Christmas in Puerto Rico

As summer turned into fall, we knew that we were now entering our last year in Florida.  We don't yet know where we'll be moving, but do know that the odds are we'll be moving somewhere.  We had spent the year fairly close to home, other than a few races and a trip to summer camp and Grandma's, with the theory of saving up for a last hurrah of travel from Pensacola over spring break.  But then I began to worry that spring break might be taken up with the actual move, or at least preparation for a move, or a house-hunting / school-searching trip.  And I had the idea that no matter where we moved, we probably wouldn't be closer to Puerto Rico than we are in Florida, and I've always wanted to see the Bioluminescent Bay there.   Once I began researching a trip to Puerto Rico, however, I quickly discovered that it was outside of our budget.  Until I began to play with dates and saw that flights over Christmas vacation were less than half price of the flights over spring break.  So I bought the tickets and began some slap-dash travel planning.

Early Christmas morning we boarding our plane out, bringing chocolates for the flight crews, and enjoyed Christmas dinner at Cocina Abierta in San Juan.  That afternoon we drove out to the city of Fajardo to be ready for our next day's adventure.

Wednesday morning we checked in at the Ceiba airport for our flight to Vieques, an island off the coast of mainland Puerto Rico famous for its Mosquito Bay bioluminescence.  A picture-perfect "puddle jumper", the plane seated eight (including the pilot), and we all had to step on a scale and have our weight written on our ticket so that our assigned seats would balance the plane properly! Gate-to-gate time was ten minutes, and we enjoyed the views.  Once we landed, my lack of planning made itself apparent, as I had been unable to reserve a rental car on the island.  We never did manage to find one -- nor even a golf cart, motor scooters, or bikes -- but luckily we're all hikers, and were only travelling with our little backpacks.  We ended up walking somewhere between five and 50 miles (ok, it only felt like a lot) before a kind local put us in the back of her pick-up truck and took us to a bus.  We eventually ended up at the Casa de Tortuga Guesthouse in Esperanza, where we enjoyed a few days of swimming, snorkeling, hiking, and eating star fruit off the trees.  And, most importantly, the evening kayaking on the bioluminescent bay!  We marveled at the sea creatures and the Milky Way, and yet another item on my "bucket list" was well worth the effort in getting there.  We took only "memory pictures", but below is an internet stock photo to give you an idea of what we saw.

On Friday, we made our way back to the airport and the mainland, and proceeded to the city of Ponce and an Air B&B there.  The art museum there is world class (Museo de Arte de Ponce), and we learned quite a bit at the local history museum.  Hans, ever a car lover, also especially enjoyed the Parque de Bombas, with its historical exhibits of fire trucks.

Returning to San Juan, we investigated the old town, wandered around the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, hiked in El Yunque, ate (twice) at Chocobar Cortes, which we definitely highly recommend, and enjoyed the tour at Casa Bicardi.  

Following our family tradition, we rang in the new year by watching the festivities in London on BBC.com (live, on British time), and went to bed at our normal time.