Puerto Rico

Day 1:

As a ship we got very lucky that in the morning before getting off the boat the governor of Puerto Rico came on board to speak to us. He was very eloquent and funny and highlighted the pride of the Puerto Rican people and his belief that Puerto Rico was best served by staying a Commonwealth. There was a lot of local media on board for this event we had reporters also from Telemundo and Univision so maybe we made it on TV. I guess last year they could not get the governor to show up but this year we have some leverage. How are you going to turn down seeing Tutu.

The first day Greg and I had decided to visit old San Juan. On the way off the boat we met a kid named Kyle who was waiting for some people to go into town. We were planning on going in one big group but I guess the other group got confused and Kyle got left behind. We took him under our wings. We walked along the wall of San Juan trying to make it ot El Morro. We spent some time in El Morro which was pretty much a bigger version of most forts I have seen. The best thing about it was the view you got of both the ocean and Old San Juan. By this time we were starving and wanted to try and get some traditional Puerto Rican food. We walked around old San Juan and met up with another group of SASer's. This old lady who spoke English on the street helped us out finding a restaurant to eat at called Barrachina. This is when I had a moment of Déjà vu. I had been to Puerto Rico once before for a day and I kept telling everyone about the fact that the Pina Colada was invented in the city. As we entered the restaurant I was like this seems very familiar and Greg pointed out that this was that place. I grabbed some free samples and sat down for lunch. This is where we had the best meal of the trip Pollo Mofongo and a Medalla beer. This was not only a filling meal but tasted unbelievable. And then suddenly things got strange. The same lady who told us to go to this restaurant showed up there and started talking to us and making sure the meal was great. Obviously she was getting a cut or something to bring us there, we all felt so used.

After the meal we spent some more time walking around Old San Juan before returning to the boat. The only other thing that really happened was a group of us wanted to find a local place to hang out at night and kept asking the taxi driver to take us to a local salsa place or something. Instead we got brought to Senor Frogs which was full of SASer's (not quite what we wanted) we were looking for some local flavor. Greg and I only stayed for a little before returning to the boat and passing out.

Day 2:

The previous day Kyle, Greg, Laura (friend of Greg and Kyle's) and I met to go to the beach and try and surf. Kyle knew how to surf a little bit and we were all excited to give it a try. We had heard that good beach for surfing was Ocean Park just east of Old San Juan. We got there and found out that the place to rent surf boards was a 15 minute walk away from the beach so we walked out there to pick up the boards and then head back to the beach. We walked along the beach looking for waves that would be suitable for surfing and we kept walking saying things like oh they are too small here or too close to the shore. We finally picked a place and decided yea lets run out there and give this a shot. WAVES ARE BIGGER THEN THEY APPEAR FROM SHORE. We got our butts handed to us by the ocean. We tried for like 15 minutes just to make it out to the break and we were getting hit by 8-10 foot waves and to make it worse the waves came one after another so as soon as you recovered you were pummeled again. At one point I thought I was doing well and almost out there and then I turned around after a big wave and noticed I was only 3 feet from shore. I was only able to make it out to the break once and wasn't able to make it up on the board but I was happy just to make it past those knockout waves. I couldn't imagine how they do it in Hawaii.

We made it back to the boat in time to stop by McDonalds which had free internet and then grab dinner on the boat. That night I had my trip to biobay which is one of the 6 bioluminescent bays in the world (2 are in the process of being destroyed because they are very fragile ecologically). One of the highlights was when the tour guide came on the bus and was asking questions and someone responded in spanish to him. His only answer was "your killing my language". The guide was hilarious and made the prep work a lot less annoying. We took a two person ocean kayak out into the bay. We went through a narrow Mangrove channel to make it into the bay. We went in a single file line to the bay where the guide explained a little bit more about the fragile ecosystem. Now imagine a .25 mile wide bay devoid of lights and other people with a sky full of stars, now imagine jumping into this dark area and swimming in it, finally add to this an amazing blue light that follows your every movement and you have biobay. After swimming in the waters for a little bit we made our way back to the harbor and I headed back to the boat to pass out.

Day 3:

Greg and I had been planning to go to the rainforest indy but after talking to locals we found that transportation was inconsistent and we didn't want to risk not making it back to the ship on time. We placed our hopes on joining up with a semester at sea group that was going to the rainforest. We made it on the trip and headed into the rainforest. The walk through the rain forest was really relaxing and was like a spa. The oxygen level and moisture in the air cleaned out your skin and made you feel refreshed. The rain forest doesn't have much in terms of animals but had lots of great vegetation. The highlight of the trek was being able to swim in La Mina falls. The water was so clean that you could smell the freshness. All of us jumped in, it was cold but amazing. We just sat on the rocks and let the water fall on top of us. Kyle showed me that there was this crevice underneath everyone that you could swim through and come out the other end. So I followed him 8 feet deep and underneath everyone through this beautiful water it was amazing.

Our tour next took us to a great restaurant called "El Dajao" that had a buffet line of food set up for us. The food was incredible and I couldn't tell if it was because we were starving from walking or cause it was really that good. The meal consisted of rice, beans, chicken that was falling off the bone, and sweet plantains. After that we found our way to Luqiullo beach. The island of Puerto Rico has 365 beaches but only 7 of them are blue flag beaches which are top of the line this was one of them. The water was like a bath tub, the sand felt like silk, and in the background we had the rainforest. We all swam around and even used the sand to create a sort of mud bath. This was probably the best day I had at sea. Greg and I finally made it back to the ship and headed into old San Juan to finish some last minute chores and we took the chance to get some Coldstone which will probably be our last taste of that until we make it back home. I ended the night on a great note by talking to all of my family and my Natalie as the ship left Puerto Rico. This was a great start to an already amazing voyage.