The best Birthday I've ever had and a once in a lifetime experience
Sorry for those of you who are friends of both Ryan and I, our posts may turn out identically. As always, these long posts are mostly for me. My apologies on spelling and grammar, my head is still reeling after this week.
Puerto Rico was an absolutely fantastic trip, and by far one of the best Birthdays I've ever had. We've both decided to come back and visit as often as possible, neither of us have run out of good things to say about the island.. It even went as far as the two of us agreeing to learn Spanish, in anticipation of a future trip.
The flight going down there wasn't too bad, although by the time we got there, I was absolutely pooped. We sat in the jacuzzi for a while and talked with other guests of the hotel. We stayed at the Embassy Suites--it was literally 5 minutes from the airport which worked out fantastically. The hotel itself was quite impressive. The lobby incorporated the tropical flair of the island and offered ample space for a large eating area, Outback Steakhouse and the casino. It also had several conference rooms for seminars and business meetings. (What a shame for whoever gets stuck going to a meeting there--how hard it must be to stay there :) ). There was one thing that bugged me--they had speakers throughout the exterior of the hotel that played "rainforest sounds". Basically it was a recording of Coqui--which is essentially their state bird. The frogs bellow a higher pitched sound which is their namesake. It bugged me as the night progressed and became funnier and funnier to Ryan and I--and became the biggest in-joke of the whole trip.
Overall I give the hotel an A-. We had an issue the first day we were there--we booked a smoking room, however got there and were booked for a non smoking. Unfortunately they had no available smoking rooms that night. We smoked anyway (of course), and although it really sucked, I blame expedia.com more than I blame the hotel. It was fixed the next day, however not without embarrassment. We were given a room the following afternoon, carried all of our bags up to the door...opened it with the key card, only to be halted by an interior lock. We freaked the hell out of the guy who came out shortly after we tried to "break in". As it turns out there was a gentleman by the same last name as Ryan, and named Brian. The mix up was quickly resolved, and despite losing our fantastic view, we were "allowed" to smoke in lucky room 333. Unfortunately we had toilet issues in the new room (which is why Ryan's rating will be lower), but I was mostly unaffected by it.
The first day we visited the beach. It was a 5 minute walk. Despite my initial beliefs, we did not actually stay in San Juan. We really stayed in a town just outside called Carolina (pronounced Caroleena). The local beach was Isla Verda.
After the beach, we just tooled around Carolina and poked around in the tourist gift shops. The entire day I was complaining about going to the casino..."They're nothing but money pits...I don't feel like losing 30 bucks in 10 minutes...No one ever wins money at casinos". Of course, just to prove me wrong, I win around $75 on the slots, $90 on the BlackJack table and $300 on a raffle--all of this for $30 total. Of course Ryan rubbed it in the whole time :) But really, I was the one who got to rub it in.
The next day was one I will absolutely never forget. We visited the local rainforest, El Yunque. To start the fantastic trip, we had an awesome tour guide--Rupert. His broken English and joking personality really made our visit to the forest one of a kind. He took us the long way and showed us the local towns, along with a bit of history. i learned more about Puerto Rico than I thought I ever would--most of their money is generated through Pharmaceutical drugs, which although I did not know, I'm not surprised...especially with the medical benefits of the rainforest itself. We toured through what Rupert called the poor area, however the surrounding areas of Philadelphia looked more impoverished than where we were. We also stopped by an abandoned factory that used to be the headquarters for rainforest research. We spent about 10 minutes in the busy city, then the rest of the car ride was mostly country.
As it turned out, there was a girl on the bus who's birthday was the same as mine, another who's was last week, and another who's was the following week. We ended up getting a pretty good tour group, the atmosphere was jovial and ended up adding to the trip.
The first stop inside the rainforest was a visitors center. Rupert told us many interesting things--Disney apparently tried buying property around the rainforest and building Latin Disney. Fortunately the parks department does a wonderful job of taking care of the surrounding area and put a halt to this before they could say another word. it was sad that you could see the pollution from cars collecting on the tops of leaves...they're pushing an initiative now to construct trolleys in the forest, avoiding the constant flow of traffic.
