I've been savoring this blog post like a box of chocolates- looking forward to it and pulling it out every so often just to taste the wonderful experience of the trip. But life is moving on quickly, so I'd better get to the work of actually posting about it.
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Jason left late on the night of Leah's birthday to head to Puerto Rico and get his winter nursery work done. I joined him there five days later. After a somewhat tearful good-bye with the kids (who I expected to be asleep before I left but half of which were up and crying when I walked out the door), I got on a plane headed to New York City, then on to San Juan. I've never flown on a red-eye flight before, and it was not very fun at all, but eventually I made it to the island. And it was beautiful!
We couldn't decide between two hotels in San Juan, so we stayed the first three nights in a small boutique hotel that had a local feel to it, and the last two nights in a beach front high rise that had more of a spring break in the Caribbean feel. Both were amazing.
The first hotel (the smaller one) was a block away from the beach and was in a more residential part of the island. We walked a few blocks to eat breakfast with more locals than tourists every morning, and I couldn't get enough of all of the gorgeous colors in the flowers, plants and houses.
Our room had a private entrance with a charming little patio and direct access to a heated pool that we hopped in every night. The ocean was close enough to see from the patio, but not so close to hear the crash of the waves.
I loved this hotel because it felt and looked like I thought a Puerto Rican hotel should- glazed red tiles on the floor and into the shower, wicker furniture, small windows with white blinds, and lots of stone. I don't think we saw another guest at all in the four days we were there, and I loved that. It was quiet and restful and just perfect.
Our first matter of business (after a quick nap) was to check out the beach! I put San Juan's weather onto my phone months ago, and I was ready to finally soak up a little bit of this-
And it was amazing!
I also wanted to get a new family-heart-in-the-sand picture. I think this was my third attempt at drawing one and taking a picture of it before the waves washed it away.
After that we decided to check out Old San Juan. It was Three Kings Day on the day of my arrival, and Old San Juan was celebrating! We took a taxi straight to El Morro and started our hike around the town. The Castillo San Felipe del Morro is a 16th-century citadel that climbs up the island and was used to protect San Juan from invasions, and it was quite impressive.
Locals gather there to fly their kites, and it was fun to see so many families enjoying the holiday together.
I had to laugh at this choice of our first stop in Puerto Rico. When I was many months pregnant with Emma, Jason and I went to Washington DC for a week. We did so much walking from monument to museum to historical site- by the end I was pretty miserable, and I promised myself that the next time we went on a vacation, it would be to a sandy beach, not to a state or national park. Yet here we were again!
And it really was beautiful. The fortress is very well-maintained and is a fascinating glimpse of what life was like for the soldiers a few centuries ago. Puerto Rico was once quite the hot commodity for trade in the Caribbean.
We thought the kids might like this giant iguana for a pet. He was easily three feet long!
After El Morro we continued our walk through Old San Juan. The houses and buildings are all so colorful- I wish I would have taken more pictures.
There were fountains and cobblestone streets that were all filled with locals celebrating Three Kings Day. Because of the holiday most of the restaurants were closed, but we took a chance on a local hole-in-the-wall and were sorely disappointed. It might have been local food, but it was poorly done, and even a gringo like me could tell that. The traditional Puerto Rican food is mofongo, which Jason has sampled a few times before and advised me to skip. I did, however, absolutely love the mamposteao- pink rice and beans that we ate throughout our week. We joke in the States about eating rice and beans as a way to save money, but I would gladly eat them every day if they tasted as good as they did in Puerto Rico.
After our subpar dinner we started making our way back over to El Castillo San Cristobal- the eastern gate and land entrance to Old San Juan. It was dark by then, but not at all cold, and we stopped into Ben and Jerry's to grab a pint of our favorite ice cream to eat on our way over. Before we even got to the fort we could hear the lively music coming from the fortress grounds, and there were people were dancing to the music. Jason hasn't had as much experience with dancing as I have, but I convinced him to dance one ballad with me in the shadows of the fortress where no one could see us (hopefully). He promised me that some day we could take a ballroom dancing class to improve our skill just a bit. But for now, dancing in the shadows worked just fine.
Once we had our fill of ice cream, music, and history, we hopped into another taxi and headed back to our hotel. We shared the taxi with two other couples and swapped tips about where to go and what to avoid while we were visiting the island. It was a delightful and simple start to our vacation.
Our plan for the next three days was much more concrete- we had an excursion planned every day with plenty of downtime in the evening for a relaxing dinner, swim, and sleep. We arranged travel from our hotel every day, which was so nice. I do not love navigating new cities and figuring out directions. Instead we just sat and talked and let the locals take us to where we needed to be.
