Day Six: Friday, January 15, 2016 In the afternoon, we headed to Pinones (think that's what it was called?) for a "local's day" near the water. I sat and worked from a restaurant while watching and listening to the waves, and then we had a snack at the Water Front overlooking the wonderful view.
View from the Water Front
I wish I lived in a place where this could happen more often:
Coconut Water
That night, we packed up and got ready to leave to Guatemala - so sad that our trip to Puerto Rico was ending! Diana and I went and got our nails done, and then we had a drink before heading home.
We weren't sure we were ready to say goodbye to David and Diana, and our new friends Mona and Grommit:
Mona
Grommit
As a final hurrah in San Juan, we went to Metropol, an AMAZING Cuban-Puerto Rican restaurant. I had the Ropa Vieja, which was by far the best Ropa Vieja I've ever had... everyone's meals were insanely good. But the craziest part of this story... we're sitting in this restaurant at around 10pm (late, even by Puerto Rican standards), and Brandt looks over to the table directly next to us, and then asks me quietly, "uh, Cat? Does that guy look like this guy?" He hands me his phone and shows me a picture of the CEO of his company (based in Denver)...
What are the chances that we would sit down in San Juan at 10pm for dinner, directly next to the CEO of Brandt's company, thousands of miles away from their office? Maybe 1 in a million. Anyway, we had a nice chat with the CEO and his partner, and then finished our meal - small world!
The CEO's table next to ours
Anyway, thanks Diana and David for an absolutely amazing week in Puerto Rico. We couldn't have had a better time. 'Til next time, PR... tomorrow, off to Antigua!
Days Three and Four: Wednesday, January 13th-Thursday, January 14th
On Wednesday, we got up early, picked up a Mallorca to go, and headed to the southeastern tip of the island town of La Parguera to get scuba certified! We arrived right on time at Paradise Scuba and Snorkeling Center. The owner was an absolute doll - he calmed my nerves and got us all set for our two days of dives. Our instructor was... interesting, to say the least. We think he thought we were really late (we weren't - I think they had their times wrong), so he basically gave us some attitude from the get-go. Despite him smoking while putting the oxygen tanks on the boat - yes, you read that correctly, unfortunately - we got on the boat and prepped for our first open-water dives.
In a word, it was incredible. Over two days, we did four dives total.
If you ever go scuba diving in Puerto Rico, I highly recommend this place (yeah, smoking instructor and all haha!).
After scuba on Wednesday, we headed to Cabo Rojo beach to relax after a fun morning. While wading in the water, Brandt called over to me, holding out his hands... at first I had no idea what he was showing me, but then...
Baby sea turtle... likely his first time in the ocean! We named him Bob. He was having a rough go at getting out to sea... every time we released him, he just got pushed back over and over again. We learned later that most of these baby sea turtles don't live...
... hopefully Bob's still out there somewhere, flapping his little feet! That night, we drove to Mao's Seafood House for dinner by the sunset. The food, of course, was amazing.
Shrimp Ceviche at Mao's
Delicious, fresh seafood, followed by Tres Leches Cake... and a perfect view of the sunset, of course!
View from Mao's Seafood House
That night, we stayed at La Jamaca in La Parguera - cute little hotel with small rooms, a little pool, and tons of hammocks. We'd stay there again, for sure! In the morning, we headed back to Paradise for the final two dives, and then back to San Juan.
Every year in San Juan, they have the San Sebastian Festival - a huge street festival in Old San Juan, with tons of stages with live music, food stands (yum!), and thousands and thousands of people! We spent the evening there with Diana and David... what a fun night!
Today was pretty epic - we headed to Toro Verde for a day of ziplining. I've never done it before, and it for sure will not be my last time. We did the Zipline Tour and The Beast, which are 8 ziplines at various speeds and heights while in a "seated" position below the cable, followed by a superman-style zipline, where you hang beneath the wire - facedown - for almost 5,000 feet at nearly 60mph... So. Awesome. Superman-style was my favorite - Brandt took a video which I'll post at some point. We only got stuck once and had to pull ourselves into the landing area - so that was a win! For some reason, it's less scary when you're in motion...
From the top of Toro Verde
After Toro Verde, we headed to Mar Chiquita to relax by the beach for a little while. The waves were quite big, which was fine since we weren't really dressed for swimming anyway. It was nice to just sit and watch the waves enter the lagoon area, while eating "pinches" (meat on a stick - it's as good as it sounds!) and chuckling quietly at the folks trying to swim and dodge the larger waves. They were laughing too, though, so I didn't feel too bad!
Pinches at Mar Chiquita
Karma is a bitch though - I certainly got manhandled by the waves later on this trip. Another story for another day!
ha! Who knew that these blogs never go away? I should change the name, though, as it's not just me on an adventure... Anyway, figured I'd use this blog again as we venture through Puerto Rico and Guatemala!
I'm already a week behind, haha - it's been a whirlwind, to say the least. Last week was pretty epic - David and Diana were amazing hosts in Puerto Rico, and we did more than we could have dreamed in such a short time. A big thank you to them for schlepping us around and being all-around awesome!
Day One: Sunday, January 10, 2016
We arrived late Saturday night, and appreciated a nice, relaxed morning. We started off at Mallorca, David and Diana's favorite brunch spot in Old San Juan. Their specialty, of course, is the mallorca, which is basically a sandwich made of this amazing sweet bread (not to be confused with sweetbreads - yuck!), and pressed panini-style with some sort of meat and cheese. They top it with powdered sugar, and voila: deliciousness created! We had it at another place, too, but it didn't live up to this by any means:
After a leisurely stroll through Old San Juan, we were ready for another meal (surprise!). We jumped in the car and headed to Guavate, an area of Puerto Rico known for the lechoneras - basically open-air restaurants that serve roast pig. It's essentially Puerto Rican BBQ, with the best thing on the menu - pork! I'm sure it goes without saying, but - damn that was good.
Day Two: Monday, January 11, 2016
I worked today, while the boys went to the rainforest (I'll get there one day, I'm sure!). That night, we went to the bio bay tours in Fajardo, where you kayak in the pitch-black-mangrove-tree-covered areas and head to a bay where you should see the "dinoflagellates" (yeah, I looked that one up) light up when you kayak through it. Unfortunately, they're dying out in this area, so we saw a few little sparkles, but it wasn't as bright as we thought it might be. Diana was lucky though and got to hold a non-stinging, fully-lit-up jellyfish - pretty awesome! We also had an amazing view of the stars from the kayak - so while we didn't get the sparkles we thought we would, kayaking in the dark was REALLY fun, and I'd definitely do it again... just maybe in another part of PR next time!
