Puerto Rico: Patio del Nispero (El Convento Hotel) (July 2009)

My spouse and I ate lunch at the Patio del Nispero at the Hotel El Convento in early July 2009. Elegant al fresco dining is available in the shadow of the hotel's famous century-old nispero fruit tree. The restaurant offers a gourmet menu of delicious dining options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  A landmark monument to the Conquistador Age, Hotel El Convento  showcases a timeless aura of Old World charm and splendor. Befitting its origins as a Carmelite convent 356 years ago, the splendid luxury hotel is a loving restoration of Spanish Colonial architecture and design with 58 elegant rooms - each adorned with rich wooden beams, handcrafted tiles, carved chairs, velvet settees, and antique chests. Celebrate more than 360 years of tradition at our luxury old San Juan hotel in Puerto Rico. As thefirst Carmelite Convent in the Americas, it housed the nuns for 252 years until closing a few days before Christmas in 1903. Vacant for a decade, the abandonedbuilding served as a retail store, a dance hall, and, for the next 40 years, a flophouse without running water, sanitary facilities, or electricity. Opened in 1962 as El Convento Hotel, it offered a tranquil, European-style alternative to the glitzy hotels lining the Condado strip.