Last Wednesday, Me, Kendall, Lindsey, and Audrey all sadly returned home from what was an incredible trip to
Puerto Rico! It was a vacation full of adventure, relaxation, fun, friends, and FOOD!! Here is a play by play of what we experienced! (Get your coffee ready!)
Wednesday night: Helloooo Puerto Ricooo!!!
After We landed and arrived to our hotel!
We arrived in Puerto Rico around 11 PM. It was drizzling and HUMID! But that did not stop us from grabbing a quick Mojito at the hotel bar and (Moms don't read this) walking down the main street of Isla Verde to find the only open Pizza Shop. We were some hungry girls! We definitely ran into some interesting characters along the way, but were comforted by all of the patrol cars on the streets and even police officers inside the Pizza Shop (there, Moms, feel better now?). We chowed down on Pizza and DC (diet coke...DUH!) and it was glorious.
Thursday: Beach Day!!
We figured today would be a great day to get our "bearings" of
Isla Verde and booked it to the beach (which was only a block away from our hotel). We laid, swam, laid, enjoyed our
Pina Coladas, laid, munched some freshly fried plantains (
YUMMY!!), laid, laid, and laid!!!! It was FABULOUS! The weather in PR was high of 90 and always a breeze. Perfect conditions for passing out on the beach. We had one sided sunburns to prove it!
Thursday night, we ventured to a place called Metropol for dinner. It was an authentic Puerto Rican food restaurant that was incredible! We then went to meet up with one of Lindsey's friends from college who was living in PR. We met him and his friends at this place called La Placita and partied in the street with our fellow Puerto Rican locals.
The crazy street!
Friday: Rainforest and BioBay Kayaking!We enjoyed our free breakfast at the hotel (an everyday occurrence during this trip!) and got picked up by our
Rainforest tour Guide, Carlos! Us Texas girls along with a couple from Maine, a couple from Florida, and a mother and daughter from Missouri all piled in our big white van for a tour of the El
Yunque Rainforest. It was beautiful! Carlos taught us a lot about certain trees, plants, fun facts, etc. There was a time where I felt like I was on an elementary school field trip, but I didn't mind reverting to the 3rd grade for a bit. After an hour long hike through the forest, Carlos took us to this place called Martin's BBQ for some great food! And
booooy did we eat! Carlos made fun of us for ordering so much food (which we didn't really know what we were ordering, anyway, but oh well) and then proceeding to ask for a DIET coke. Sorry, Carlos, we can't curb our addiction! Our running quote for this trip was from our good "Friend", Joey
Tribiani, "You're about to see something
REEEEAAAL special!"
Us in the waterfall.
Lindsey touching the "prickly" tree!
Pretty Flowers
Overlooking the Gorgeous
rainforest!
Kendall and Lindsey enjoying their food and DIET Coke!
The Aftermath...
After our late lunch, we went to the Bioluminescent Bays! We Kayaked through the Mangos and splashed around in the BioBays! It was really neat seeing the water light up when our paddles or hands struck the water. Emanuel, our BioBay Hottie of a tour guide LOVED us! Duh! Us Texas girls are amazing! Who wouldn't love us? He especially liked, Kendall. This was fun to watch! Way to pull in the Latino men, Kendi!
Getting ready for our Kayak through the Bio Bay!
The Powersquad powering up for some Kayaking!
Playing with the Parots after the Kayak!
Saturday: MY QUARTER CENTURY BIRTHDAY!!!
We woke up SUPER early (6 AM) for our paddle boarding tour of the Reef! The girls surprised me with a zebra cake Happy Birthday song...thanks girls! Our guide, Art, picked us up bright and early and we went to meet up with our other guide, Tanya. They were awesome! We paddled over 3 miles! In the middle of the paddle, we made it to the reef where they let us snorkle around for a while and then made us some "refreshments" right there in the middle of the ocean!
Us on our Paddle Boards!
Getting ready to snorkle!
Me and Lindsey
snorkling away!
Bebidas!!
Us with our tour guide, Art!
After our paddle, we ventured back to the hotel pool and laid/napped the rest of the afternoon!
Dinner was at a place in Old San Juan called The Parrot Club. Amazing food is an understatement for this place! After dinner, we went to The
Nuyorican Cafe. We were there a little early. Early enough to catch the
Improv!! In SPANISH! It was pretty interesting, hard to understand, yet you could tell somewhat what was going on through the acting. Afterwards, no time was wasted in getting the Salsa dancing underway!! Complete with the 8,500 member Salsa band! We met some fun Egyptian friends who tried showing us how to salsa. I don't think it was much of a success. I'm pretty sure we ended up teaching them more than they taught us, but we made do! And had a lot of fun!
AMAZIIING FOOD!
Salsa dancing with our new Egyptian Friends! (Notice the 8,500 member band in the back)
Overall, it was an incredible day, and an even more incredible 25th Birthday!
Sunday: Otherwise known as "Cross your Fingers Day!"We decided this would be the day to attempt every mode of transportation in PR to get to our destinations. First was the bus! We waited for, oh, about 45 minutes for the bus to come pick us up and take us to Old San Juan for our lunch at the highly reccommended 'El
Hamburguer'. We made it onto the bus, but we weren't quite sure exactly were to get off, so we "crossed our fingers" got off at a stop we
thought would get us close to where we needed to be, looked around at the very quiet, very deserted part of Old San Juan and realized we may have gotten off a
little to early. Great...
juuust great, right??? But all of a sudden, like little puppies (or fat kids), we all started to recognize a familiar smell....what was that?? HAMBURGERS?! Where?! We literally just turned to our right, walked up a hill while following our noses, and ran right into El
Hamburguer!!! Jesus really wanted us to find that place. We were appalled at our finding and lunch was amazing!
