This is the 5th Part in the Honeymoon Flashback Series. I would like to finish sharing this whole journal that we wrote on our honeymoon in 2005 before we leave to start our new Puerto Rico life adventure this fall 2013. Go here for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

The Mofongo/Mango Mishap and Great Hunt for Chili’s

Friday we decided to stay another night in Rincon; we took a long walk down the beach barefoot and ran into some rocks that we had to walk up or swim around. It was fun, but with Britton’s sunburn he was a little sore and had to wear a shirt. After a nap we went up to a surfer bar called Calypso. It was somewhat expensive but fun -a lot of gringos apparently have bought in Rincon -some surfers, some investors, some snow birds, some retirees.

We slept in late Saturday and checked out of Coconut Palms -we decided since had slept so late that we would make a late night out of Saturday. We drove into Mayaguez, one of the bigger cities on this west side. We looked in a tourist magazine and saw that there was a Chili’s restaurant and since we had received a Chili’s gift card as a wedding gift, we drove around and around and around looking for that darn Chili’s!

We got caught in a huge rainstorm as we were looking. The rain looked like it was peeing from the buildings, people were putting whatever they could on their heads from boxes to plastic bags and the begging people in the middle of the street ran for shelter.

Since it was raining so bad we couldn’t find Chili’s and instead decided to go see a movie. I wanted to see The Island (since we were on an island) but it didn’t start until later so we saw Deuce Bigalow European Gigalow with Spanish subtitles which was more interesting than the movie itself.

We left and kept an eye out for Chili’s and tried to stop for gas at a gas station. I had started to feel really sick to my stomach. Maybe it was the mofongos we had eaten or maybe a mango from an Econo grocery store, but the navigator (me) was out of commission. I didn’t know whether I had nausea, diarrhea or just a weird hunger, but I felt horrible.

We continued on with me just sitting miserably in the passenger seat and Britton went to another gas station because the previous gas station had been flooded with water. At the new gas station I told Britton I had to use the bathroom one way or another or both.

So I very sickly got out of the car and looked inside the station. I asked in Spanish for the bathroom but the guy behind the glass just strangely looked at me. So I went back to the car and before we could drive away I opened the door and puked it all out -mangos, mofongos and all.

I felt a little better but I knew it wasn’t over. So we went to a nearby Baskin-Robbins and shared a banana split and I spent some time in the bathroom.

The kids that worked in Baskin Robbins said Chili’s was at a mall by Wendy’s and Church’s Chicken, but by then we were so spent driving around in circles that we just left Mayaguez and drove on to Cabo Rojo. We took a country dirt road around to an old water tower. We saw a little birthday party in progress. Since we never did find Chili’s we just stopped at a Little Caesar’s pizza place. They have no sales taxes here which is pretty cool. (Editor’s note: PR instituted a sales tax not long after we visited in 2005.)

We decided to drive back to Mayaguez and found the mall AND Chili’s! The mall, apparentely, is the place to be on a Saturday night. Everyone was out and they had some cool stores too. But it was closing so we decided to see a late movie -again! Wedding Crashers at 12:10am. It got out at 2am so we drove off to some neighborhood and just slept in the car. Well, it saved us at least $75-$100 in hotel costs! The first place we parked to sleep we were busted by a security guard, but then we found a nice quiet neighborhood. It was pretty fun as we settled in to our dreams to sounds of chirping frogs and insects.