San Juan, Puerto Rico

A card from back in 2009, showing the Old San Juan...or as it is said on the back of the card, a panoramic view of Condado at night from bridge over lagoon

And instead of some more details about San Juan, the back of the card also contains a recipe, so I have to share it with you as well :)
It is an easy one, saying how to make Sweet Potato Chips....id love to try these as well!

-These eye-catching chips rank high on the nutritional scale - lots of vitamin A. Why not serve choice sweet potato chips instead of corn chips at your next cocktail party?

4 pounds sweet potatoes, well scrubbed. Sea salt and fresh ground pepper.
1 quart canola oil for frying.

Slice the potatoes as thinly as possible. Heat oil to 400 degrees. Drop slices of potatoes, a few at a time, into the hot oil and fry about 1 minute. Drain on paper towels. Season and serve.

Told you it's piece of cake....and you dont really need to wait for a cocktail party as an excuse to make them, right?

Ponce, Puerto Rico

A bit more of the summer atmosphere during these annoying winter days....it has just started to rain AGAIN a while ago =[

Ponce is a lovely provincial city and is known as 'the pearl of the south' and 'the city of lions' and also 'the majestic city', and it still maintains its 19th century feel.
It's Puerto Rico's  second largest city (after San Juan). Its flag reminds me a lot to the flag of Papua New Guinea. And speaking of flags, you should check out the next post ;)
On the card you can see the La Guancha beach, which is one of the three salt-water beaches in Ponce.
Makes me long for the summer.....yeah,  i know....im annoying :))

San Juan, Puerto Rico

As for our last stop today, ill take you to San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Lately ive been trying to get back to the 4 postcards per update. Of course, it takes a bit more time then when doing 3 cards, but i really think i should get back on track with all the posting...and for that i need to post more cards. Well, 5 per update is a bit overestimating myself....so ill just stick to 4 whenever possible...3 aint bad either...better 3 than none...but if i can manage 3, then i can manage 4 so...

here you have a view of Condado area in foreground and Isla Verde and airport in the background...and im still trying to figure out where the airport is actually..its a bit foggy in the back there :)
However, Isla Verde actually belongs to the city of Carolina, and the airport as well, even though many people mistakenly associate it to San Juan...well, thats how i understood it at first as well.
While as for El Condado, it does belong to San Juan :)

Im already familiar with the Simpsons stamps...but the others caught my attention, esp. the star one, since i dont recall i have seen it before.
This 3-cent "make up rate" stamp was first issued in June 2002 and features a star highlighted in red, white and blue. As for the small stamp at the bottom... it is a full pane of 20 2–cent Navajo Necklace definitive stamps.

This stamp features artist Lou Nolan's painted detail of a Navajo silver and turquoise necklace with sand-cast squash blossoms set with polished blue turquoise nuggets. Nolan based his painting on a photograph by Peter T. Furst. The necklace itself belongs to a private collector and is believed to have been made sometime during the 1940s or 1950s.

Fort San Cristobal, Puerto RIco

This is my last Puerto Rican card in stock...

Castillo de San Cristóbal is a Spanish fort in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  It was built by the Spaniards to protect against land based attacks on the city of San Juan. It is part of San Juan National Historic Site.
Castillo de San Cristóbal is the largest fortification built by the Spanish in the New World and it was finished in 1783, basically wrapping the city of San Juan. Entry to the city was sealed by San Cristóbal's double gates. After close to one hundred years of relative peace in the area, part of the fortification (about a third) was demolished in 1897 to help ease the flow of traffic in and out of the walled city.

well, that would be all for today...i need to get a good rest...and hopefully a new update will be available tomorrow :)  yeah, im in the mood for it...i just hope ill be able to do it...take care everyone! :) 

Puerto Rico

Here comes a great Puerto Rican card, showing both the flag and the Puerto Rican coat of arms...

Not so long ago, i tried to figure out why even though in its original name it says Puerto Rico...with two separate words, here in Macedonia we have blended them into one and have Порторико (transcribed it would be Portoriko) ...the same would be with Costa Rica (Костарика)....and Viet Nam (Виетнам)....even though  the latter is also accepted in English as Vietnam, and is somewhat common to see it that way...yet, the original is Việt Nam....and if everything goes as it should, i should be having a Vietnamese postcard soon :)

Anyway, as Addis says, my Puerto Rican postcard supplier, the island was originally named "San Juan Bautista" (St. John the Baptist) and the capital city was Puerto Rico (Rich Port) and later in the history the names were switched.....heh no wodner for so many years then i was mislead by Vaya con Dios and thought that Puerto Rico was a city...i apparantely had good grounds for it :P So i wasnt THAT mistaken :)))

The Spanish Lighthouses, Puerto Rico

This one came from Addis as a total surprise....

It shows some of the old Spanish Lighhouses that surround the entire island of Puerto Rico
Addis says that on the whole there are 14 or 15 lighthouses in Puerto Rico
the ones that are shown on the card are:

- Cabo Rojo (Los Morillos, 1882)
- Vieques (Punta Mulas, 1896)
- Maunabo (Punta Tuna, 1892)
- Arecibo (Punta Morillo, 1898)
- Fajardo (Cabo San Juan, 1880)
- Rincón (Punta Higuero, 1922)
- San Juan (El Morro, 1908)

Thanks so much Addis for this great card and for contributing to my collection of lighouses

Well, that would be all for today...im looking forward to the weekend and see how it goes....i hope this bad mood im in, will soon go away....till next time...

