“If you like Pina Colades…”

Our hotel, the Caribe Hilton

“Ramon “Monchito” Marrero, a bartender at the Caribe Hilton Hotel set out to capture the sunny, tropical flavour of Puerto Rico, in a glass.  On August 15, 1954 the Pina Colade was born.”  Or so our hotel cocktail menu claims.  (I have yet to verify this on Wikipedia.)  Being at the so-called birthplace of the Pina Colada, we had no choice but to end off our first day in San Juan, Puerto Rico (our entry into the Caribbean) with the original cocktail.  While nice enough, Andy asserted that the Pina Colades coming out of of Denise’s kitchen still can’t be beat.  Perhaps Pina Colades were perfected as they were taken across the world?

My rented bike - an entry level Trek

Andy's rented bike - a Lemond, great in its day

The give-away: they are rented bikes!

Most of today was taken up preparing for the half Ironman tomorrow.  It is officially called the 70.3 Ironman.  70.3 being the total distance in miles that we are to swim, cycle and run.  Or attempt to at least.  Besides for registering for the race etc, the biggest stress of the day was what our rented bikes would look like.  While every athlete in the hotel seemed to be sporting a sleek full carbon-fiber time trial bike and wearing a futuristic helmet, we started to get very nervous.  By mid-morning Santos (the local who we were renting from) arrived with our bikes.  Luckily they weren’t half bad.  Not as good as our bikes back home, but they will do.  I wouldn’t have felt sheepish amongst serious athletes, if it weren’t for the rent-a-bike stickers on our bikes!  We sure are going to look like amateurs tomorrow!  Oh, well.  No one knows us here….

Apparently the course is stunning, and showcases the beautiful part of the Old San Jan city and it’s sea views.

We are off to bed now – 4:30am start tomorrow. Wish us luck!