The Puerto Rico Adventures

I think one of the best things about Minnesota is that it gives you full permission to leave during the winter.  Heck, even MN took a vacation from itself last week with the unseasonably warm temps.  My husband and I took a break from MN by visiting Puerto Rico.  Since we work opposite schedules a lot of the time, going on vacation is the only time when we get uninterrupted quality time together to do something fun!  Kind of a way to really appreciate each other and rediscover all the reasons we got married in the first place.  When we booked the trip, we had no clue how much there was to see and do in PR.  We had quite the busy trip so I'll include the highlights and pictures!

We arrived Monday evening.  We stayed at La Concha in the Condado region of San Juan.  The hotel was wonderful.  Very modern, right on the beach, and we even had a little kitchenette. The hotel is on a busy street with tons of restaurants and bars so every night we wandered around our street. 

My husband usually sleeps longer than I do so my morning ritual is to go sit down by the beach and journal, plan the activities for the day, and just relax enjoying the sun and the waves.  I started every day like that.  On Tuesday we went to Old San Juan and toured the old forts built by the Spanish.  That was really interesting as they are hundreds of years old.  We wandered through Old San Juan and enjoyed the architecture and the super bright colors of the buildings.  Thankfully the city was not super busy.  It was a week day and the incoming cruise ship hadn't docked yet.  We stopped for lunch at Pirilo which is a rustic pizza place.  The starter for the pizza dough is 300 years old!!!!

Wednesday was definitely an adventure day. First we went to a farmers market and stopped at several fruit stands on the side of the road.  We stocked up on delicious fruit - mini pineapple, regular pineapple, avocado, champagne mangoes, mini bananas, and mandarins.  Then we continued west to Camuy where we visited one of the largest cave systems in the world.  This cave was carved by a river and was almost 200 feet tall and quite wide.  We took a guided tour through the cave.  Then we went to the Aricebo Observatory which is home to a ginormous radio telescope.  You may recognize this from the movies Contact and Goldeneye.  Very cool to be so up close and personal.  Then we happened upon this beautiful waterfall.  If we didn't have such a long car ride home, I would have jumped in and enjoyed a swim.   Last we happened upon another cave in one of the national forests.  We had about an hour until it got dark but decided to venture into the woods in search of this cave.  We basically did a trail run for 30 minutes until we found it, explored for 10 minutes, and ran back out.  Thankfully without any mishaps.  Not quite before the sun set though :P  When we got back to San Juan, we ate at Casa Lola near our hotel.  Holy amazing mofongo (mashed plantains) and bread pudding.  We also had amazing BBQ pork and beef brisket.  We went back to this restaurant several times as it amazing Puerto Rican food.

Here we are the Cave Park in Camuy.  So cool how ginormous this thing was.  

Here is the Aricebo Observatory.  They actually used the telescope when we were there so we got to see it move around and get positioned!  

This is part of our haul from the fruit stands and farmers market.  Our favorite were definitely the pineapples.

Thursday was finally a beach day.  We went to the Luquillo beach and I got to enjoy a pina colada.  There are also a bunch of food kiosks there that were open, thankfully.  We stopped at the Luquillo Beach BBQ and enjoyed some epic ribs, pork stuffed arepas, and local beers.  Magna was our favorite.  We just had a relaxing morning and afternoon. I also got to drink from a coconut!  This is one of my favorite things to do on vacation.  Love me some coconut water fresh from the coconut.  Then we went back to San Juan and toured the Bacardi Rum distillery.  They give you a pint glass, cocktail, and shot as part of the tour.  That was really fun and a very impressive facility.

Here we are at the Bacardi Rum distillery tour.  

Friday we hiked to the top of the national rain forest El Yunque.  It was a long uphill hike to the summit, but so worth it.  When we got to the top, we were standing in a cloud.  It wasn't raining or even super misty, just super windy!!  Thankfully the cloud cleared and we were able to see the amazing views.  We could see the ocean in every direction except south.  We could see other islands in the distance.  Just breath-taking views.  The hike through the forest was really cool as well.  So very lush and green.  We also hiked to a waterfall and saw other great views along the way.  We also stopped at the food kiosks on the side of the road enjoyed another coconut and pinchos (meat shish kabobs).

This is part of the rainforest path that we walked (the flat part!).  

 Here we are at the summit of El Yunque National Rainforest.  In a cloud!

Thankfully the cloud moved away so we could see the stunning views from 4000 feet up!

Here is La Coca Falls.  Thankfully this one was right off the side of the road and didn't require further hiking.

Here is La Mina Falls.  This one did require a 60 minute round trip hike to see.

Saturday was a lazy day at the beach.  We just stayed at our hotel and laid out all day.  We enjoyed swimming in the beach and just not doing anything.  Then in the evening we drove to Fajardo for a kayak tour to the bio luminescent bay.  The bio luminescent bay is one of the few in the world.  The dino flagellite plankton release photons when they are touched.  In other words, when you touch the water, it glows!!  We left with a group of other kayakers around 6:45 pm after it had gotten dark.  We kayaked across the bay, through a mangrove channel, and into a lagoon.  It was seriously the coolest thing.  It was so dark that all you could see was the blue glow stick attached to the kayaks.  It was just a neat experience that we hadn't done before.  Then we got to the lagoon where the real treat was waiting for us.  We could see the plankton glow when we touched it with our hands, when we swished the paddle through the water, and when the kayak glided through the water.  Not only that, but we could see the fish light up as they swam through the water.  Some were even jumping out of the water!  It was just really cool.  So different than anything we had ever experienced.  After the kayak trip, we ate more pinchos at Los Croabas park which was right on the bay.  Then we went to La Estacion for some BBQ ribs, fried plantains, cocktails, and an epic slice of key lime pie. 

Here is the string of hotels next to ours.  Our beach was about 1/4 mile long.  

The hubby swimming in the ocean.  The surf was pretty high on the north side where we were staying.

On Sunday we took a yacht to the island of Culebra.  It was about a 40 minute ride from PR and the weather was GORGEOUS.  We snorkeled in two bays off the coast of Culebra.  We got to see sea turtles, sting rays, fish, and reef.  Then we went ashore at Cubrelita Beach to just hang out and soak up the rays.  Powdery white sand, sparkling turquoise water.  It was probably the highlight of my trip.  Great way to end a wonderful vacation.  We had never snorkeled before so that was just a really sweet surprise that we liked it so much.

Here we are on top of the huge boat

I LOVED jumping off the boat.  Especially the top deck.

Our first time snorkeling!

Sea Turtles!!!!

In sum, it was a great trip.  The island is definitely big enough that we didn't have time to do everything that interested us.  We'll definitely have to go back at some point.  We always like to use the Fodor's guide books for the Caribbean islands.  That is a great guide to the best beaches, activities, and of course, restaurants.  If you like exploring, I HIGHLY recommend PR.  If you are looking for more of a cheap, relaxing vacation, I'd just recommend St. Maarten or Aruba.