Puerto Rico (02)

Here is a really really nice map card sent to me as a surprise by Addis...well, ok...technically it may not be called a surprise since Addis already said she was gonna find one to send it to me, but still...its not as if i had arranged explicitely for it....so it is a surprise :))
Thank you Addis for all the surprise cards you had sent me so far (and there are a lot)...I just hope that something that had been sent your way had arrived also and made you smile as well :)

I absolutely love this map coz its soooo colourful and picturesque and...its on a blue background!!! Well....ok....its Puerto Rico...its surrounded by water, actually, so its normal to have a blue background....but even that blue colour is just sooo nice :))
Those fruits in the top left corner, the palms at the bottom and the barrel of wine just make the card really really exotic!
Im not sure what the buildings exactly represent, they probably are something significant in their place/city, but i just cant tell why...
There is one place, its at the top, just right under the girl who is sunbathing, it is called Barceloneta....to me it sounds like small Barcelona :))))

You know, Puerto Rico is definitely definitely one of the places i would love to visit one day!

San Juan, Puerto Rico

When i received 5 cards with lighthouses and matching stamps, i was,well, speechless....now my mailbox was again surprised by Addis, who again totally unexpectedly, sent me a envelope with some lovely cards....i really wonder whats the best way to give credit at times like this...'thank you' isnt even close to it....maybe something multiplied by 1000000000000 :-)


This is the San Juan National Historic Site, which is a UNESCO site in Puerto Rico. It consists of several military structures, such as El Morro (officially known as Fuerte San Felipe del Morro) and San Cristobal.

Projecting strength and power, El Morro guarded the entrance to the bay of San Juan for over four centuries and still stands as a reminder of Spain's vast colonial empire.

The little building in the background, which is shaped like an "E", is the school of Fine Arts in Puerto Rico.
I really like it when senders write this kind of information on the back of the card...i mean, what are the odds that i actually found out myself what that building actually represents?  Low, very low! I mean, look a few posts down....and you'll see that identifying places isnt always my strong side :)

Ocean Park, Puerto Rico

mmmm, Ocean Park....makes me think of this place as, Disneyland....on water....


Well, i wont "brag" again with my story about Puerto Rico and Vaya con Dios, once is enough and it aint fun to actually repeat what you already know :)
And i wont give you statistics and history (though i hope you are not UTTERLY bored when i do that :P)

There is something on the back of the card, and couldnt be more perfect than put it here...just promise you'll head straight to the kitchen afterwards :)))

Caribbean Recipe - West Indian Curried Shark

2lb. shark, 4 cups water, 1/4 cup vinegar, 4 cloves minced garlic, 2 onions sliced, 2 tsp. ginger, 2 tsp. powered mustard, 2 tsp. curry powder, 3 tbsp. oil, 4 chili (habanero) peppers chopped, 1/2 tsp. pepper, pinch salt.
Chop shark into bite sized cubes. In large pot, add shark, water and vinegar and boil 20 minutes. Make curry sauce by grinding up garlic, ginger, mustard, curry, pepper and salt with 2 tbsp water. Coat cooked shark with curry sauce. In large pan add oil and fry onions and chili peppers. Add coated shark to onions and chili peppers. Cook for 20 minutes, flipping shark so as to cook each side. Enjoy!



Bon appetit! :)

Puerto Rico

"Aie aie aie aie aie aie Puerto Rico, Aie aie aie aie aie aie Puerto Rico......."


My FIRST Puerto Rican card!!! Lovely!!

Just that for years i was falsely mislead that Puerto Rico is a city...i blame it on Vaya con Dios and that 'aie aie aie Puerto Rico' song...for some reason, the song had created the wrong image of Puerto Rico being some nice summer touristic resort by the sea/ocean....and whenever i had heard the song i had this vision of a nice hotel, with a nice garden where there are white tables, and very discreet subtle lights....people smartly dressed drinking wine, relaxed and enjoying themselves, while there is band playing some nice live songs and they play exactly this one, about Puerto Rico and some love-story going on there....
Can you imagine my shock when i found out that its actually a COUNTRY?? I mean, the name does sound like a city name to me, due to the '-o' endings, especially since it consists of two words....but there you go...my apologies to all the Puerto Ricans :) that was not on purpose...i was just a kid when i first heard the song......oh, another "surprise" was when one day i also realized that Vaya con Dios is a band....i was convinced it was a female singer....

lesson learnt: unless you are 100% certain on something, and have actual facts, google for some information....you may be surprised of what google may give you back :)

Shortly about Puerto Rico.....its a semi-autonoumus territory of the USA (yeah, this was as well, surprising to learn ) located in the northeastern Carribean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands. The territory is composed of an archipelago, that includes the main island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller islands and keys. The main island of Puerto Rico is the smallest by land area but third largest by population among the four Greater Antilles.
The island is also popularly known as "La Isla del Encanto", which translated means "The Island of Enchantment."
Capital and largest city: San Juan

"He says he'll be leaving you soon still you beg him to stay ......"

just a line from "Puerto Rico".....reflected.....in life