Rainforest Hike and Waterfall Swim

Today Mom and I picked up some of my colleagues from the business program that took me to PR, Jim and Seung. Together we drove into the nearby rainforest and made our way to the the top of a mountain for the Mine Path for a hike. It was the crazy path that was sometimes paved, sometimes rocks, kind of crazy and totally beautiful.

The Mine Path met up with the Big Tree Path at a 50 foot waterfall that had a wading pool at it's base. It was beautiful. I went thinking I may want to climb on some rocks in the river so I wore my swim suit. When I saw the wading pool I knew I had to go in.

The water was FREEZING and with the waterfall there was a crazy under current, but it was exhilarating. It wasn't really possible to get a good photo, but I really did it for the memory, not the photo op :)

After our hike we drove around the park and appreciated the views and wildflowers. It was magical and stunning.

For dinner we went to a strip nearby that had little food stalls that were sort of like a blend between a food truck and a cafe. We decided to enjoy dinner at stall 22 which was a wise choice - it was DELICIOUS. A great end to our adventure.

Tomorrow I start the business portion of my trip and Mom will head home. Driving all over this island with her has been awesome, a great reminder of how lucky I am to have a built in travel buddy!

Night Kayaking!

So first off there are no pictures - it was night time! It was soooo dark!

We got into a kayak with a glow sticks on either end and a group of strangers in similar situations. We formed a long line with direction to pass any instructions back down the line and with that we set off into the darkness across the inlet. We made our way through a long channel of mangroves in pitch black darkness, the only way I even knew the mangroves were there was when I looked up I could get glimpses of stars between the branches. It was wild and fun. And then the sky opened up and it poured. There was really nothing to do but keep going. It did let up after about 10 minutes, but not before every inch of me was soaked.

The long follow the leader line was efficient but it did mean that we were at the mercy of those in front of us, when some of them went of course we all sort of followed....

After a few branches in the face and some interesting communication challenges the rain stopped and we emerged onto a big open lagoon. The bioluminescence comes from a micro organism in the water that emits a soft light when it sense a threat, like movement. So as we paddled through the lagoon, each time we slipped our paddles into the water it emitted a soft glow, it was really cool. We tried to take photos but it wasn't bright enough. All we had to do was put our hands in the water and they water glowed all around our fingers.

The coolest part was that the organisms react to any movement, including fish. So as larger fish chased smaller fish looking for a meal we got to watch as glowing orbs of light darted around beneath the kayak. It was almost like being in a scene from Avatar. :)

The trip back wasn't nearly as eventful. Since we were soaking wet we made a bee line for the hostel to get cleaned up and rest up.

Ocean Caves

Today you get a a bit of a photo diary. Mom and I drove along the north side of the island and explored the coast. I actually climbed down into an ocean side cave,with the waves forcing water in and out around me.

After our drive along the coast we found ourselves back in Fajardo where we went kayaking....at night! Here's the sunset before we left.

Weird Beauty

After a quick breakfast and topping off the gas tank we hit the road early in search of Ruta Panoramica, a scenic drive through the rainforest and mountains of central Puerto Rico. Tonight we stay at a legit hotel in Mayaguez on the far West side of the island so we have all day to wind our way across this +/-100 mile wide territory.

Mom did TONS of research beforehand to determine all of the GPS coordinates that would allow us to navigate the topsy turvy, unmarked roads. It got a little hairy at times but for the most part her plan worked like gang busters.

We saw a lot of beauty and a lot of weird. 

The mountains were amazing. At one point we were in a cloud, pulled off to a look out point and as we were snacking and figuring out our next move the cloud moved past and revealed an amazing view of the mountains, valley and the ocean beyond. We easily found a waterfall rumored to be hidden. The sound of the water and the forest wild life, it was so quiet otherwise it was spiritual and peaceful. We attempted to go to the highest point on the island but the road wasn't passable, we still managed to see the golden sun setting against the mountains covered in tropical foliage and it was stunning.

As for the weird stuff. There were seemingly feral chickens everywhere, we had to have seen more than 50. There were also dogs everywhere, most did not seem feral, the thing is they will sleep anywhere, including on the road, when you put a dog on a road I assume it's been hit or is dead so as we passed at least 30 of them, most of them made my heart jump. At one point we passed a group of teenagers, surrounded by cars on bricks, blasting local music gathered around a small horse, at first I thought it was random to see a 'crew' bathing a horse together - until we realized they were actually shaving it.... We encountered a cow in the road, in the middle of the rainforest. There was a pick up truck bed somehow inserted into a mountain side and now being used as a shelf. We passed a teddy bear mounted on a stick for no apparent reason, until we later passed through an area with bottles, cans and stuffed animals tied in the vines along side the road which lead to a shrine of sorts. On several occasions we saw horses in weird locations (like next to a guard rail off the equivalent of I-4). We stopped at a scenic point that was built in the mid 90's apparently to be a tourist attraction, now it's completely run down, eery, creepy and felt like a set of Walking Dead. Oh and all day long, every corner we turned, we saw many many houses and driveways seemingly propped up by 2x4s over certain death. Needless to say, it was a bizarre day.

We did manage to find our way back to a city and our Howard Johnson which thankfully has hot water. We had a quick dinner at an unexciting 'authentic' cafe down the street and now we're ready to crash so we're well rested for tomorrow's coastal more tropical adventure. I'm especially looking forward to tomorrow night...

One Way, One Word, One Meal

Considering my lack of sleep I did surprisingly well today.

We spent about an hour trying to work out a glitch in the rental car computer systems (it wasn't giving us the discount that had us book with them to begin with) only to realize that they just had to put our DL info in for it to show up. :-| Luckily it was only a minor delay and we were off in our little red Kia with an abnormally low passenger seat.

The adventure began immediately as we drove through Old San Juan, squeezing between parked and moving cars with mom gasping along the way. It got even more interesting when they only places to park were through a one lane two way tunnel....we just beeped the horn and held our breath. Nerve wracking for sure.

Most of our day was spent exploring Old San Juan. We found the old cemetery oddly intriguing especially the sign which upon first glance we thought was telling us not to remove our pants. It actually said not to remove the vault covers, what a difference a letter makes.

We had a very yummy lunch. We used our experienced traveler senses to stumble upon a local gem and chatted up some locals. We wandered through the shops, admired the mysteriously blue bricks, found a geo cache and basically adjusted. It is a bit weird, it's like a cross between Miami, Spain, St Augustine, the Caribbean and of course something completely new since we are in Puerto Rico a place neither of us have been before.

Around sunset we made our way to Fajardo where we checked in to our hostel. It's acceptable, a lot of kids, not as luxurious as promised (no hot water :-| ) but SO cheap. It will do. :)

And now that I'm thoroughly exhausted and sleep deprived I leave you.

Prepping for PR

Since my last adventure I have launched a new business (Wildflower) which is awesome and fun and exciting and at time exhausting. I'm hosting a collaboration experience the evening I arrive home from our Puerto Rican adventure and realized today that I still had a lot of odds and ends to take care of.

After a day of running errands and setting things up so my business can go on while I have fun I finally got around to packing.

Now I'm off to take a 3 hour nap before Mom picks me up and we head off to PR!