Our first excursion was a day trip on a catamaran that took us from Fajardo out to a smaller private island off the coast. We were in a group of about 20 people- three other couples like us and 10 locals that were on the cruise for the booze. The waves were rocky enough that we weren't able to get to our intended destination of Flameco, which is one of the top-rated white sand beaches in the world- but we did make it to Culebra, which was perfectly amazing. I couldn't stop smiling and giggling to myself as we took off across the blue water. We were on a boat in the middle of the crystal clear Caribbean on January 7th! What an adventure.
Once the boat was anchored we jumped into the ocean and swam onto the beach. The island was too big to walk around in the few hours that we had, but big enough that we were able to spread out and explore alone. Jason wanted to play in the water while I wanted to lay on the sand, and we did plenty of both.
After a few hours of lounging and swimming we swam back to the boat, grabbed some lunch and carefully swam it back onto the beach to eat. While we were crossing over some rocky areas I kicked a buried rock hard! It hurt so much- by the second day it was bruised and swollen enough that I seriously thought it might be broken.
After another hour or so of picnicking and lounging on the sand, we got back onto the boat and traveled just a few hundred yards out to sea to a nature preserve for snorkeling. By that point the boat seemed to really be rocking, and I had never gone snorkeling in the middle of the ocean before. I've always swam in from the beach, and this seemed a little bit scarier to me. After a very brief tutorial on snorkeling, the boat captain and guides invited everyone to hop in- right as a stingray leaped out of the water and made a huge splash right by our boat. The captain told us that a sting ray sighting was extremely rare and that he must be running away from something bigger. That did nothing to help with my level of apprehension, but after a few minutes we jumped in, stale bread in hand, and headed over to the reef.
The water was choppy and the waves were just high enough that my snorkel tube kept getting filled with the saltwater. I was having a hard time calming my breathing down enough to keep my face under the water. Eventually I had to wave Jason over and hang onto him with one hand and my tube with the other hand to be able to get any snorkeling done. The waves over head were knocking us around, but if I stuck my face down deep enough I could get a pretty good rhythm of swimming and breathing going.
We swam around the reef for about ten minutes and saw some beautiful fish, coral, and even a cannon ball. But then I felt something wash over me that wasn't a wave. I popped my head up, yanked my mask off and told Jason to back up because I was going to be sick. And I was- sea sick in the sea, feeding the fish my picnic lunch and completely disgusting my snorkeling partner, who was shoving the water away from his direction by the gallonful. Poor Jason- I have mortified him many times over the years with various bodily malfunctions, but this was quite possibly the worst. And poor me! Talk about an embarrassing moment! I tried to finish up discretely, then we headed back to the boat, where I tried my best to keep my mouth shut and my stomach still for the rest of the day.
We had one more stop after the snorkeling- to the beautiful and tiny island of Palominito. This island is the quintessential deserted island- three palm trees and a dozen bushes, white sand and washed up coral- and I have never been happier to hug solid land in my life.
We jumped off the boat, swam over and I planted myself in the sand for the rest of the afternoon. Jason, who is far less interested in sun-snoozing than I am, joined up with some of the other couples in the water and was forced to make small talk with strangers while I did everything in my power to keep my insides from turning upside-down again. What an unexpected twist to our first excursion! I worry that boat rides are going the way of roller coasters for me in my older age- something I am glad to have enjoyed in my younger life!
Still, it was a completely wonderful place. I have tabbed various places in my mind as my "happy places" where I like to go when my mind is wandering, and Palominito has taken up residence as my current favorite.
Once we were back to the main island we headed back to San Juan. The 45-minute ride home on an air-conditioned tourist bus driven by someone else only helped to calm my stomach down, and by the time we got home we were ready to hit the town again! We enjoyed what we later agreed was the best dinner of the trip- an Americanized Mexican restaurant that delivered the tastiest virgin strawberry daiquiri I've ever had. We ate out on the patio and did an astounding amount of people watching as we enjoyed our meal. One of the best parts of a vacation like this was watching so many people making happy memories with their loved ones. Real life left behind, and everywhere we looked we saw nothing but smiles. There were so many specialty shops there, we had to sample a variety of them. This evening's macaron shop was a perfect treat at the end of a fabulous day.
Our second day of excursions was the best day of the whole trip. Of course, every day was the best day of the whole trip, but with adventures unlike any we've had before and no vomit involved, this day was exceptional. We started out with another delicious breakfast at Pinky's, then hopped onto our tour bus/van of the day. Our first stop was El Yunque Rainforest. It was amazing! Gorgeous green everywhere, beautiful blooms, a few critters here and there (although no bright flashes of macaws flying from tree to tree like I had envisioned) and even banana trees.
I'm pretty sure everyone knows that bananas taste best when they are big and yellow, but Jason thought a tiny green one fresh off the tree would be a tasty mid-morning snack. It wasn't. His lips were covered with a thick sticky ooze that took at least an hour to get off, and it probably took me the same amount of time to stop laughing at how silly he was for sampling it.
