We enjoyed our hot drive through the southwestern section of the island (seemed no matter what direction we headed, or time of day it was, the sun was hitting us head on). The roads were filled with interesting sites ... pickup trucks with cattle, horses, and donkeys riding in the back, and wonderful, colorful roadside stands, filled with those banana wannabes, plantains.

We wanted to stay as close to the coast as we could, so we swung down to La Parguera, a small, busy fishing village. Its greatest claim to fame is La Bahía Fosforescente (Phosphorescent Bay) ... just off the shore millions of luminescent dinoflagellates (teeny plankton) lie, and when bothered, light up. So supposedly on a moonless night, the Bay will glow. We were told this claim was a bit exaggerated; we didn't have a chance to find out for ourselves.

We had a good seafood lunch, walked along the narrow streets and did some shopping. There was another parador here, it looked pretty fancy compared to our last one, and was on the Bay.

Back on the road again, heading east, we made a brief stop in Guayanilla. Another nice town, this one a bit larger, with a pretty plaza at its center. We would see those nice fig trees here and all over, usually shaped like gumdrops.

We continued to hug the coast wherever possible, and from the map it looked like we'd have a nice scenic drive along several miles of ocean. Ah well, maps can be deceiving — things were not quite as expected. There were many strange industrial areas — factories or refineries — not much to look at, situated between the road and the water.

On to Ponce ... quite a large city in the southern middle section of Puerto Rico. We drove to its center. Many pretty streets with Spanish architecture. We stopped at the Plaza Degatau and walked all about.

As you can see, the Parque de Bombas, Ponce's Victorian firehouse kind of catches your eye. Apparently it's the most photographed building on the island. The plaza was beautiful, with pretty trees and flowers, bubbling fountains, and clammering pigeons. We got a Puerto Rican ice from a street vendor ... it felt good here.