Puerto Rico

Josh had a business trip to Puerto Rico this past week, and he very graciously (and wisely) bought me a ticket so I could join in on the fun. And that's all we had to pay for, besides the souvenir magnet I found on the last day. The company paid for the hotel room and the food, so it was a pretty cheap vacation. But, you get what you pay for ;). Don't get me wrong, we had a good time, but it wasn't a real vacation, you know? I mean, Josh worked during the day, so when they finished up, most tours would be done for the day, and then it would start to get dark, so seeing the sights was minimal. We did get to enjoy some things about the island, but if it was a real vacation, meaning we had whole days to do stuff, it would have been a lot more fun. We also think we got a bum deal on something, but I'll explain that later. Let's begin with the beginning of our journey.

The first part is embarrassing, but Josh gave me permission to tell the world. We missed our flights! We set the alarm, I promise! And it was on, I promise! It was scheduled to go off at 4:50 am, only it was set for 4:50 pm (oops!). Needless to say, we woke up at 8:30 wondering why it was light out. Yeah, we freaked out. I kept my cool though ;). No, not really. I was just more reserved in my concern. Josh was louder, but he got it all out, and then he got online and on the phone, and we were able to get flights for the afternoon. Instead of arriving in Puerto Rico by lunchtime, we landed at 10:30 pm. But hey, we got there, we were all in one piece, so it's cool. It's kinda funny thinking back on it, but I don't know if Josh thinks it's quite funny yet. I'll have to ask him.

Oh, on the plane ride there, we watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I'm not into the Harry Potter movies or books, so I probably didn't catch everything, but I guess it was good. It was something to do. And on the plane ride back, they showed Evan Almighty, and that was pretty funny. Steve Carroll is quite hilarious, though I don't get the humor of The Office. Maybe I would if I worked in an office.

Ok, funny story while we were in the airport. In Atlanta, they have these subway systems that take you to the different concourses so you don't have to walk, and we were packed in there like a bunch of sardines, literally. Anyway, a recorded voice tells you to hold on cause the train is going to move. There was no pole around me or anything to lean on, so I grabbed the leather strap that was hanging from the ceiling. Well, a couple ladies next to me did not hold on, and when the train lurched forward, one lady stumbled and fell on the other one. Then she fell on me and I swayed back. There was nowhere to move my feet, so all I could do was hope my arm was strong enough to hold us all. We looked hilarious, cause they couldn't get their balance, so for a couple seconds I'm bearing the weight of two ladies and holding on with one arm. Josh came to the rescue and helped them up. I'm just glad I was holding on, cause who knows how far human dominoes would have gone?

Puerto Rico is a beautiful island, and it's also an American commonwealth, so we technically never left US soil, but it sure felt like it. All the signs were in Spanish, but some had English on them, only it was below the Spanish words. I've never felt like a minority before, and it can be a little overwhelming. But the guy Josh was going down there to see is a native, so having him around helped a lot. And we finally got the hang of some stuff, like asking for an English-speaking waiter, and we even picked up a little Spanish. "Salida" is a popular word on the highway... it means "exit." :)

They have a lot of the same restaurants that we have. We ate at Taco Bell, Macaroni Grill, Chilis, and Juan (the local) took us to a more local restaurant so we could try new foods. That day I was picky with my food, so I ordered rice and french fries. But I did learn something about their cuisine. They eat a lot of fish and pork, and they can prepare a plantain a dozen different ways. A plantain is like a banana, only sweeter. It can be fried, dried, fresh, mashed, made into a soup, and the list goes on.

Our hotel was inland, but they had a nice pool that I sat out by one day. I took a couple books with me to keep me busy, and the room had HBO and TBS stations, so I could watch familiar shows or movies. I watched a chick flick, In Her Shoes, and I saw part of one of the newer Star Wars movies. One day I was particularly tired, so I napped for that afternoon.

The guys (Josh, Juan, and Michael, who is Josh's traveling buddy) took an afternoon off, and we drove to one of the highest points on the island. We took these narrow and very bumpy back roads, but we got to see a lot of countryside and how the people lived. Once we started going up the mountain, I thought I was going to be sick. It felt like we were going in circles, and the turns were very sharp, so I was glad when we reached our destination. There was a lookout tower, which you'll see pictured below. The mountain does go higher, but it's like a couple hour hike to the top. Not a good idea for a pregnant woman :).












Pretty, huh? There was a waterfall on the way down the mountain, so we stopped to take some pictures there. Oh yeah, Josh likes to take pictures of flowers, in case you are wondering :).











Word of advice, don't ever leave planning to two guys. This was what a lot of conversations sounded like:

Where do you want to eat?

I don't know, where do you want to eat?

Doesn't matter to me, what are you in the mood for?

I don't know, we could just drive around and find something.

And then it would happen all over again when we were deciding what to do. It's a good thing I was there. Not that I was much help. I had a tour book, but a lot of the cool things were an hour or two away, or already closed, and supposedly the town we were in (Caguas) had a whole list of things to see, but we never were able to locate them. San Juan had forts and ports and the old part of the city, but that was by the airport, and by the time we ate dinner, it just didn't make sense to trek up there. We ended up just doing a lot of driving around and taking in the scenery.

On the last day, we headed to San Juan so we'd be near the airport, and also cause we wanted to see the beach. Well, it was beautiful. And get this, here's the bum deal part. In the pics below you will see a lovely hotel right by the water. This was our original reservation! Juan had us change to a hotel nearer to him (inland) so he wouldn't have to drive as far. So yeah, all these beach pictures you see, that could've been me sitting out there every day. I think it would have felt more like a real vacation if we stayed here.