It's currently -2 degrees in Iowa as I'm writing this, but I can still feel the warmth of the Puerto Rican sun shining down on us, although just barely through the thick canopy of leaves overhead in the rain forest. It was never too hot there, even as we were making our way through the trees toward the waterfall.
As we neared the waterfall our tour guide stopped us at a wall of moist red clay, which she insisted was good for the body and soul. And how often can you smear your face with Puerto Rican red clay? We gave it a try.
Once we hiked up to the waterfall I shamelessly pressured Jason into getting all the way into the water- "We're in Puerto Rico! In the rain forest! How often can you swim in a waterfall in a rain forest in Puerto Rico?!" but I really, really didn't want to get in myself. The water was freezing!
After a few minutes of giving myself the same pep talk, I carefully picked my way over the tourist-covered slippery rocks and lowered myself in. And it was so cold! I don't know why I thought water from coming off a waterfall in Puerto Rico should be any warmer than water coming off a waterfall in the North American mountains, but it should!
But I'm glad I did it. How often can I say that I went swimming under a waterfall in a rain forest in Puerto Rico?
I also took the chance to document the painfully swollen toe that I was hiking around on. Ouch!
After we dried off we got back onto the trail and headed to the other side of the forest, which had some amazing view of the island.
We stopped by the fountain of youth, and each took a sip, just in case!
After that we were on our way to dinner. This was the best authentic Puerto Rican meal that we had, and of course it was at a tucked away family-owned restaurant that we never would have found on our own.
We stayed with the same group the entire day, hiking, then enjoying dinner, then on to the real highlight of the day. It was fun meeting other couples and families, mostly from the United States, and not surprisingly quite a few from the Midwest. I've said many times that the most exciting thing to do in the Midwest is leave it, and we definitely weren't the only ones with that idea this winter. We all got back into our tour bus and drove down to Fajardo, where we went kayaking in Laguna Grande, a bio-luminescent bay.
This was, hands down, our most favorite excursion of the entire trip. It was unlike anything we've ever done anywhere else in the world, and on our way out of the bay, and several times since we've been home, we've talked about how exciting it will be when we can bring the kids back with us to share the experience. We gathered together with our rain forest group and, after a quick run down of what to expect, got into our kayaks and headed toward a maze of mangrove trees that looked like this-
Our underwater camera died while we were snorkeling, and Jason didn't want to bring his phone along, so we were thrilled when we found out that the tour guides would take a few pictures of the evening along the way. The rest of the pictures are from their website.
We chose to do the earlier evening tour, which was perfect because it allowed us to experience the sight of the maze of mangrove trees that we paddled through on our way to the bay and the gorgeous sunset in the bay as well as the bio-luminescent bay in the dark. The picture they took of us looked like this-
but in my mind's eye it looked more like this-
Complete with a view of the Fajardo lighthouse on one side of the bay, the ocean just over the trees on the other side, and the stars coming out from behind the clouds overhead.
Once we made it out to the middle of the bay we all held onto each others kayaks while the guides lashed all of the kayaks together. It was getting windy and the water was a bit choppy. It started sprinkling then somewhat dumping rain on us, and we had no choice but to sit in the middle of the bay and get rained on while the guides told us all about the micro organisms and how we can help preserve the bay. It made me think a lot about our family and about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and how we are all faced with various trials through life and how the best way to get through them is to hold onto each other and support each other until the trials pass. I'm pretty sure Jason was just thinking about the science of the bugs, and that's okay too. The rain let up just as the microscopic plankton started to light up.
There are only five bio-luminescent bays in the world, and three of them are in Puerto Rico. The Pyrodinium Bahamense microorganisms light up when they are moved, so our oars and hands created a trail of blue in the water. Water splashed onto our pants created a tiny blue fireworks show. It was a magical sight to experience. We glided through the water in the dark and got an amazing display of nature.
When it was time to head out of the cave and back toward the mangrove trees, it was pitch black. Everyone in our group had an amber colored light on the front and back of our kayaks, and those tiny lights were our only guide for navigating our way through the trees. The slow trip back would have been much scarier if we hadn't experienced the maze at dusk.
But we made it out just fine (unlike the hilarious Asian couple behind us that got tangled up in the trees and had to be rescued by one of the guides. The funniest conversation I heard the entire trip was the guide talking to non-English speaking tourists in distress- "I'm going to help you guys out. Just sit still. Sit still! Don't stand up. Let go! Let go! Why are you holding on to me? Let go!")
And then we were back on the bus and heading home. We had spent the entire day with the same group of twenty-five or so people, and unlike the inebriated group that we went boating with the day before, this group was on a natural high from the awesome day we had just experienced together. So when Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" started playing on the tour bus radio, it only seemed natural that we all belted it out together, followed by a great performance of romantic ballads and eighties hits all the way back to San Juan. It was late, it was dark, and it was so fun. We'll never see those people again, but we had a great time making memories with strangers that day.
