Page 96 - quebec
P. 96

Ponce                                               Top: The Hilton Ponce Golf & Casino Resort.  Opposite top: Sailing regatta,
                                                                   Humacao.  Opposite bottom: The view from our Club Calla condo balcony.


             It’s an easy 60-plus mile drive on Highway 52 from San Juan   rooms and lavish terraced gardens, this mansk overflows with
             to Ponce where, with my friends’ fabulous connections, we got   style. You don’t have to take my word for it — you can view it
             to stay, gratis, at Ponce’s top-notch luxury hotel, the Hilton   for yourself, because now it’s a museum. Take a tour and you’ll
             Ponce Golf & Casino Resort. The connection, Michael Serrallés,  also learn all about the history of the sugar industry.
             a member of the famous Serrallés clan, graciously provided us
             with spacious oceanfront guest rooms. With tennis courts, a  There’s lots more to do in this city known as “The Pearl of the
             golf course, two pools, three restaurants and two bars — both   South.” We could have toured the art museum, visited a coffee
             serving drinks made with the DonQ rums that helped make   plantation, climbed an observation tower, viewed historical
             the Serrallés family famous — there was hardly any reason to   instruments at the Museum of Puerto Rico Music or investi-
             ever leave the hotel.                                gated the Tibes Indigenous Ceremonial Center but the next
                                                                  day we had to be in Humacao to cover a sailing event.
              rallés family. The family’s Puerto Rican rum history began  Humacao
             During a luncheon at the Ponce yacht club with Michael, his
             son and grandchildren, I learned a few things about the Ser-
             in 1865 when Don Juan Serrallés produced his first cask of
              rum on his sugarcane plantation. That one cask turned into   To reach Humacao, we decided to travel route 52 through the
             Destileria Serralles, Inc., a company that now produces and   mountain pass to Caguas and on to road 30. This was sup-
             distributes practically all of the rum sold in Puerto Rico (and   posed to be an easy hour and a half drive but, because of an
             owns the Ponce Hilton resort).                       ambiguous sign that insisted west and east lay in the same
                                                                  direction, we ended up traveling in circles. Over and over
             Just like in a fairy tale, Michael grew up in a castle on a hill.  again, we wended our way past that same, unintelligible sign,
             Known as the Serrrallés Castle, this palace, overlooking the   while also passing by a sun-wrinkled, toothless Puerto Rican
             entire city of Ponce, was built in the 1930s in the era’s pop-  señor sitting on his dilapidated stoop.  Each time we drove by
             ular Spanish Revival style. Beginning with the breathtaking   his house, he waved and smiled at the silly touristas. We just
             entrance, and on to the massive dining room, spacious bed  waved and smiled back as though nothing was amiss.




            96    Wine Dine & Travel  Summer 2014
   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101