend, the place was a rather modest and reasonably priced but as long as she appproves, i approve.

We got into this 8 passenger taxi/van that accommodated 3 luggages, us and the driver. The cab driver was this sweet lady with glasses, wearing a dress looked like a sari with colorful patterns whose driving was quite eventful, terrible in my opinion. She spoke only spanish. So the first thing came out of my mouth was Como Ta! She smiled and spoke to us in Spanish. I was quickly slapped on my arm with dissapproval from my friend for speaking Spanish. " Now she thinks we speak spanish," she says. Shoot I was just excited to try the little spanish that I know. I was sure she said good but she was feeling a little sick. Not long after, she was requesting something from us, so we gave her the receipt that had the name of the motel we were going to. Minutes later she was on the phone requesting directions while weaving through busy traffic on the highway. I was thinking that we must be lost. Yes, I was right but we tried to help. But wait, in the corner of my left eye, I saw a bright pink building amongst a dozen buildings across the highway that read Coqui Inn. In my mind, I was thinking that can't be the motel. It looked like an old running down restaurant with paint chipping off the exterior walls from the highway but yet it was bright pink. We told the driver and she realized she missed the exit.

We finally drove to the door step of the motel and I was relieved to see how charming this motel was. The motel lived up to its modesty and comfort looking thus far. Nothing fancy at all but I was glad that it didn't feel like another Hilton nor a Marriott.

The weather was quite clear, about 85 degrees but there were strong cool breezes. Probably from the ocean closeby. So we tried checking in but had to return in 3o minutes.... so we decided to store our luggages at the motel and get some lunch accross the street. We were excited!!!!!!!!

NEXT: FIRST TASTE OF ISLA VERDE, SAN JUAN