Posts from — December 2009

Today we woke up early, and after a trip out to the car rental place to get our camera that we accidentally left in the rental car, we started to explore the city. We walked across the city and saw la fortlenza san felipe del morro, then got some lunch near the catedral de san juan bautista. After lunch we split up, Leana, Alina and Pat went out shopping and I checked out castillo de san cristobal, which is huge, and took me 3 hours to explore. Tonight we are headed out to dinner for Pat’s birthday, and are going to catch a flight back home at 6:40 in the morning. Wrapping up an excellent vacation in Puerto Rico.

Today was a day of travel, we spent the morning doing museums and exploring Ponce before heading north to the Arecibo observitory then on to casa de Bacardi, before ending up at our next hotel in old San Juan, which we are going to spend all day tomorrow exploring.

Photos of our hotel in Ponce, the Hotel Belgica.

Today was a really crazy day of travel. After taking awhile to get a car in san juan, we finally got going around noon and drove to El Yunque national forest, (5 of us in a corolla, a bit tight) Leana proceded to make fun of my spanglish through most of the trip, and i keep suprising myself with how much spanish i actually know. We then got quite lost on the drive all the way across the island to la praguera on the southwest coast to go visit the bioluminescent bay. Unfortunately the full moon was out so it was going to be hard to see. We took a small open boat out into the bay, where we rafted up with another boat and used the shade between the boat to see the glowing around one of the crew who swam between the boats. They had just turned the boats around to give the other side a view when some rather dense clouds covered up the moon and the glow became much brighter. Several people from both boats then jumped in the water to watch the glowing around them, and after a bit of hesitation (and prodding from Alina) i jumped in. Easily one of the best things i have ever experienced. Unfortunately it was impossible to get a good photo.

After the boat trip we headed to ponce to check into our hotel, we had just checked in when some loud bangs happened outside, Alina and i ran out and saw fireworks and heard sirens, so when Leana joined us we ran downstairs and out to the main square of ponce where we ran into a parade (at 11pm), playing loud music, and carrying the three kings on a float. Lots of policia and local officials. A young man from our hotel says there is a new woman mayor of ponce, and she has been doing a lot of things like this celebration lately.

The photo attached we took at la pragura before the bio bay tour. Much more tommorow.

Watching the weather channel in puerto rico, 80 dgrees out here today, but the funny part is how they decide to spell philadelphia.