What a pretty picture!
The guy in the background just busted out his guitar and started playing....it was great!
From El Hamburguer, we crossed the street and took a lovely stroll down the oceanfront. Talk about an incredible scenery!! God is good, don't you agree????
After soaking in this beautiful scenery, we finally hailed a cab to the Ferry that took us to the Bacardi Factory! We made it just in time for the last tour, and yes, I bought myself some Rum! The tour around the factory was okay. It would have been MUCH better had there not been a terrible screaming two year old and crazy parents changing their kids' diapers IN the museum (not the bathroom, not outside, but Inside the tour itself!) On that note....Parents, WHY on EARTH would you bring your KID to a place that makes alcohol???!! And please, after you get finished changing your child's diaper full of urine and other excrement, do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT dangle the diaper OPEN while walking out of the museum just to find a trash can....at least wrap the diaper up, conceal it in some sort of fashion and be DISCRETE! Yes, folks. This ACTUALLY happened! So it was a bit of a tour ruiner, but we got free drinks at the end which were much needed at that point! Plus, the bartender was HOT and we all switched to his line just so he could serve us our drinks! ; )
On the Ferry to the Bacardi Factory!
From the distillery, we managed to find a restaurant inside of a bridge! We had gone to the Hilton to ask the concierge where we could find a place with a great patio, and he directed us to one fairly close. We accepted the challenge of finding this place. After all, it was cross your fingers day. We had been very successful up to this point, so why stop now?? We had to walk a bit, but we found the restaurant he had told us about. This place had great scenery and GREAT food!! (Do you see a trend here with us girls and our food??) We watched the sunset as we enjoyed our dinner, and it was marvelous!
The Gorgeous sunset
Monday: BEAUTIFUL VIEQUES!We started our day off by renting a car and driving to
Fajardo. I (yes, ME!) drove, Lindsey navigated while feeding me my bagel and banana breakfast, and Kendall and Audrey sat in the back seat fearing for their lives! We were originally trying to catch the Ferry to
Culebra, but the line was days (literally) long, so we decided to go to
Vieques instead (which we heard was just as beautiful and it really was!!) The Ferry ride was about an hour. Once we got off the Ferry it was absolute mayhem getting a taxi, but we finally fought and piled our way into one of the vans and headed to the breathtaking beach! We laid in the sun, swam in the ocean, took long walks on the beach, enjoyed some more
Pina Coladas, and ate some pizza! Yet another successful day!
Kendi and Audge pretty aggravated at my driving and Lindsey's navigating. HAHA!
Waiting to get onto the Ferry to Vieques!
Beautiful Vieques!
"Toes in the Sand, Couldn't get much hotter!"
"Little umbrella shaped Margarita!" (Or Pina Colada...whatever)
Viva PUERTO RICOOO!!
It was a long, but amazing day! So, after returning our rental, we decided to fast-food it for the night. We decided on Burger King where Lindsey decided to (and these are her words, folks) "charm the pants off the 11 year old boy in Espanol!"....uummmmm....were our thoughts exactly. Story was that a crazy little PR boy (who you just knew was a little trouble maker and spoke zero English) came into BK and Lindsey strummed up a little convo with him in Espanol. He was our friend instantly...and a cutie he was, but it was Lindsey's comment that made it all so.....awkward?! Way to go, Linz.
Tuesday: Rocaliza Tour! Save the best for last!!
Our tour guides, Diego and Marcos picked us up from the hotel and we headed to the rainforest and El Salto River. There, we hiked, climbed, trekked through rivers, repelled down a 90 foot waterfall and ziplined through the rainforest! It was INCREDIBLE! If you ever go to PR, this is a MUST DO adventure! After all of our activities, our guides had made a little arrangement with a sweet family in a village of the rainforest that made us a truly authentic Puerto Rican lunch! Best food of the trip, hands down! It was an amazing day with amazing friends and amazing eye candy (i.e. Marcos)! HA!
Marcos instructed us to stretch beforehand...."Whatever you say, Marcos!"
Us girls with Marcos!
We climbed this rock!
Drinking from the spring!
Me Repelling down the waterfall!
Marcos (loverboy), Me, Audge, Steck, Kendi, Diego
We parted ways with our awesome tour guides, prettied up and headed to our last night out in Old San Juan. We ate at the Dragonfly for some fine sushi! Yet another successful meal. After dinner, we ventured to a few bars in Old San Juan. We
enjoyed a few
bebidas, danced, and soaked in our last night on the town. A perfect ending to the perfect trip!!!
We stopped at a little shop in Old San Juan... JaMakin' me CrAzY MON!
CRAZIES!!!!
Dancing the night away!
All in all, I can honestly say this vacation was IN-CREDIBLE! I have the best friends a girl could ask for! We had a great time and made even more wonderful memories! We fought back tears on the way home to the Big D, but another trip is already in the works!!
YESSSS!!! Look out, World, the "Crazies" may be coming to a city near you!!!
