Things have been, uh, slightly snowy around here lately.
We seem to have moved back into the pattern of winter '09, during which we got 10 inches of snow every other day. Sigh. Still, Maine is very good at road snow removal. I have to give them credit for that. Around our house, we have to remove snow from the back steps every 10 minutes, or else certain small poodles get stuck:
Padawan, on the other hand, with his long legs, has had some wonderful frolicking out in the new snow. It's especially fun for him when the road is completely covered and he can bound around without any worries about oncoming cars.
The boys have made some neat snowmen (and snow demons...)
It is also kinda pretty after a big snow:
However, enough is enough, and we decided that this year, we would escape the snow and go somewhere warm for a bit. Andy's big oceanography meeting was in Puerto Rico this year, so we all tagged along. After a hectic Friday of work and school and grading and packing and cleaning...we all collapsed into the car and drove to Boston to start our adventure. We arrived at the hotel very late at night and pretty much went straight to bed. We were up at 5:30 the next morning so that we could get to the airport in time for an early flight. We did, however, have time before our flight for Harry to grab the Biggest Breakfast Sandwich Ever:
Yum. The travel was seamless all the way to San Juan. As we were landing, the pilot announced that the local weather was, "86 degrees and sunny," and the whole plane cheered. We were met by a lovely cab driver and her husband who drove us about an hour through the city to meet our ferry. The drive went by really quickly as we all soaked in the scenery--palm trees, big rain forest and mountains in the background, lots of colorful buildings, signs in Spanish, little roadside vendors selling tacky Valentine's Day packages...we even a horse by the side of the road!
We arrived just in time to get tickets for our ferry to Vieques.
Andy waiting in line to buy $2 tickets:
The ferry ride to Vieques was beautiful! It took about an hour and we got to sit up on the deck and enjoy the warm breeze and the gorgeous views of the city and rain forest behind us:
As we approached Vieques, we noticed that the island seemed to be on fire. This caused quite a commotion among the passengers...lots of frantic cell phone calls and jumping up and down. It was probably "just" the military detonating something. I don't think anyone on the island actually noticed it, but it did look dramatic from the water!
We arrived in Vieques at around dinner time. We stayed in a lovely little house right in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Our hostess, Kathy, was there to meet us and was full of helpful advice about where we could go for dinner, and also where we might want to go during the rest of our stay. She was fantastic! We ended up searching out a local bakery that served pizza most nights. The bakery looked a little intimidating at first--just a tiny out-of-the-way shop with bars on the windows and lots of locals sitting around eyeing us with suspicion, but the pizza was delicious, and the discovery of this bakery was something that would serve us well for the rest of the trip.
We also tried to acquire some basic provisions so that we could eat in the morning. This was not so easy. We stumbled into the one store that seemed to be open late at night, but we all knew instantly that it was going to be a problem for Gregory. This store had about ten items: Spaghetti Os, Pringles, rice, generic frosted flakes in a bag, Parmalat, whole milk and several things we had never seen before. Hmm. The store owner kind-of glowered at us as we walked awkwardly around the store trying to be chipper about the limited options. We ended up with the frosted flakes, the Parmalat and a few cans of fake pasta. G was stressed. Thank goodness for the bakery pizza!
The bakery:
Bellies full and totally exhausted, we fell into bed. We woke up quite early the next day, thanks in part to several local roosters, who started their day at around 4:30. This was not such a big deal in the end, because we could loll around in bed as long as we wanted. G actually liked the frosted flakes with Parmalat, so the day started well. We headed out to the beaches as soon as we could. The main part of town (a street with a few restaurants and one small hotel) was about a five minute walk from our house. We walked there with our snorkeling gear, searching out the closest ocean access:
The boys instantly put on their snorkels and dove in. The water was incredible! Even I, who am picky about cold, didn't see the need to get out until long after my fingers were totally shriveled.
We snorkeled around the local pier, which had tons of coral attached to it, hiding fish, shrimp, sea cucumbers, crabs, sea anemones, sea urchins and polychaetes!
Harry was determined to harvest and eat a coconut like they do on Survivor:
We couldn't open it with just the shells and rocks that we found on the beach, but it was a fun challenge nonetheless. After our snorkel, we went in search of a larger store so that we could have something for dinner. We found this little place, which had tons of stuff, including many of our favorite Goya products:
The walk back to our house from the store was beautiful! There is so much color in Vieques--flowers on many of the trees, bright blue sky and green trees, and most of the houses are painted in bright pastels.
Adding to the color was a double rainbow that appeared during an extremely brief and light rain shower. The rain didn't even make the pavement wet it dried so fast, but it felt wonderful and we were excited to see the rainbow.
We ate a lot of meals (and played a lot of cards) at this little table outside of our room:
From this spot, we could see all of the local kids, dogs, chickens, cats and horses go running by. It was wonderful.
Because the full moon was rapidly approaching, we made plans to go visit the nearby bioluminescent bay that evening. This is the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world, and we had been told that it was a "must see" location. We booked our tour with a group that takes you out into the bay in kayaks, which sounded like an excellent adventure.
