We’ve had an unusually busy and stressful 6 months so it was extra nice to get away from our everyday life responsibilities. This time we went to old San Juan then the rainforest El Yunque National Park in the northeastern tip of Puerto Rico!
Highlights:
- Laughing with people we just met
- Finding a heart shaped shell when snorkeling
- Walking through the rainforest while it’s raining
- Hearing the myriad of frogs (co-quis) singing and seeing fireflies in the rainforest at night
- Ability to use ApplePay everywhere we went (even when my phone was in airplane mode!)
- Finding Lin-Manuel Miranda’s star on the sidewalk
- Sleeping in
- Gathering interior inspo from beautiful hotels
- Riding a catamaran with tons of shade on board so we could enjoy being outside without getting fried
- Finding the best hot chocolate I’ve had in a long time! I bought some to make at home
- Being able to rent a car for a day for only $40
- Exploring a new place with my travel buddy. We rarely get to do things without kids so this is a special treat to be alone
Lowlights:
- Not checking the weather before going out for the day… we both ruined our Birkenstocks because it unexpectedly (to us ha) poured buckets of rain while we were walking around old San Juan. It was fun to be out in the rain, we just wished we were wearing different shoes.
- Somehow getting bug bites when the tour guide said there were no mosquitos in the rainforest we were in… Whatever type of bug it was, they found me.
A fun fact we learned on this trip is that Puerto Rican’s essentially celebrate Christmas twice. They give loved ones gifts on both Christmas (Dec 25th) and 3 Kings Day (Jan 6th). I usually try to find a small nativity as a souvenir whenever we travel. For this trip I bought an artisan 3 Kings set and can’t wait to set it out this Christmas.
If we go back, I want to… visit a cocoa farm, visit the other side of the island, order a piƱa colada that’s served inside a hollowed out pineapple, take a cooking class, attend a concert
We walked through this hallway in the morning, and learned that around 5 pm the sun is positioned so the shadow of the exterior pattern lines up with the floor pattern. I wish we could have come back at 5 to see it! I love details like this.
The bricks are glossy blue because they have melted metal on top of them. Once the rain started we learned they are very slippery.
It rained so hard the streets were flooded above some sidewalks in less than an hour. Our Birkenstocks had no chance of survival. But it’s a fun memory!
