Puerto Rico!!

Let me start by saying, I may have just had the best day of my life today!

Let’s back track…

Day 1:
At 7 a.m. I greeted Puerto Rico with a crescent in one hand and a camera in the other. You can tell we were in a port just by closing your eyes and taking a big whiff. We are all very excited to see land and explore the city. Everyone on the ship has to go through a long procedure to get off the ship, so we did not get to touch land until 10:00. A few friends and I (and what seemed like the rest of the ship) walked a good 2 ½ miles to the colorful and lively Old San Juan. Each brightly colored building sat next to another different colored building, all with pequeno balconies overflowing with flowers.

We strolled the streets until we found a spectacular, authentic Puerto Rican restaurant. With the little Spanish I know, I ordered the mashed plantains stuffed with chicken, with beans and rice. I had never had plantains before, so this was a little stretch for me to order something out of the box. I have to say…it was an amazing meal! We all tasted each other’s versions of plantains (mashed, fried, etc.) and enjoyed trying to communicate with our non-English speaking waiter. It was a good time.

That night, I went on my first SAS trip to the Bioluminescent Bay. I had a three other friends going on that trip, so it was an absolute blast! After driving an hour and half, and stopping at delicious McDonalds, we arrived at the bay. We were greeted by a VERY handsome Puerto Rican J. We all got on our life vests, grabbed a partner (mine was a hilarious girl named Courtney), and climbed into our steady kayaks. Let me tell you that it was definitely nighttime and we were all equipped with glowing bracelets. I quickly got the hang of the kayak and we paddled off in to the mangroves where it turned pitch black and all you could see were the glowing wrists ahead. My partner and I ended up getting our paddles stuck in the trees 3 times because we couldn’t see where they were! We finally got to the “biolumincent” part of the bay…when you wiggled your hands or feet in the water it would sparkle. The sparkling is organisms that are kind of like fireflies. Pretty cool.

LATER (and when I say later, I mean 1:00 a.m. later) that night a bunch of us went out to look for some salsa clubs…and we found a karaoke bar instead! You would think that we were being annoying Americans, but the Puerto Ricans were having a blast! We didn’t get back to the ship until 5 a.m. I couldn’t have asked for a better night out in PR.

Day 2:
Clearly, I spent most of the morning asleep – I needed to recuperate for my big hike at El Yunque that left at 1:00 p.m. Now, when I say “big hike”, what I really mean is a drive to the top of a mountain where you take a stroll down a paved path. It was NOT a hike. But, the main attraction was a waterfall where you could go swimming in. I was one of the first out of 40 to jump in and climb up on the rocks – the waterfall was pounding down on me.

That evening was nothing too special. I went out to dinner with a bunch of people and had a yummy daiquiri, and headed back to the ship to get a good nights rest for the next day…

Day 3 (the Day of all Days)
I awoke at 6:30 a.m. to be out on the pier at 7 a.m. with all my gear in toe. A little background info: a week before I left for SAS, I explored the internet looking for adventures in Puerto Rico and found the Organic Tanama River and Cave Adventure with Acampa Tours. 7 other girls and I climbed in the Acampa Tour van and took off toward to the center of the island. Our guides were two rugged Puerto Ricans, reminding me a lot of people in Montana, named Rocki and Jamie. Along the way we stopped at a bakery where they had gigantic, delicious pastries for 54 cents. We reached our destination after weaving in and out of hills, dodging zooming cars, and learning about the gentlemen’s sport of cock fighting.

Immediately I knew this was going to be nothing like the “big hike” the day before when Rocki handed me a harness, helmet with a lamp, and gloves. Yeah, we were about to get into some good stuff! The beginning of the hike was beautiful and refreshing. We hiked for about 20 minutes when we reached the first cave!! It had all of the cave essentials: stalactites, stalagmites, bats, and hieroglyphs! If that wasn’t cool enough, we proceeded down to the river where we jumped in and swam under the gaping hole we had just been peering down 5 minutes ago. .

Before I get ahead of myself, I have to tell you that this hiking was insane! We were climbing, sliding, repelling down vines, and occasionally falling on our butts.

We went to two more caves and then came to a hole the size of…well…me. Yes, we went IN that hole and climbed through the cave. I guess you could say we were spelunking. I did not expect to be doing anything like that – it was amazing. Another mile and we came to Rocki’s friend’s house tucked way back in the jungle. I assume Javier, the owner of the house, works for Acampa as well because he and his wife provided us with an outstanding lunch complete with dessert! They had a little boy named Diego, who was showing off for us by doing tricks on his hammock. There is a small road leading up to their home, but they use the zip lines and trails to get to their vehicles. Before we left, I used their potty…where I definitely got bit on the butt by fire ants! Rocki called it paying my “nature tax”.

The last part of our adventure was a series of 5 zip lines through the jungle, and a super wobbly canopy bridge. We were all very dirty and very happy at the end of all of this!

P.S. I love you, Mom, Dad, Danielle, Adam, and Mike!!!!!!!!! AND Bella and Zeus!!!!! Give them kissies!