A tropical venture.

I know it's been awhile since we got back, but with Christmas and New Years and all, there's been a bit of a delay with blogging. In a word- Puerto Rico was phenomenal. We managed to maintain the perfect balance of exploration and relaxation and got to see just enough of the island to make us want to come back many, many times in the years to come.

After landing in San Juan (and sitting on the runway for 30 minutes because there were no gates available), we finally made it into a taxi and headed toward our hotel in the old part of the city. Apparently there was a huge concert going on that night, so traffic was an absolute nightmare- and our taxi driver (a fiesty Puerto Rican woman) took every opportunity to scream at nearby police officers through the van's open windows. She was upset about the fact that they had blocked off an entire lane of the road for the concert. During the drive, there were multiple incidents of road rage- including honking at nearly every car we saw, almost running over a few innocent tourists, and continually barking orders to anyone who dared to defy her. While honking, she loved to scream things like: "See?! My horn is LOUDER!"  What should been a 15 minute ride turned into over an hour... and Leo and I exchanged several skeptical glances along the way, but we did finally arrive safely! We kissed the ground, dropped off luggage, and headed out- exhausted and starving.

That first day was spent exploring the old city, including the amazing El Morro. It's an enormous fort that was built in the 1500's, and we spent hours wandering around it, finding every passageway imaginable. It's been attacked over and over throughout the years, and has never fallen. Definitely cool.

The next day we set out early to pick up our rental car and head to the eastern part of the island. And the rental car ended up being an adventure in itself… We got a little Suzuki from Allied Car Rental, and in short: I do NOT recommend that company. (I have said such on Trip Advisor.) The car was covered in dents and scratches, had only one hubcap, no floor mats and a keyless remote that was worthless. We paid extra for a GPS that didn’t even work, AND they overcharged us all around! Unfortunately, it was too late to find another option by the time we figured all this out, so we sucked it up and made our way east to El Yunque Rainforest.

We hiked, explored and enjoyed the unbelievable beauty of the area for hours… 

Soooo gorgeous! Of course, there was one very minor traffic incident on the windy, narrow road as we came around a sharp corner. Basically, our mirror smacked the mirror of another guy, but there was no damage to ours…It was a tense few minutes of my very broken Spanish trying to communicate with him and his very broken English, but finally we agreed that we were both in the wrong. So we merrily continued on our way. No police assistance necessary. 

 After the rainforest, we continued further east to Fajardo, where we met up with our guides for a nighttime bioluminescent bay adventure! There are several bays around Puerto Rico that have particular types of algae that glow in the moonlight. So we hopped into kayaks to go out and see them close up. While we don’t have any pictures of ourselves on the water, these stock photos I found will give you an idea of what it’s like.

 Anything that touches the water glows. Our kayaks, the oars, our hands and feet as we splashed around… it was AMAZING. And we also discovered that we’re kind of awesome when it comes to kayaking. Our guides, during our pre-trip meeting, joked that many divorces take place on the water, and that fighting with each other due to the kayak doing its own thing is never the answer. But we rocked it! Several members of the group capsized on the way back to shore, trying to navigate through the extremely narrow channels lined by trees in complete darkness… but we made it without incident. It was an incredible night.

The final days on the island were spent lazing about on beaches, wandering the streets of the old city, mastering the public bus system ($.50 each way!) and thoroughly having a wonderful, wonderful time. 4 ½ days was WAY too short to see and do it all… but hey, there’s always next time!