We walked back into town at around 7:00 to meet the bus that was going to take us to the bay. We stood around town for a while waiting for our ride, and noticed that about 4 other groups were waiting as well. After a while, a big red pick-up truck stopped at the side of the road and a man jumped out. We assumed that this was not our ride because there was no way all of the people waiting could fit into a pick-up truck. We were wrong. We did all fit into the truck...sort-of. Andy and I rode perched in the very back with a couple from New York City. This was a bit scary, given how crazy the local driving is. We rendezvoused with other groups and then piled back into various vehicles in order to drive the "very bumpy" mile down to the bay. Hearing this, we all muscled our way into a bigger van that actually had seats for all of us..sort of. G sat on my lap in the front, so we had a first-hand view of the giant van-eating holes that peppered the road to the bay. We had to drive very close to the edge of the road to avoid these massive pits, and this came at the price of having branches whip in through the open windows and threaten to gouge our eyes out. It was...exciting.
At the bay, we were quickly and efficiently given two-person kayaks, paddles and life vests and we headed out into the middle of the dark bay.
I partnered with Harry and G shared a boat with Andy. It was fun to kayak with the boys!
I don't even know how to adequately describe the bioluminescent algae. It was magical. To swim in 86 degree water at night with the stars above you and the water glowing around you is otherworldly. We couldn't get enough of swishing our hands and feet through the water and watching the lights. When we held still, our hair and skin sparkled with individual cells of algae making their stand. Apparently, they glow as a defense mechanism...making themselves look bigger, and lighting up their surroundings to reveal the predators. We were the last ones to get back in the boats...reluctant to leave this place. Aside from almost ramming head-long into a tree on the way back from the bay, the trip back to town was uneventful.
As we were walking back to the house at around 10:30, we rounded a corner a saw this small herd of horses:
I was so excited! It felt like a little present to see all of them so close and so pretty. It was two mares and their foals, and then one extra adolescent.
Comfy bedtime back at the house:
Harry spent all of his free time working on a new musical composition. He was trying to complete it in time to enter a Maine music writing competition. He did an amazing job, and when I listened to the final draft, it brought tears to my eyes! Way to go, Harry. Unfortunately, his piece had too many instruments to qualify for the competition, but they said they would listen to it and try to get him some feedback.
Here's our little kitchen:
We cooked at home all but one night, making pasta, beans and rice and some yummy sandwiches for the beach.
The second day, we went back to the closest beach, but then kept on walking along the shore until we reached the next cove, called Sun Beach. This place was very different. It didn't have the great snorkeling of the pier, but the sand was white and soft and the scenery was breathtaking.
I thought that this rock looked like a little Scottish terrier dog looking out to sea:
And then he kind-of looked like a dragon from the other direction:
To get their snorkeling fix, the boys went back to the pier later that day and took more neat pictures of their discoveries!
After finding the bakery on that first night, all of our mornings started with an assortment of fresh pastries. This is an outstanding way to start the day.
We would eat a leisurely breakfast while playing a few rounds of cards. This was so relaxing and fun! On this particular morning, our little herd of horses from the night before went galloping by as we played hearts:
And our little gecko friend usually came out to watch the game:
There were lizards everywhere in Puerto Rico. There are no small mammals, just all different sizes and colors of lizard. They are so neat! We found a huge iguana close to town when we walked in the next morning to rent kayaks.
We all enjoyed the bioluminescent bay kayaking so much, we decided to rent two kayaks for the day and explore a nearby island.
This was one of our favorite outings. The beach was beautiful (of course), we had the place completely to ourselves for most of the day, and the snorkeling was incredible.
G really got into the photography on this outing, and took some really neat pictures of the underwater treasures. It was fun to see him so excited about the pictures and listen to him describe how and why he took each one:
On shore, we made collections of as many different kind of animals and protists as we could. Here is G showing off an algae clump (with at least 6 phyla of animal shells in the background!):
We saw a lot of lion fish, but they are an invasive species, and so we should have reported them. They're still quite beautiful!
The inevitable kayak paddle battle:
The view walking back from the kayak adventure...just another day in paradise!
The ritual hosing off of the dive gear...
Our lovely little house:
Looking down the street from our place:
And...another day starts with cards and pastries!
G was so good at taking pictures, I asked him to photograph our next adventure, which was a walk through the local neighborhoods and down into a dry riverbed in search of a beach called Black Sand Beach.
I think he did a great job of capturing the look and feel of Esperanza:
We found more horses.. These were tame, and let me pet them, but they were really scruffy!
The start of the dry river bed:
This was a cool walk. It looked like a jungle down in the river bed--very lush, with birds chirping, lots of lizards, and many hanging vines and plants.
The river bed got not-so-dry towards the end and we had to wade through a swamp to get out onto the beach:
WOW! It was so spectacular!
And sure enough, the sand was black in some spots, which was really weird and fun!
As we were lounging on the beach, this beautiful horse came out of nowhere, took a long drink at the pond, and then galloped off! I was SO excited. :O)
G built a black pyramid:
There were also about 4 pelicans diving and nesting nearby. These were so amazing to watch.
On the walk home, we saw this plant with baseketball-sized fruits!
