Scuba, Bob, and More!

Here's the video from Toro Verde - so fun!

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!

All in all, an epic two days!