The next stop was to show us an every day flower with magical powers. I'm not sure if you can do it with the locally grown ones, but our tour guide took Impatients and Morning Glories and held a lit cigarette up to it---they magically changed colors...it was quite impressive
While we were stopped there, we saw Coco Falls
We also saw a little caterpillar...one of the few members of wildlife we saw the whole trip along with lizards and a walking stick.
The next place we stopped was the Yokahu Tower. It offered one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. In the far distance you can see St. Thomas. On a good, clear day I can only imagine how much more impressive it must look. In one of the pictures, you can make out a mountain, that when viewed from the right angle, makes a face.
The next journey was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. We took the La Mina trail all the way to La Mina Falls, then took Big Tree trail back. All in all the trails took an hour total to voyage...and let me tell you, it was no easy feat. The trail itself was as narrow as the width of my shoulder blades...taking steep inclines and even steeper declines. It was 100% worth it though, we were able to venture out through the slippery rocks and swim near the waterfall. If you were brave enough, you could stand under the waterfall itself, however most didn't make it that far. Despite the high 80's temperatures, the rainforest is much cooler...the water was cold as balls! They don't call it the rainforest for nothing though, there was ample water running through the forest down the trees and the plants were soaked. The one thing I noticed throughout the whole trip was there was graffiti all over the island, which was pretty sad, but this is human beings we're talking about. The picture of me and the black girl in the water is the one who shared my Birthday. In this particular shot, she had just slipped and grabbed onto my ass for stability. Here we are laughing about it LOL
On the way out from the forest, we stopped at a local "shack in the forest" as I liked to call it. It was a family run restaurant/gift shop. We ate mashed plantains with beef, rice and beans and the strongest/grossest Pina Colada I've ever had the misery of drinking. They had a dog named Looney on the top of the store...a while back they let her roam free on the roof, however one day she jumped and broke a tourists' windshield, needless to say shes tethered down now. They sang Happy Birthday to all the girls in both Spanish and English and let us try their local moonshine. As you can see from this sign here, broken English was almost the primary language. The use of apostrophes (our tour guide's business card was "Ruperts Tour's"). The misuse of your/you're was also everywhere. Our tour guide even used Chloroform instead of Chlorophyll when talking about the plants. It was cute :)
That night we went to a local restaurant and walked Isla Verda a little more. The next day was Old San Juan and El Morro. It rained on us a little bit walking through El Morro, but we still had an awesome time and got a lot of great pics. The far off island was a former Leper Colony run by the church. The fort was built around 1600 and remodeled several times over damage from wars.
After El Morro, we toured Old San Juan. It reminded me a lot of New Hope, PA and St. Augustine, FL. A very old city with a lot of history and tons of culture. We poked in and out of the local shops, collecting souvenirs along the way. We stopped at a park called Pigeon Park for obvious reasons. Ryan walked around the park, however I was too grossed out over the flying rats to get close. I was recommended by someone here in PA to an art exhibit called the Butterfly People. These people are given butterflies from around the world by different breeders. They use these butterflies in boxed displays of art. It was a sight to behold. I would have loved to have taken one home, but the cheaper ones ran you $75. I'll definitely be back one day with cash. The colors of the houses themselves were amazing, as were the individual doorways. Apparently that's a popular souvenir--various doorways of Old San Juan. The statues in the town were fairly new, however I fell in love with most of them. We didn't spend as much time in the city as either of us would have liked, but we had to get back to the hotel for the awesome (much needed) massage and Bio Bay tour. What was cute and charming were the stray, friendly cats everywhere :)
The last and mostly final adventure was the Bioluminescent Bay in Fajardo. Unfortunately bringing a camera that wasn't waterproof would have been treacherous, however the bacteria worked so quickly you would need a high speed camera to catch what was going on anyway. We kayaked through a narrow, pitch black canal for about twenty minutes before we ended in a large lagoon. The stars that night were absolutely amazing, I have never seen so many, so clearly ever in my life. The bacteria basically reacts defensively any time it gets irritated, emitting a firefly like glow in the water. It started almost immediately entering the canal with the kayak oars, and got brighter and brighter as it got darker. The coolest was sticking your hand in and watching the light bead off your arm. It was definitely scary though, you couldn't see more than an inch in front of your face---being inexperienced kayakers, when it got narrow, we crashed into a few trees along the way. A few things were knocked into the kayak from the tree---a few that moved :/. According to Ryan and the tour guide, there was a large dead iguana floating, lit in the bay. Thankfully I missed that. I was able to get a few snapshots of the sunset over the bay. The water was a foot to three feet deep. There were stray dogs everywhere, even sleeping in the middle of the road. One walked to the island just a few hundred yards away.
The last day was mostly packing and getting ready to leave for Texas, sadly We walked to the beach one last time, collecting sand and enjoying a rainbow over the ocean from the early morning rain. We saw a dog walking on the beach that looked like Max.
The plane ride back was icing on the cake. We were able to see the crystal clear waters surrounding the islands of the Bahamas and the Florida Keys.
All in all the trip was absolutely fantastic. Save for a few minor inconveniences, it was almost perfect. Fortunately, Puerto Rico was Americanized enough, but not over done. It was definitely the best Birthday I have ever had and I will return in the near future for sure. I would recommend it to anyone trying to get away without a passport, reasonably cheap. The island also offers an "at home feel" and is certainly welcoming of tourists. The rich culture and fabulous weather makes it an awesome place to visit---again I can't say enough.
The week was topped off by Ryan getting a great, much needed new car. I am both excited and happy for him. We also had dinner with beeooll at an awesome Mexican Restaurant. The food was great and the company was better. It's wonderful meeting the members of the community I've belonged to for over a year now. All in all, this was the best week I think I have ever had. What a wonderful way to start of the New Year!
Suprisingly these aren't even half the images we took. I think we're at around 450 combined pics and just under 2 hours of video---clips to come later. For all the pics I took... s517.photobucket.com/albums/u338/hurleyman2/Puerto%20Rico/
Puerto Rico was an absolutely fantastic trip, and by far one of the best Birthdays I've ever had. We've both decided to come back and visit as often as possible, neither of us have run out of good things to say about the island.. It even went as far as the two of us agreeing to learn Spanish, in anticipation of a future trip.
The flight going down there wasn't too bad, although by the time we got there, I was absolutely pooped. We sat in the jacuzzi for a while and talked with other guests of the hotel. We stayed at the Embassy Suites--it was literally 5 minutes from the airport which worked out fantastically. The hotel itself was quite impressive. The lobby incorporated the tropical flair of the island and offered ample space for a large eating area, Outback Steakhouse and the casino. It also had several conference rooms for seminars and business meetings. (What a shame for whoever gets stuck going to a meeting there--how hard it must be to stay there :) ). There was one thing that bugged me--they had speakers throughout the exterior of the hotel that played "rainforest sounds". Basically it was a recording of Coqui--which is essentially their state bird. The frogs bellow a higher pitched sound which is their namesake. It bugged me as the night progressed and became funnier and funnier to Ryan and I--and became the biggest in-joke of the whole trip.
Overall I give the hotel an A-. We had an issue the first day we were there--we booked a smoking room, however got there and were booked for a non smoking. Unfortunately they had no available smoking rooms that night. We smoked anyway (of course), and although it really sucked, I blame expedia.com more than I blame the hotel. It was fixed the next day, however not without embarrassment. We were given a room the following afternoon, carried all of our bags up to the door...opened it with the key card, only to be halted by an interior lock. We freaked the hell out of the guy who came out shortly after we tried to "break in". As it turns out there was a gentleman by the same last name as Ryan, and named Brian. The mix up was quickly resolved, and despite losing our fantastic view, we were "allowed" to smoke in lucky room 333. Unfortunately we had toilet issues in the new room (which is why Ryan's rating will be lower), but I was mostly unaffected by it.
The first day we visited the beach. It was a 5 minute walk. Despite my initial beliefs, we did not actually stay in San Juan. We really stayed in a town just outside called Carolina (pronounced Caroleena). The local beach was Isla Verda.
After the beach, we just tooled around Carolina and poked around in the tourist gift shops. The entire day I was complaining about going to the casino..."They're nothing but money pits...I don't feel like losing 30 bucks in 10 minutes...No one ever wins money at casinos". Of course, just to prove me wrong, I win around $75 on the slots, $90 on the BlackJack table and $300 on a raffle--all of this for $30 total. Of course Ryan rubbed it in the whole time :) But really, I was the one who got to rub it in.
The next day was one I will absolutely never forget. We visited the local rainforest, El Yunque. To start the fantastic trip, we had an awesome tour guide--Rupert. His broken English and joking personality really made our visit to the forest one of a kind. He took us the long way and showed us the local towns, along with a bit of history. i learned more about Puerto Rico than I thought I ever would--most of their money is generated through Pharmaceutical drugs, which although I did not know, I'm not surprised...especially with the medical benefits of the rainforest itself. We toured through what Rupert called the poor area, however the surrounding areas of Philadelphia looked more impoverished than where we were. We also stopped by an abandoned factory that used to be the headquarters for rainforest research. We spent about 10 minutes in the busy city, then the rest of the car ride was mostly country.
As it turned out, there was a girl on the bus who's birthday was the same as mine, another who's was last week, and another who's was the following week. We ended up getting a pretty good tour group, the atmosphere was jovial and ended up adding to the trip.
The first stop inside the rainforest was a visitors center. Rupert told us many interesting things--Disney apparently tried buying property around the rainforest and building Latin Disney. Fortunately the parks department does a wonderful job of taking care of the surrounding area and put a halt to this before they could say another word. it was sad that you could see the pollution from cars collecting on the tops of leaves...they're pushing an initiative now to construct trolleys in the forest, avoiding the constant flow of traffic.
The next stop was to show us an every day flower with magical powers. I'm not sure if you can do it with the locally grown ones, but our tour guide took Impatients and Morning Glories and held a lit cigarette up to it---they magically changed colors...it was quite impressive
While we were stopped there, we saw Coco Falls
We also saw a little caterpillar...one of the few members of wildlife we saw the whole trip along with lizards and a walking stick.
The next place we stopped was the Yokahu Tower. It offered one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. In the far distance you can see St. Thomas. On a good, clear day I can only imagine how much more impressive it must look. In one of the pictures, you can make out a mountain, that when viewed from the right angle, makes a face.
The next journey was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. We took the La Mina trail all the way to La Mina Falls, then took Big Tree trail back. All in all the trails took an hour total to voyage...and let me tell you, it was no easy feat. The trail itself was as narrow as the width of my shoulder blades...taking steep inclines and even steeper declines. It was 100% worth it though, we were able to venture out through the slippery rocks and swim near the waterfall. If you were brave enough, you could stand under the waterfall itself, however most didn't make it that far. Despite the high 80's temperatures, the rainforest is much cooler...the water was cold as balls! They don't call it the rainforest for nothing though, there was ample water running through the forest down the trees and the plants were soaked. The one thing I noticed throughout the whole trip was there was graffiti all over the island, which was pretty sad, but this is human beings we're talking about. The picture of me and the black girl in the water is the one who shared my Birthday. In this particular shot, she had just slipped and grabbed onto my ass for stability. Here we are laughing about it LOL
On the way out from the forest, we stopped at a local "shack in the forest" as I liked to call it. It was a family run restaurant/gift shop. We ate mashed plantains with beef, rice and beans and the strongest/grossest Pina Colada I've ever had the misery of drinking. They had a dog named Looney on the top of the store...a while back they let her roam free on the roof, however one day she jumped and broke a tourists' windshield, needless to say shes tethered down now. They sang Happy Birthday to all the girls in both Spanish and English and let us try their local moonshine. As you can see from this sign here, broken English was almost the primary language. The use of apostrophes (our tour guide's business card was "Ruperts Tour's"). The misuse of your/you're was also everywhere. Our tour guide even used Chloroform instead of Chlorophyll when talking about the plants. It was cute :)
That night we went to a local restaurant and walked Isla Verda a little more. The next day was Old San Juan and El Morro. It rained on us a little bit walking through El Morro, but we still had an awesome time and got a lot of great pics. The far off island was a former Leper Colony run by the church. The fort was built around 1600 and remodeled several times over damage from wars.
After El Morro, we toured Old San Juan. It reminded me a lot of New Hope, PA and St. Augustine, FL. A very old city with a lot of history and tons of culture. We poked in and out of the local shops, collecting souvenirs along the way. We stopped at a park called Pigeon Park for obvious reasons. Ryan walked around the park, however I was too grossed out over the flying rats to get close. I was recommended by someone here in PA to an art exhibit called the Butterfly People. These people are given butterflies from around the world by different breeders. They use these butterflies in boxed displays of art. It was a sight to behold. I would have loved to have taken one home, but the cheaper ones ran you $75. I'll definitely be back one day with cash. The colors of the houses themselves were amazing, as were the individual doorways. Apparently that's a popular souvenir--various doorways of Old San Juan. The statues in the town were fairly new, however I fell in love with most of them. We didn't spend as much time in the city as either of us would have liked, but we had to get back to the hotel for the awesome (much needed) massage and Bio Bay tour. What was cute and charming were the stray, friendly cats everywhere :)
The last and mostly final adventure was the Bioluminescent Bay in Fajardo. Unfortunately bringing a camera that wasn't waterproof would have been treacherous, however the bacteria worked so quickly you would need a high speed camera to catch what was going on anyway. We kayaked through a narrow, pitch black canal for about twenty minutes before we ended in a large lagoon. The stars that night were absolutely amazing, I have never seen so many, so clearly ever in my life. The bacteria basically reacts defensively any time it gets irritated, emitting a firefly like glow in the water. It started almost immediately entering the canal with the kayak oars, and got brighter and brighter as it got darker. The coolest was sticking your hand in and watching the light bead off your arm. It was definitely scary though, you couldn't see more than an inch in front of your face---being inexperienced kayakers, when it got narrow, we crashed into a few trees along the way. A few things were knocked into the kayak from the tree---a few that moved :/. According to Ryan and the tour guide, there was a large dead iguana floating, lit in the bay. Thankfully I missed that. I was able to get a few snapshots of the sunset over the bay. The water was a foot to three feet deep. There were stray dogs everywhere, even sleeping in the middle of the road. One walked to the island just a few hundred yards away.
The last day was mostly packing and getting ready to leave for Texas, sadly We walked to the beach one last time, collecting sand and enjoying a rainbow over the ocean from the early morning rain. We saw a dog walking on the beach that looked like Max.
The plane ride back was icing on the cake. We were able to see the crystal clear waters surrounding the islands of the Bahamas and the Florida Keys.
All in all the trip was absolutely fantastic. Save for a few minor inconveniences, it was almost perfect. Fortunately, Puerto Rico was Americanized enough, but not over done. It was definitely the best Birthday I have ever had and I will return in the near future for sure. I would recommend it to anyone trying to get away without a passport, reasonably cheap. The island also offers an "at home feel" and is certainly welcoming of tourists. The rich culture and fabulous weather makes it an awesome place to visit---again I can't say enough.
The week was topped off by Ryan getting a great, much needed new car. I am both excited and happy for him. We also had dinner with beeooll at an awesome Mexican Restaurant. The food was great and the company was better. It's wonderful meeting the members of the community I've belonged to for over a year now. All in all, this was the best week I think I have ever had. What a wonderful way to start of the New Year!
Suprisingly these aren't even half the images we took. I think we're at around 450 combined pics and just under 2 hours of video---clips to come later. For all the pics I took... s517.photobucket.com/albums/u338/hurleyman2/Puerto%20Rico/