Casa Bacardi Distillery Tour + Partying at La Placita!
According to the Itinerary Vanessa created and sent to us, Friday was supposed to be “Exploring San Juan Day.” First stop: Brunch at Chocobar Cortés
I had a little bit of a tummy ache because of some bad taquitos I ate at Patrick’s Irish Bar the night before *insert massive eye roll*, so I was unfortunately not able to enjoy the food to the fullest. BUT what I did eat was absolutely delicious. The waiter was very friendly and he complimented my Spanish. So naturally, I give the restaurant 5/5 stars :)
After we finished eating and I used the bathroom for the 4th time that morning (ugh) we went outside and took photos in front of cool doors. Because that’s what you do.
We asked for directions to the ferry dock. The tickets cost $5 or $10. I can’t remember haha. But it was a scenic route and it only took us about 15 minutes to get there. We hopped on the ferry and arrived in Cataño in 5 minutes. A van driver met us at the ferry dock exit and walked us to his van. We checked to make sure he was legit before we all hopped in, and we each paid $3. Again, these van rides are a steal! It took us another 7 minutes to get to Casa Bacardi. He dropped us off, we thanked him, and then we made our way to the ticket station.
While we waited for the tour to begin, we took turns taking pictures on top of the barrels. #Tourists
We decided to do the Rum Tasting Tour for $50 instead of the Mixology Class for $60 because the tour just sounded more interesting, and I think it was. Click here to see all their ticket options.
I actually learned quite a lot about Bacardi and I found the info interesting. I was quite shocked when it came time to taste the rum and I saw the 6 glasses of rum sitting in front of me. Like, it wasn’t a shot glass. It was a decent amount of rum.
Some of the girls drank all of the alcohol. The way my life is set up, I knew I had to just take one sip. Each. HAHA! There was one rum that I liked more than the rest, and I took two sips. #Rebel
We ended up putting our coins together to buy Vanessa & Edson the $160 bottle of Bacardi that is made and sold ONLY at the distillery. We got it engraved and everything. Such a nice wedding gift :)
While walking back to the pick up spot to catch a ride back to the ferry dock, we noticed two people with a bunch of hoolah hoops. So we joined in and hoolah hooped. Duh.
By the time we made it back to San Juan, I was exhausted. I really wanted to go back to the Villa, but the girls wanted to eat. So on our way to Vaca Brava, I stopped and took some photos of Vanessa.
I made the “mistake” of asking, “Dónde está el baño,” to one of the waitresses at Vaca Brava. When I came back from the baño, she and the other waiter started speaking to me in Spanish and treated me like the translator of the whole group haha. So that was nerve-wracking, but kind of exciting. They were trying to convince us to order sharables instead of individual meals because that would apparently take less time to prepare. But we all wanted our own plates, so we ordered our own plates.
My mofongo was soooo good! I just wish I knew that it only had 6 pieces of shrimp in it, because I wouldn’t have eaten them all first haha.
By the way we made it back to the Villa, we were all exhausted and napped for HOOUUUURRRSSS. Then we woke up and got pretty because it was night 1 of 2 at La Placita.
Vanessa had a whole bunch of Edson heads for all of us. I thought that was hilarious! She actually took one with her when we left. He didn’t make it back home, though. I bet he’s still having fun at La Placita today!
So none of us knew what to expect at La Placita. I really thought it was just one club. Well, it’s a whole street of clubs and it’s not easy to pinpoint the location if you’re taking an Uber. The best thing to do is to just get dropped off nearby and walk.
We all know I’m not a club-goer. I had never been to a club before this trip! So this is how I felt about it: it was fun! I’m actually embarrassed at how much fun I had. We danced and laughed and went from club to club. It was quite an experience. Would I recommend it to my saved Christian friends? No, definitely not. It’s almost 2 months later and I miss La Placita. That place is like a drug…
We left La Placita at 4:15 AM. They close at 5 AM. It felt reeeeally weird coming home from a club at 4:30 in the morning. But like I said in the vlogs, it’s not the norm for LarJ. Don’t judge me for what I did in Puerto Rico :)
Make sure you watch the vlog to see all the fun we had!
