We made it there and back in one piece. Our plane stayed in the air, we didn't get sick or injured, our car didn't get hit, we didn't get mugged or sunburned, and our daughter did remarkably well without us.
Normally, you come back from a trip and say how fast it went by. I cannot say that about this one. Even though we were only there for two full days and two half days, we crammed a lot into each day which made it seem like we were there for longer than we were. It really felt like we made the most out of the trip.
Here is a brief run-down of what we did:
Monday - arrived in San Juan in the afternoon and checked into the hotel (we referred to it as the hotel, but it was about 9 small rooms on a crowded side street, but it was right on the beach). We hopped a bus to Old San Juan, watched the sunset on an old fort, then ate some fantastic Puerto Rican food.
Tuesday - walked to the art museum in the morning, ate a great lunch at a Mexican place, hiked a trail in the rain forest where there was a waterfall at the end (the rain forest was in the mountains, so it was cool, but still humid). We parked back at the hotel and walked to dinner. We ate at a pizza/Italian bar and it was our only non-outstanding meal. It was okay, but Olive Garden serves better food than what we had.
Wednesday - got up early and drove to the west side of the island to take a tour of the Camuy Caves. That was one of my favorite places that we went. I was hoping to see some bats, but they were sleeping out of sight. We also didn't see any of the cave spiders or crickets.
After the caves, we went south on a very windy mountain road to the city of Ponce. We walked around a little, enjoying the character of the city (this is not a touristy city because it's far from the cruises). We enjoyed the town square and some ice cream.
We then went in search of a beach to relax on. We just picked one on the map hoping it would be the kind of beach you would see on a post card - clear blue water, palm trees, etc. It wasn't stunning in that sense, but it was still beautiful. I was sad to see so many pieces of small trash despite the abundance of trash cans. Unfortunately we had to leave before sunset, because we wanted to get to the Phosphorescent Bay for the 7:30 tour.
The Bay was off of a really small, yet really quaint town. There were a handful of restaurants, bars and stores that were busy with locals and some tourists. We took a short boat ride to the part of the bay that had the micro-organisms which glow when they're disturbed. A lot of people jumped in the water, which caused the glowing (we didn't). It was pretty nifty. After the tour, we ate some more great Puerto Rican food.
Thursday - our intention was to get up and do something fun before we had to be at Enterprise around 1:30. But by the time we slept in and packed up, we really only had time for a leisurely lunch. Once again, we had some great local food while sitting on the deck enjoying the breeze (and the sound of jackhammers from the construction).
That concluded the trip. Since we have recently been to Hawaii (honeymoon), it was hard not to compare, but it was still a beautiful place to visit. We wish we had more time to do some other things, but that will just have to be saved for the next time.
We are so grateful to Grandma & Grandpa B for watching Erin for us. The trip would have been so much different with her (and not as much fun for us). We checked in a few times and she did great overall. They drove her home this afternoon, and when she saw us she had just woken up. She was groggy and just stared at us like, I recognize you...but who are you. After a few minutes she started to smile and seemed very happy to realize we came back for her. Needless to say, we missed her and were very happy to see her.
I have put our photos on Picasa (they can be seen as a slideshow).
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