There is a land of the living and a land of
                                                  the dead and the bridge is love, the only            
                                                           survival, the only meaning.
                                                                  -- Thornton Wilder

PAN EL CHECO     

Bread. Real bread. Bread that you can chew wholeheartedly,
that tastes wholesome, not the ersatz version wrapped in trans-
parent plastic on supermarket shelves that dares to call itself
bread but is a pathetic tasteless
version laden with unknown artificial
ingredients designed to guarantee the
product's longevity and enhance its
spurious nutrition.

Is that too much to ask for in this day
and age that promises consumers the
realization of all their wishes?



Luckily, for residents of San Juan a
new bakery has opened ready to deliver the real goods:  bread
that is crusty, tasty, nutritious, and, best of all, comes in different
tantalizing varieties. The kind you can enjoy with jam and
butter while sipping tea or coffee at any time your heart desires.

The bakery bears a simple name -- El Checo -- but behind that
name is as sweet, romantic story of love between a young man
from Czechoslovakia and a Puerto Rican woman that led him
to leave Europe to begin a new life on the island at the side
of his innamorata.

As Radim Capek told a local daily, one of the things he missed
most from his country was eating good, wholesome bread so he
began baking his own. In time, he started selling it to friends
and acquaintances, then farmers markets and eventually, local
restaurants. Recently, he opened a tiny outlet on San Francisco
St., next door to Concalma, to sell directly to consumers.

 Inside the cozy store is a small
world of bread wonders: sour-
dough and multi-grain breads,
brioches, focaccia, scones,
wholewheat and rye rolls,
carrot muffins. They are display-
ed neatly in a glass case at the
main counter or stocked up
inside baskets hanging attrac-
tively on a side wall lighted
by jazzy light bulbs on black wires.

El Checo is open four days a week.
In addition to baking, Capek also works as a chemist for a paint
company. He is working hard to support his family that soon 
will welcome a baby.

EL CHECO, #207 San Francisco St.
787.631.9424

DAYBREAK ON EARTH

Life is a peephole, a single tiny entry onto a vastness.
                           
                                 Yann Martel, "Life of Pi"



  ☞ A SIMPLE TIP
WORN fabric can be recycled into scrap material for use around
the house in lieu of paper towels. Cut up material into pieces of
different sizes and store in one location for easy access when needed.

Puerta de San Juan, Old San Juan

photo by Denise Blasor

                   What matters is how well you 
                          walk through the fire.

                         -- Charles Bukowski