We had quite the lazy morning today – we had gotten reservations at Ron del Barrilito and we didn’t have to be there until 11:30. 

We arrived at the distillery and were handed tokens for our free cocktail, so we went straight to the bar. I got a rum old fashioned, Matt got the piña colada… Damn, they were both amazing. Mine was all smoked and everything. Smoked piece of cinnamon stick, smoked orange peel… YUM!

The tour was the same as last time – telling the story of Pedro Fernandez who started making rum and hanging out with a little barrel of it under his arm – the “barrilito.” And how, during Prohibition, they resorted to making rubbing alcohol to survive… Anyway. Super cool history. 

Then we got to the tasting part of the tour, the part I was more than willing to pay $80 per person for. We got to taste ALL the rum. Including the $350 and $750 per bottle stuff. They’ve only sold like 10,000 bottles of the expensive stuff since they started making it. It’s aged for 20-30 years. And TO DIE FOR. 

When that was over, we went back to the apartment, chilled for a few, then headed back to Isla Verde one last time. It was short lived, the sky turned nice and black and it started raining, unfortunately. 

So back we went to the apartment and showered, chilled for a bit, and went back to Loiza to Cueva del Mar for dinner. The dorado con ajo tostado was delicious, and the sangria was way too sweet…

Then a short walk around the neighborhood to see the last place we stayed – which happened to be for sale (too bad we don’t have $2.5 million) – then back and to bed. We’re exhausted. And tomorrow, we have to go home. 

Homeward bound. Sad face. We wandered around the AirBnB most of the morning – it’s really annoying how bad we are at finding stuff to do before flying out of a place – cleaning up, having breakfast, packing up last minute stuff…

We finally gave up and just left, but we still had a bit of time to kill before going to the airport. We drove around Condado and Isla Verde for a bit, then gave up and went to Ocean Lab Brewing for lunch. That seems to be our go to for our last lunch in San Juan.

Food was good, beer was better, and we went to drop off the rental car. Thankfully, that took less time than picking it up, and we were at the airport fairly early.  Good thing. We managed to forget the agricultural inspection, and we had already been in the annoyingly long line for a little while when we figured it out. So we got out of line, went through a different line, and got back in the Frontier line. 

Unfortunately, the “print your baggage tags” kiosks were broken, so 20 million people had to actually talk to a human and get their bag tags printed.  That took FOREVER. Thankfully, the TSA PreCheck line was stupid short and we were through security in no time. We had just enough time to find the Priority Pass Lounge and grab a beer before boarding our plane.

A fairly uneventful flight got us to Charlotte, where we were on the exact same plane to Denver, same seats and everything. They asked us to just stay aboard, so that was 45 minutes of wandering the single aisle of the plane and stretching until we had to sit back down. As usual, Frontier can’t get their shit together and they were having issues with the computer systems inside, and we left 45 minutes late for Denver.

We had a nice drop in altitude on initial into Denver, feeling like you’re on a roller coaster on an aircraft is always entertaining… When we got to the gate, the idiots inside couldn’t figure out how to drive the jetway to the plane, so it was another half hour of standing there, waiting to have the doors opened. UGH. That happened last time. Every time I fly Frontier, I swear NEVER AGAIN, and then we do it anyways…

We got our checked bag, called an Uber and FINALLY made it home. At about 12:30 am. Bed time!

For more, here’s the video: