Puerto Rico - July 29th - Last day of Vacation (San Juan, PR)

Last day of vacation...very sad. Since today was mostly a travel day, I decided to just include some random pictures from our trip. We had a great trip but we were both ready to get home.


Our rental car...Mike thought that there were gerbils running on a treadmill to provide the power. This little car got us to and from everywhere.



We saw signs like this all over Puerto Rico. It warned of areas we were entering or exiting that we in Tsunami zones.



This picture was taken from the beach in Aguada, just a block from the house we were staying at.




These 2 pictures are views from the house after an evening storm.



Mike took pictures of these "friends" that were all around the house. They took care of eating all the bugs outside so we didn't have any inside. I am at awe at their colors and how easily they blended into the foliage.


Lonely lizard all by himself...







I took these pictures because some of the streets in Puerto Rico reminded me of the streets in Taiwan. They were very narrow and there was always a traffic jam going to and from our house.



A picture of the flower that Mike picked for me after one of our many afternoon storms!



When were were in San Juan, we walked by a Fine Arts School. I thought there was construction work going on at the school until I walked closer and realized that the students were actually working and sculpting. Very cool!!

Puerto Rico - July 28th - Day 6 of Vacation (San Juan, PR)

We decided to leave Aguada today to visit Old San Juan. We packed up our things in the morning and headed out to a more "touristy" part of Puerto Rico. I was very excited about the shopping I could do and visiting the Coach store in Old San Juan.





Before leaving though, we headed back to Crash Boat beach because both Mike and I wanted to get some sand from the beach. We were able to take some more pictures when we went back since it was our favorite beach while we were on vacation.





We arrived in Old San Juan around 1:30. I was starving so the first place we went was to find some lunch. We walked to a restaurant called Restaurante Airenumo. Mike ordered Spanish Chorizo in red wine and Tostones with Green sauce from their Tapas menu. He didn't know what "tostones" was until it came out and figured out that it was just chicken. I ordered their famous Asopas with Shrimp. There was rice, green peppers, and giant shrimp in a delicious, spicy broth. It was our best meal on vacation. We want to find the recipe for the soup, as well as their famous rice and beans.



After lunch, we walked around Old San Juan and visited the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was a national historic site in San Juan. It was an old fort that protected the city and the harbor. Afterwards, we did some shopping at the Coach store and Mike bought me a Coach purse. (Vacation complete!!) We then visited a restaurant called Barrachina. It was the birthplace of the Pina Colada since 1963. We both ordered a drink and it was magnificient! Very, very yummy! While we were at the restaurant, we were able to get a room at the Sheraton San Juan Resort and Casino for a very good rate. We checked into the hotel and freshened up for dinner. We took a taxi back to Old San Juan to Antonella's Pizzeria. They had giant slices of pizza and they were very delicious. We walked around some more after dinner and then took a taxi back to the hotel.

Puerto Rico - July 27th - Day 5 of Vacation (Aguadilla)

Crash Boat Beach here we come....



It was a 20 minute drive to the beach. Mike had read in a magazine that Crash Boat was one of the Top 10 beaches to visit in the Caribbean. When we researched it on the internet, we read that it was one of the beaches that has the clearest blue water and the whitest sand. We were very excited about visiting the beach. We arrived around 9:15 in the morning and found the perfect spot on the beach. I was very surprised to see that the beach was already as crowded as it was. The beach continued to fill up with lots of people in a very short amount of time. The water was exactly as it was described. It was absolutely beautiful. We stayed at the beach for about 3 hours. I had left my snorkel and mask back at the house but Mike remembered his so he went out in the water and snorkled for about 45 minutes. We would have gone back to get my gear but we were afraid that when we got back, we wouldn't be able to find a parking space. It's almost hard to describe how crazy packed it was. The water started to fill with lots of people that all you could see when you looked out into the water were tiny black dots. It was even difficult for me to spot Mike when he was out snorkeling. I hate to admit it, but I got a little nervous sitting there all by myself surrounded by tons and tons of people.









We left Crashboat around 1:00 in the afternoon. The skies were beginning to look dark and a little bit scary again so we ended up leaving the beach. Mike had me take pictures of the sky as we headed back home because it was so dark. The pictures don't really show how dark it was but I don't believe that I've ever been in skies like these. It was very scary but all it brought was heavy rain.









We were basically "trapped" in the house the rest of the afternoon and evening because the rain was so heavy. Mike called it a monsoon because it came down so hard and for so long. He ended up reading his Einstein book on the patio in the rain while I stayed inside and watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. (I knew bringing some movies would come in handy!)

Puerto Rico - July 26th - Day 4 of Vacation (Aguada)

Today turned out to be a rather adventurous day...We started off the day with a good breakfast before we decided to head out to a rainforest, El Bosque Estatal de Maricao.

(Mike's Blog notes: - We drove south for about an hour to the town of Mayaguez where we were looking for the Ruta Panaramico. This was a route on our map that was described as a "tourist drive." We started the drive up the moutain that twisted back and forth and dropped into hills and valleys. We ascended for what felt like an hour, steadily climbing. The further from Mayaguez that we progressed, the fewer people we saw...until we were alone on the mountain. The roads consisted of blind curves, blind hills, and extremely narrow rights of way. I've never been more scared driving anywhere. We refueled in the town of Maracao, the center of coffee production in Puerto Rico and quickly found a way off the mountain, which took another hour of harrowing driving experiences. When we reached the bottom of the mountaing, Betty opened her eyes again).

