Puerto Rico

So now that Birthday Boy and I have been back for Puerto Rico for almost a month, I guess it's time to recap the trip to Puerto Rico. We were a little bummed when we looked at the weather and saw that it was supposed to rain every day that we were there. And then our plane landed and it was pouring. It rained the entire afternoon we got there, so we occupied our time by hanging out at the bar and drinking rum-containing drinks and Modela light (the Puerto Rican beer that we LOVED) until we could check into our room. Finally, around 4, the rain stopped, and we went and sat on the beach in the cloudy weather for a little bit. My favorite dinner that we had was that night. We went to this restaurant called Ropa Vieja and I got a steak mofongo, which was shredded flank steak in a fried plantain "shell." It was so good. I love plantains, so that's probably why I really liked the food in Puerto Rico. 

Thankfully, that was the only day it rained. We spent the second day hanging out by the pools and then at the beach. I got a little bit sunburnt, but not too bad, so that was a success (thank you, SPF 45! I remember the days when I was a kid and wore SPF 8 and never got burned. How times change...). We had Mexican food that night, and then we found the greatest thing about San Juan - Piu Bello Gelato. I got this flavor called piu bello oreo, which was dulce de leche ice cream with an oreo swirl. Oh my god, it was so freaking good. 

On the third day, we went to Old San Juan. We had breakfast at one of the famous local places and had to point to what we wanted on the menu because none of the waiters spoke English (guess I should have studied harder in Spanish class last fall!). Birthday Boy commandeered the camera that day, and let's just say we have a lot of pictures of the forts and some random buildings. It was really freaking hot that day, and we had to cut the second fort short because I was feeling dehydrated and light-headed and needed Gatorade, stat! Thankfully, Birthday Boy was happy to oblige and then we spent some time in Spicy Caribe, which is a pretty popular store, and we bought some Puerto Rican coffee and mango and pineapple jams. Birthday Boy offered to buy me an early birthday present in the Coach outlet, but I decided to wait (after all, I need something to open when I visit him in Pittsburgh for my birthday next month!). For lunch that day, I loved what I got (arroz con pollo, chicken and rice with fried plantains), and so did Birthday Boy, which was a good thing, because the mahi mahi he got was HORRIBLE and he ended up eating most of mine. We made it back to the hotel in time to spend some time lying by the pool, even though the wind had started to blow pretty hard at that point, so we quickly moved to our patio and drank some Modela light. We had some amazing sushi that night, mostly because there were pieces of plantain on top of a lot of the rolls! We *heart* plantains. Of course, we went back to Piu Bello for more gelato that night. I had coffee and dulche de leche. Delicious.

Our fourth day was another pool/beach day. We just chilled and relaxed that day and got some more sun. We played in the ocean a lot that afternoon, too, which was also fun. I love holding onto my boyfriend in the waves! I switched it up that night and had mango sorbet instead of gelato. It was good, don't get me wrong, but it was no gelato...

Our last day was our rainforest adventure. This was one of the most amazing days I've ever had. We got picked up at 7 by our tour guides from Acampa, and their names were Raymond and Roqui, and they were fantastic. We drove to the Caribbean (south) side of the island and then back north through the mountains. I will never drive in Puerto Rico - those mountain roads are one lane and the drivers drive like MANIACS. It was totally scary. When we got to the Toro Negro rain forest, we hiked down to some mountain pools. Wow, that water was COLD! But I didn't even notice after a while, because it was SO much fun. It was muddy and I got so dirty, and I loved ever second of it. We rock climbed up a waterfall, and now I want to take up rock climbing because I loved it. We had a great lunch - chicken and rice and more plantains and the best mangos I've ever had. After lunch, we did a lot more hiking that involved some baby rappelling (just down some slippery muddy hills) and then we went ziplining. Totally doing that again as soon as I can! We saw all of this totally pristine rain forest and Raymond and Roqui were so passionate about preservation of Puerto Rico, it was really inspiring. Totally a perfect day. I mean, how beautiful is this?

Another couple on the tour (there were 12 of us total on the tour) were staying at our hotel, so we had dinner with them that night at a little Italian restaurant near the hotel. And then of course - gelato! That night, I got cinnamon and piu bello oreo, and I ate every last bite. Check it out! 

We came back to Chicago the next morning, after a too-long stopover in the Orlando airport. We didn't want to come home and would have loved to have stayed longer. We had a fantastic time - we learned that we travel really well together and Birthday Boy was pleasantly surprised by how low key I could be when I didn't have to be places at certain times. We're looking forward to traveling again together soon, and I think this trip really brought us a lot closer together :).

links: technorati