On the last night, we decided to go out for dinner in the small town. We chose a Puerto Rican restaurant and tried our best to speak a little Spanish. The food was hit or miss, but the best part was getting to know a little dog who we had seen around town all through the week. I secretly fed him G's chicken under the table, and so he became my new best friend. We named him Juan Carlos and I think I learned more Spanish just trying to communicate with him than I did for the whole rest of the trip. "Donde est mi chicco perro Juan Carlosito??"
The next morning, the boys headed off to the pier again so that they could get in a final snorkeling adventure:
This time, they saw an octopus!
A few pictures of our place...we were getting sad just thinking about leaving.
We packed up and headed back to San Juan on Thursday afternoon. It was so sad to leave, but we wanted to stick together and Andy had to get back to the city for his meeting. I miss the little gecko, the delicious donuts, the horses, Juan Carlos and all of his doggy friends, I miss the walking and the swimming every day, and I miss just the calm, peaceful, natural way that we all got to enjoy each other's company...I even miss the roosters and chickens and their early-morning crows. What an amazing, amazing island.
Despite a rather dramatic change in scenery, you can see that Harry's activity of choice changed very little:
He was constantly composing throughout the entire trip.
Our hotel in San Juan was really fancy. It was this huge resort right on the water. The rooms were ultra-modern and comfy. I loved the shower. Not only was it neat-looking, but it had fantastic water pressure. Can't feel very good about it environmentally, but man oh man, it was a nice treat.
The view from the balcony:
Andy had to work on Friday, so the boys and I decided to walk into old Puerto Rico and explore one of the forts. This was a long walk (and a hot walk!), but the scenery was really interesting.
There were HUGE 10-foot waves at times, and so no swimming was allowed along most of this beach.
We finally arrived at the fort, San Cristobal:
It had these gorgeous, sweeping views of the city and the ocean:
The tower from the Puerto Rican license plate:
And lots of iguanas! We had fun watching these guys:
The dungeon was way too hot and dank for me, but the boys liked it, and pointed out the drawings on the wall:
Going out into one of the neat lookout towers:
This little lookout room was naturally cooled to the point that it felt like there was air conditioning on! A very nice little break (with more awesome views).
Looking down onto one of the streets in the old city:
We left the fort and walked around the shops for a bit, trying to find some lunch. Harry and I found some empanadas that were out of this world, but G couldn't find anything that appealed to him, so we decided to head back to the hotel and search for food along the way.
We found a lot of beautiful old government buildings and parks on the way home, including a sidewalk that had a bunch of president statues. We had fun identifying them and posing with our favorites:
We didn't find any food, though, despite signs that suggested there might be KFC, McDonald's or something familiar. G was dealing with it well, and we figured we could eat at the hotel if all else failed. The final leg of the walk was across this loooong bridge. Some of the local kids were diving off the bridge into the water! Looked tempting in the heat, but a little bit scary.
Back at the hotel, G found some Christmas nachos (but didn't eat them).
Harry and I had second lunch:
Another view from our hotel:
The kids decided to explore the hotel's 4 swimming pools after lunch. This one was their favorite because there was a water slide. They spent hours here playing on the slide while I finished my book. Very relaxing!
It even had a fort tower on it!
Our hotel from the outside:
The hotel had some beautiful spots along the beach. Very romantic and dramatic.
Andy came home from the meeting and was anxious to go out for dinner to a place that had some live local music. Our hotel suggested that we walk 4 blocks down to the Marriot and listen to their salsa band. This sounded fine, so we headed out on another walk. We walked in the opposite direction from the fort, and of course this time we found a Dunkin Donuts after about one block. Sigh.
We got to the Marriot and the scene looked a bit sketchy. There was loud radio music blasting and although it did seem like there would be a salsa band later, there was absolutely no ambiance. I suggested that we go to a small restaurant across the street where we had heard what sounded like guitar playing. We headed over there and saw that indeed, two young men were playing their guitars outside under the palm trees, and they sounded really good. Unfortunately, there were no available tables outside, but we went in and asked if we could wait. The waiters immediately carried a new table outside for us and set up a spot right next to the musicians! I don't think I have ever had someone move a table for me so that I could sit where I wanted.
We had amazing food and delicious wine and really enjoyed listening to the music. It was the perfect end to the trip, it seemed, until just after we had finished our food, it started to pour down rain (for the first time the whole week) AND the power went out! But hey, we're Mainers. This was nothing. We casually walked to shelter and waited to figure out how we could pay. In the end, the kids and I walked back to the hotel while Andy got some cash and settled the bill. He waited quite a while, but engaged the two musicians in a great conversation. Our hotel had huge generators running, so we were pretty much oblivious to the power outage once we got back. A perfect evening, after all!
The trip ended much as it began--with huge breakfasts. G was happy to find something he could eat with gusto, and Harry was just happy.
Our travel home was as seamless as the trip there...thanks to Andy's meticulous planning and thinking ahead. It is good to be back with our own crew of animals and our friends, but we had the time of our lives. We will be scheming and planning and saving (and learning Spanish?) in an effort to get back next year.
Muchas gracias, Puerto Rico, te queremos muchisimo!!
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