We stumbled upon this place on our drive through the rainforest. It was called La Torre de Piedra. I would tell you more about this place, but everything on the information board for this place was written in Spanish. As soon as I get it translated, I will let you know what this place was used for.







Mike decided that he would climb up to the top of the tower for a picture.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening indoors as the storms kept us from doing anything outside. Mike grilled steaks and potatoes for us for dinner and we watched Blindside on the laptop for our evening entertainment.

Puerto Rico - July 25th - Day 3 of Vacation

Our day started with a "healthy" breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon. Right after breakfast, we packed up our beach bags and headed to the beach again. This time, we were going to Playa Crashboat. We had read that it was a very popular beach with wind sand and clear blue waters. It was also very popular with surfers and had been labeled one of the 10 best beaches in the Carribean. When we got to the beach, we found a nice area to lay our things down and started to relax. However, after taking a short walk along the seawall, we realized that we were actually at Playa El Canto de Las Piedras. Crashboat Beach was actually further north from where we were. The beach was nice and the water was cool so we decided to stay at that particular beach for a couple of hours. Afterwards, we wanted to try and find Crashboat beach so we packed up our things and headed up north.













Upon getting closer to the beach, we noticed a long line of cars trying to turn left into a street. We waited patienly until we came up to a policeman. He kindly informed us that the beach was closed because there were no more parking spaces available. We didn't find out until later that day, it was actually a Puerto Rican holiday. In fact, I had made a comment to Mike about whether or not Puerto Ricans worked on Mondays because everyone was at the beach.







While we were heading home, we drove through a loop in Parque de Colon, where local vendors were selling various items right along the street. Trafffic was backed up because people were actually in their cars, buying things such as fruits, nuts, drinks, etc. I was amazed at the number of people that were out enjoying the day with their families. I even made a comment to Mike about how envious I was that the people just took the day off to enjoy some time with friends and families.

We had a late lunch of leftovers after getting home from the beach. I went to take a nap while Mike read his Einstein book outside on the patio. We played Phase 10 for about an hour and a half (and yes, Mike beat me this time), before I began feeling dizzy and naseous. Mike seemed to think that it was from the ice that he made from the faucet water. He had read that people with sensitive stomachs could experience some unpleasant symptoms if they drank the water. Unfortunately, the rest of the evening was not very pleasant.

Puerto Rico - July 24th - Day 2 of Vacation

"YOR-VIT," "YOR-VIT," "YOR-VIT..." This is what we heard throughout the night last night. The evening birds of Puerto Rico called out, what I believe, to be the name of our Texas Ranger's catcher, Yorvit Torrealba. You can only hear them in the evenings , which I thought was pretty interesting. I kept hearing myself say to the birds, he's back in Texas, not stop making all that noise....

We woke up this morning to bright blue skies! I was a bit nervous about the weather today because of the dark clouds we saw last night and the amount of rain we were getting throughout the evening. The first thing we did was head to the local grocery store to buy some groceries and snacks for the week. We didn't think about the fact that it was a Sunday so when we arrived at the grocery store, we saw that they did not open until 11:00. We decided to go back to the house and just hang out until the stores opened.

The first thing Mike did when we got back to the house was go to the backyard to see the coconut tree. He wanted to see if he could actually get one down and open it up. He found a large machete in the backyard and stepped onto a bucket so he could reach the coconuts. He was able to get one down and spent the next 15 minutes cutting/tearing it apart to get to the center. It was very difficult to get through the layers and layers of fibers that protected the coconut itself. As you can see from the pictures, he had to work off numerous layers of that stuff before he was able to get to the coconut. When he finally got there, he was able to get a crack in the coconut and drink the coconut milk. I tasted it and it didn't taste like anything to me except water.

When it was 11:00, we headed back to the grocery store. There were two different grocery stores in town and it was amazing the lines that had already formed outside both stores. It was obvious that many people were ready to do their Sunday grocery shopping. We got some steak and chicken to grill the rest of the week, some drinks and we were headed back home shortly afterwards.











Next on our day's agenda was the beach. We packed our bags and headed for Aguada Beach. We only had to drive 5 minutes to Playa Pico de Piedra. The beach was packed full of locals. I was surprised that there were so many people on the beach. We could also see in the distance that the clouds were about to bring in some storms. We hung out as long as we could before we saw lightning and decided to seek some shelter. We sat in the car for about 30 minutes hoping the storm would pass but the sky never seemed to clear so we decided to head back home and play some card games.

After beating Mike in a game of Phase 10, we headed out to the town of Rincon. It was about 6-7 miles from the house. We ate at a restaurant called Harbor Restaurant. They had awesome pina coladas!!! We had fried calamari for appetizers and then waited for our main course. Mike ordered scallops in garlic sauce and I ordered linguine with shrimp. We watched a band set up outside the restaurant as we waited for our meal. When the waitress arrived with our food, she mentioned that because we had waited so long, she would not charge us for the appetizer. Not only did she comp our appetizer, she did not charge us for our 2nd yummy pina coladas and she took 1/2 off our first pina coladas. Again, I had plenty of food to take home for leftovers.