Day 3 in Puerto Rico - Saturday

 Oh, our beautiful breakfast area.  We tried to take a picture of us with the timer.  However, we went from air conditioned hotel to humid outside without giving the camera time to adjust...we were up and out by 730, knowing this would be a short beach morning.  Beautiful!!!

 This day I was a little more confident and ran on the beach - I figured it was a little over two miles.  We also splurged the extra $5 and added an umbrella to our chairs (perhaps because of the massive sunburns from the day before) for a little shade.  Perfect morning!!!

 Our last few minutes of Ritz Carlton beach-front property...and we totally recommend staying in the cheap hotel and walking the two blocks in - worth saving $300 a night!

 Back to the hotel for a shower and off to pick up the rental car.  We were headed to Utuado in the middle of the island.  Unbeknownst to me, Andy choose to take the scenic route (hmm the 5 hour scenic route on incredibly windy roads during a massive rainstorm) so we could see more things.  We weren't in a hurry, no kids, just the two of us wild and crazy 'kids' exploring...

 2nd on his list was the restaurant El Toro (fabulous reviews but we weren't very hungry and just shared a meal that was okay.  Later discovered they are known for their meat that we didn't order because it was over $50 and we weren't very hungry.  Not our favorite stop...) and a hike down to a waterfall.  Andy had done this hike previously and said it was amazing!!!  (Below is a scene I became very familiar with.  Directions and road signs are pretty much non-existent but google is a life-saver!)

 We drove through the middle of nowhere to get to the this landmark - where you have to be let in by the old man that sits on his porch drinking all day - and you just park outside of his house and trust that your car will still be there when you get back!  We started on our beautiful hike with a little bit of drizzling...that became rain...and then a crazy rainstorm

 After I had slipped down a significant way, we decided to turn back.  The little trickle of water that we had started with had now turned into a foot of rushing water that we slopped through to climb back up.  Andy was disappointed that we didn't get to the bottom, but it was still a really fun experience!  (A few weeks prior and through the time we were there, there were many flash flood warnings and floods throughout the island.  A few days later we saw some search and rescue people on a lake.  Another rescue volunteer said they have to look for people after heavy rains because homes will just slide off the side of mountain where they are built.)  We were soaked...

 We drove and drove and drove and drove to reach our mountain hide-away cottage...I had to self-talk myself to not be sick on the incredibly windy roads.  Andy had a blast, thinking he was a race car driver...I couldn't even read, which is saying a lot!  We rolled down the windows each time the rain stopped and heard the incredible sounds and the cool air - that part was awesome!  We stopped to get some food from the grocery store and drove another 30 minutes through the mountainous jungle to our home sweet home for the next 3 days - did I mention it was dark on these crazy windy roads by the time we arrived???  Yes, I was a mostly happy camper - just glad to have a warm shower and not be driving anymore!!!  What complete opposites from morning to evening!

Puerto Rico Days 1 and 2

Oh, how beautiful it is to travel...we had a full day of airplane rides on Thursday and got to Puerto Rico around dinner time.  After checking into our hotel (and finally settling on the 4th room!), we walked down to get dinner.  Dinner was so fabulous - I think our first meal was our favorite, and the only one we didn't get a picture of!  We were two blocks from the beach, but we'd been warned not to walk around too much at night.  We followed what we thought were the directions and it was a very scary alley.  Instead we hit the Walgreens on the corner for water.  The next morning was a delightful breakfast outside at the hotel and then off to the beach!  I was very prepared with lots of books on my kindle.  I brought one book for Andy - his task was to finish the 'fun' book before we got home.  Well, walking to the beach brought us about 100 yards from the Ritz Carlton!  $10 later, we had two chairs, with 3 towels set up on each chair and the beautiful ocean just steps away.  PERFECT!!!

Since Andy lived in PR for 21 months as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and wasn't able to freely tour, there were a lot of things he planned to do.  I told him to pick his top 4 and we would get to them!  Friday we left the beach by 1 to have lunch, shower, and take the bus to Old San Juan.  Oh, it rained...we waited in this very wet bus stop for an hour...because the buses just come and go as they please.  Then we got caught in crazy traffic.  I thought we were going to die many many times - as I had my first experience with PR drivers.  Holy COW!!!  Inches from each car and horns blaring like crazy.  Our 10 mile drive lasted almost 90 minutes...

Needless to say, Old San Juan was really cool.  We walked around most of it and spent lots of time exploring El Morro.

Love the streets - they are a beautiful blue brick.  Houses were very cute and quaint - then you walk two streets over and seen the slums, where missionaries were forbidden to go into because of the plethora of drugs (although Andy's mission president didn't use that exact word) and the crime.

Because of our bus issues, we had to hustle through our touring to check this out before it closed.  Awesome!  I had no idea why it was so important that the US take over PR and how that controlled the Caribbean - until now!

We took many pictures of the signs inside to show the kids (ie Ben) how the guns worked and what protection/defenses were there.  My favorite part of the castle was an inside little room that had incredible acoustics.  Andy said they came one times as missionaries and sang Nearer My God to Thee inside the room.  We checked it out and sang a hymn, but I couldn't make it through - overpowering experience!!!

We walked around some of the shops (and found me the awesomest hat that I was so excited to have!) and found one shop Andy had been in 13 years earlier - same layout!  We got the kids a few trinkets and were strongly advised to stay in the tourist areas as gangs came out at dusk...great!  We went for an okay dinner - with FANTASTIC dessert - those people know how to use sweetened condensed milk!  Yes, I actually loved a dessert made with cheese!  It was just awesome...wish I could remember what it was called...

Back to the bus station for what should have been a bus, but that driver didn't want to make anymore runs for the night.  (Seriously????)  There were a handful of us that had been together on the bus out and chatted a bit.  We waited and waited until another driver finally decided it was worth the fair.  I was warned about the speed with which Puerto Ricans move...definitely not in any hurry - unless they are driving!!!