The day everyone left.
Morning
Our last breakfast buffet with and paid by Salem’s work. People were leaving at various times in the day so we were still running into people until the early afternoon.
A view of the beach from our room. La plage à partir de notre chambre.
We spent most of the day on the beach and, to our surprise, it got rather crowded. My guess: the hotel may be selling day passes to locals on Sundays. I wonder how much that costs! There was a public beach right next door, it had a lot more people and kids but there is a division to keep both beaches apart. I have mixed feelings about the division…
We also had a non-human local come and sun himself with us. Some of the female guests were freaked out – I thought he was pretty cool and rather cute!
This local would like to borrow Salem’s goggles. Ce gars du coin voulait emprunter les lunettes de natation de Salem.
A local tanning. Le gars du coin en train de se faire bronzer.
For lunch, we made our way to the beach grill. I was hoping to get a kosher hot-dog (advertised as so on their menu) – I haven’t had a hot-dog in years! I would love to get a good “steamy” but God knows what is in those things! Thankfully, Salem asked an employee what was in the hot-dog. Their answer a mix of either chicken or beef and pork! How is that kosher? No thanks. Now the big question: is this false advertising on the Hilton’s behalf or a mistake on the employee’s behalf? Either one is not a good thing!
We decided to enjoy the beach a bit longer and go back to our room in the late afternoon. We did a little tour of the hotel grounds and found this cute garden with some resident pets! I wouldn’t suggest you try and pet them though.
Duck and a rooster! Un canard et un coq!
Turkey in mid gobble. Dinde en plein milieu de son glou-glou.
2 swans. 2 cignes.
Supper was at the Pina Colada Club (part of the hotel). We had the same thing as last time – Caro = fish tacos (I had been dreaming about them) Salem = chicken wrap.
Back to the Pina Colada Club! YUM! De retour au Pina Colada Club!
Prepping for our walk! Prête à marcher!
Evening in Condado
After that, we made our way across the bridge to Condado – it’s a nice walk (10 minutes from our hotel) – it seems this is where most American tourists hang out. There are quite a few American restaurants and chains, some stores, green spaces, beach access, etc along Ashford Avenue. Be prepared as it’s rather busy with cars, pedestrians and cyclists. Yes, cyclists – lots of them. But they don’t seem to be psychotic like Montréal cyclists even though you do have to have your wits about you – you do share the sidewalk with them. I also noticed that they seem to have this sense of pride with their bikes – really colourful, new, mostly mountain bikes (or at least with a heavier frame). It was actually kinda nice to see.
On the bridge to Condado. Sur le pont. Destination: Condado!
I love this Miami-style architecture. J’adore l’architecture style Miami.
Beach access! L’accès à la plage.
Condado green space between hotels. Espace vert entre les hôtels à Condado.
Salem along a rocky part of the beach. Salem posé en avant d’une partie rocheuse de la plage.
Upon later discussion, Ashford avenue felt like a bit of a mix between Ste-Catherine and St-Laurent with a bit of beach added to it. Rather nice.
Ashford Avenue in the evening. L’avenue Ashford en soirée.
Bridge on the walk back to the hotel from Condado. Le pont lors de notre retour de notre sortie à Condado.
We grabbed a coffee and slit a piece of chocolate cake at the Starbucks in the lobby. We were tired so bedtime wasn’t too late – I blame it on the sun and fresh, beach air!
carolineandsalem 
I just loved that picture of the Iguana! I find them amazingly cute 🙂 were you guys able to swim in the ocean at all? It looked rather wavy…
Lizards are the best! But Aruba had a lot more of them than Puerto Rico and Cuba combined. 😉
As for swimming in the ocean, I guess you could say that the beach at the hotel was technically part of the ocean. The only thing is that there is some form of break-water but it is ocean water given that we were on the North-East coast of Puerto Rico.
We did get to go to Palomino and Palominito islands during our catamaran trip and that, I would say, is certainly in the open ocean. It was amazing! Here is a link to a map of where those 2 islands are located.