Aibonito and Cayey

Back to the flower show... this festival is widely advertised, and our neighbor said that it was absolutely not to be missed. So, we got up Saturday morning and made the trek. We took the northern route to get here, so we drove to San Juan, then headed south to end up just East of Central Puerto Rico
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. They call this town the "Switzerland of Puerto Rico" because it's the highest town on the island, and I gotta say, it was a true joy to drive there. It probably would have taken us about 3, 3.5 hours to drive straight there, but as always, our directions sucked (even though we had 3 differet sets - all different, mind you). We also were sidetracked by some gawking on the way there - for instance, this park. From what we could gather, this park was built and dedicated to a famous author who used to come to the top of this hill to gather his inspiration - and the view really was nice. You can kind of get a feel for the countryside in the 3rd picture, but the rest of the pictures we took of the landscape didn't look like anything because it was so hazy. The 1st 2 pictures at least give you a feel for how lush and rocky it was there. The last picture is standing in front of one of the booths at the flower show. We came home with the prettiest bell pepper and jalapeno plants you've ever seen, a ton of herbs, and a tangerine tree. Even if we never see it bear fruit, it will still be a joy, since the blooms smell so good I've been carrying it around from room to room of the house with me for its perfume. The other part of the "Switzerland" nickname that was blissfully correct was the climate - it must have been 15 degrees cooler, with a constant breeze, and the humidity was back down to a reasonable level. It was a great day!