PR - Guanica Dry Forest

Well, we've been back almost a week now and boy has it been a crazy one! So, I'll have to finish up the details on our last few days in Puerto Rico then I'll get to local occurrences.

Last Friday, we decided to explore the Guanica Dry Forest which was basically "across the street" from our hotel (of course we drove about 10 minutes to get to the central park of the forest to the trail head). Hiking here was really the only time during the week that we were hot. With it being so dry and us without the benefit of the ocean breeze, we felt the 90 degree heat. However, we still had a great time exploring the forest, spotting lots of butterflies, cool birds, plants and other forest critters.

Since we didn't get any nature guides, nor do either one of us know much about names of insects and birds, we had no idea what these things were called so we gave them our own names. 

Camouflage Butterfly

Green Bird with Little Red Spot (I know, creative, huh?). With the wonders of info on the Internet, we think we've found his real name of San Pedrito Tody.

After about an hour and a half to two hours of walking, with lots of stops to stalk butterflies and trying to take pictures of the wildlife, we came upon this wonderful view of the Guanica Dry Forest with a backdrop of the Cordillera Central mountain range and even a view of "our" bay (where our resort was).

And, of course, we had to do a self portrait shot!

Then we headed back. Right after getting back on the path, we saw a little land crab. I picked him up for a better view and for a photo op. Mr. Land Crab was NOT pleased and gave me a good scratch (hence the somewhat stained face in the picture)!

After our nice hot hike, we went back, cleaned up and then spent the afternoon napping and reading on the beach. That night, we headed to the nearby town of La Parguera for dinner and a cruise of the Bioluminescent Bay. At our resort's recommendation, we ate at a restaurant called Aquazol. If you are ever in the area, we highly recommend this restaurant. It was definitely our favorite meal of the week! We even got homemade pumpkin ice cream for desert! Yum!

After dinner, we bought tickets for the BioBay tour and, after a bit of waiting, headed off. Unbeknown to us, this boat, on the way to a natural phenomenon, was a party boat! Man, those Puerto Ricans LOVE their music and the only way to listen to it is deafeningly loud (yes, I know I sound like my mother but Mike and I couldn't even shout at each other sitting next to each other...that loud). I wondered how many of those lovely bay front homes had to listen to that music several times a night on a daily basis.

So, the sight we were to see was the glowing of the dinoflagellate glowing in the water. Unfortunately, the best time to see this is under a new moon and around 7-8pm. We had an almost full moon and it was almost 10pm by the time we got there. There were a few divers on the boat that jumped in and splashed around. They would make "snow angel" type shapes with their body an you could see an extremely faint green glow in the white of the stirred water but it was definitely not the full effect of the phenomenon. But, still cool to see. Pretty much the only picture we took of the night where you could see anything cool was, of course, a self portrait!

It was a long, great, eventful day and we were ready to get back to the resort for a good nights sleep. So, that's what we did.

For more awesome pictures of the day, click here.

PR - Castle Serralles

After a long night's sleep and a leisurely breakfast, we decided to make a little trip into the city of Ponce, about half an hour from our resort. The destination was Castle Serralles, a family estate turned museum. 

Our View At Breakfast

The tour of the house was great. With the incredible original family furniture filling the rooms, intricate decor and a great tour guide, we had a great time seeing the "castle." The grounds were also impeccably kept. Since we couldn't get pictures of the house, we took some exterior pictures.

Side View of Castle Seralles

Us on the Back Balcony Overlooking Ponce

After a stop to pick up our late lunch\early dinner and fighting rush hour traffic to pick up a few things at the grocery store, we were back to our resort. After eating dinner, we played a little tennis. Apparently, large Puerto Rican moths are huge tennis fans because they were all over the court. We saw 4 different kinds all about the same size...monsterous!

After tennis, it was another leisurely evening at the hotel. Ahhhh! Being on vacation is great!

For more pictures of Castle Serralles and ginormous moths click here.

PR - Lazy and (Somewhat) Wasted Day

After the intense activity of the last two days, we were pooped. Given the torrential rainfall San Juan got all day Tuesday, it was an excellent excuse to hang out at the hotel and do absolutely nothing. Being lazy is what vacations are all about, right? (Ok, I've only really had one lazy vacation in my life, but all the new parents at my work recommended we take this opportunity while we could.) So, other than a little workout at our hotel's exercise room, we watched tv, napped, read and ate. I actually never even left the hotel. Mike popped out to grab us some lunch, but we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then had pizza delivered for dinner. True laziness! Even though it rained 98% of the day, there were a couple of sunny moments that morning and I was able to get a nice shot (reflected out of our cool mirror in our "reading room") of the beautiful view.

What I Did All Day

We had grand plans for today (Wednesday). We got a very early start to the day and were up and out of the hotel at 7 am. A quick trip down to Old San Juan to get a picture of the cool blue brick streets and we headed out of San Juan. Our destination - the caves at Camuy. We wanted to get there in time for the first tour then check out the Arecibo Observatory and get to our hotel in Guanica to relax for the afternoon.

Street View of Old San Juan

Blue Bricked Streets

We got to the caves at about 9 am. Unfortunately, due to the mass amounts of rain received in the last couple of days, tours were being delayed due to mud clean up in the caves. So, we waited. After about 30 minutes, they let us in to watch the intro movie then it was out to the trolley loading area where we waited. Apparently, they still weren't quite ready to give tours. So, we grabbed a snack from the cantina, entertained ourselves with feeding some of the 12 stray cats that hang out in the area and waited. Finally, we boarded the trolley and headed out to see the sink holes. They were impressive sites! 

Three Points Sink Hole - 400 Feet Deep

Nerd in Hard Hats (Yes, They Made Us Wear These)

Camuy Sinkhole-Bat Entrance

Looking Up From Sinkhole

So, when do we finally get to see the caves? Apparently, never. They were having some "problem" in the cave they were trying to resolve so that we could go on the tour. After viewing the sinkholes, we headed back to the kiosk area and waited. Then they made the announcement that there would be no tours today and we could get a raincheck. So, 3 hours after arriving, we left and had not gotten to see the caves. Bummer. The Observatory is in that area and it was something Mike really wanted to see. However, after reading a bad review from a tourist about the Observatory the night before, Mike didn't think he could handle another disappointment for the day so we decided to just head south.

With map in hand and google directions, compliments of the iphone, we headed off. It was a trip neither one of us will ever forget. At first, the windy mountain roads gave us absolutely breathtaking views that we thoroughly enjoyed. But, as the winding road became S and hairpin turns on a 1 and a quarter lane wide road for about 2 hours, we had had enough! I was getting car sick in the front seat and Mike's arms and leg were getting sore from all the turning and braking. We hope to NEVER go on that road again! But, we got through it (mostly) unscathed and arrived at our beautiful hotel in Guanica.

Mike Starting Out on the Windy Road

Our first stop at the hotel, check out the shaded lounge chairs on the beach, do some reading and enjoy a strawberry daiquiri (non alcoholic for me, of course). Ah! It quickly melted all of our road stress away. After more resting in the hotel room, we had a lovely dinner at the "casual" outdoor cafe and were serenaded by a wonderful guitarist. The lighted tennis courts were beckoning, so we went to them and hit a few balls around after dinner and now it's time for a movie and a good nights rest! Buenos Noches!

Self Portrait on the Beach

Gorgeous Sunset!

For more pictures of the day, check out the full album here.