Let's Travel: Heladeria Lares, Lares, Puerto Rico

Hi again.
Here is the next post of the "Let's Travel" series with a tiny delay.

After leaving Arecibo Observatory the same day (post is here), we were ready for our next stop: Heladeria Lares. Most probably you heard of this place before if you watch the Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern (here is the video). This place is internationally famous for their unusual flavors, like garlic, chicken and rice, corn, etc.

Road was nice. It took around 45 minutes to get there.
You will drive 9 miles back to Rio Camuy and drive 7 more miles to reach this place. Watch for the exit signs. Lares is a small town and the place is not well marked.
We needed to circle around for a while and ask cops where this place is. They don't know English but they are very friendly and did their best to help us. Luckily, my hubby knew the proper pronunciation of the Spanish words.

There is no parking spot near the ice cream parlor. Streets are narrow and crowded especially near the parlor since it's popular among locals as well as tourists. So, you may need to park your car in one of the side streets like we did and navigate on foot. In this way you will also get a real feeling of the town.

We reached the parlor luckily before 4pm.
4pm was critical because we heard that they close at that time. In fact, you can never be sure of working hours in Puerto Rico, life is so relaxed there.
When we arrived, the line outside was not long but it got more crowded while we were inside. We took this picture after getting out of the store.

It was really exciting to sample some of their "too weird-to-me" ice creams. Honestly, I had  prejudices about garlic ice cream. It was not scary though when I finally tasted it, but I don't think I will be able to finish a full cup because of the strong garlic taste (and smell). But hubby loved it.

It is not a small store inside, but it was packed with people. All tables were occupied and there was not much place to stand and eat inside.

There is a nice public park right across the street where you can sit back and relax under the trees while having your ice cream.

The staff is friendly, they give as many samples as you request. Of course you will have to wait a little bit because of the crowd. They understand English, hence we didn't have a communication problem.


We sampled potato, garlic, corn, and strawberry cheesecake. They were all nice. We decided to get corn (yellow, in the picture) and strawberry cheesecake (pink, in the picture) at the end.
They put cinnamon inside and on top of the corn ice cream, I never thought of them together but it sure is a nice combination. You can see grits of corn inside the ice cream and feel its freshness.
Strawberry cheesecake was so fresh and had a perfect creamy consistency. We loved both.

You can see six different flavors on the right side. This is only a fragment of their selections, there were 40-50 different flavors offered I guess.
Here is what they are:
Dulce de Ajonjoli --> Sesame seed candy
Batata --> Potato
Tamarindo --> Tamarind
Zanahoria --> Carrot
Pana --> Breadfruit
Calabaza --> Squash (or pumpkin)


After Heladeria Lares, we walked on Lares streets a bit more and shopped in one of the local pharmacy shops (more like a small scale Rite Aid).

Next stop on the itinerary was Aguada, where we would spend the night. On the way, we saw this scenic spot on Route 111 which was too beautiful to pass by. So, we stopped to take pictures. Lush forest and the lake is just so beautiful.

Hope you enjoyed this post.
Next post will be on Aguada and Aguadilla, PR.