Heladería de Lares

The Heladería de Lares has stood on the plaza since 1968 and makes its reputation on flavours nobody else attempts: rice and beans, garlic, avocado, corn, plantain, cheese, and a rotating list that has run to hundreds over the years alongside conventional fruit and chocolate. It is a genuine curiosity rather than a gimmick, and people drive up into the mountains for it. The plaza outside is where the 1868 uprising against Spanish rule was declared.

What you actually see

• The unusual flavours - rice and beans, garlic, corn and avocado among others.
• The rotating list - a changing board of flavours from a very long repertoire.
• The plaza - the square outside, where the 1868 declaration was made.
• The mountain town - Lares in the western Cordillera around it.

When to go

Year round; the parlour keeps daily hours. Weekends are busiest with visitors from the coast. Flavours available change day to day.

Honest expectations

The stranger flavours are more novelty than pleasure and many people try one spoonful. Queues at weekends are long. The mountain roads up to Lares are winding and slow.

Nearby

Hacienda Lealtad is nearby, and Adjuntas is southeast.