two tickets to paradise

A few weeks ago Isaac was at work and I was at home, and as we were chatting via gtalk (which makes Isaac's productivity suffer) Isaac said he thought we should go to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico? I'd seen it on the American Idol auditions, but that was about my extent of knowledge of this US Territory.

How niave I was to the tropical paradise that resides only a four hour direct flight away. We had the most amazing time on our five day vacation; Puerto Rico is truly the Isla Del Encanto!

Day One:
The first two nights of our vacation we stayed on the east side of the island at the amazing Gran Melia Resort. The marble, the ocean, the pools, the food, the openness, the palm trees, the hammocks, the room... it was all perfect. And let us not forget the iguanas that Isaac chased around all weekend.

To get to the resort, you had to pass through a gate off the main road and head about 5 miles down a private road that was lined with palm trees.

After arriving on Friday afternoon, we spent the rest of our day swimming, relaxing, and exploring. Thank heavens for the two loaves of banana bread that sustained us while we were too busy to stop and waste time eating!

Day Two:
Based on the information provided us by our trusty companion, we set off the next morning in search of the best snorkling and swimming beaches on the east side. Although the GPS was not so helpful on this island paradise, Isaac pulled some amazing moves and found the beach that was said to have the best snorking in the area. Much to our chagrin, however, there weren't any snorkle gear rental shops around (and the beach didn't look that good anyway) so we canned the idea of snorkling and decided to find a place to swim.

Upon pulling up to Luquillo Beach, Isaac said "We have arrived!" It was indeed the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. And the sand, oh the sand! I had forgotten (or more likely, never known) that sand on a beach, and in the ocean, could feel so good. There were no rocks, no shells, no pokey anything. We spent the day body surfing and swimming and getting totally burnt. We were starting to get tired and hungry and decided it was probably almost time to head back to the hotel, when Isaac looked at his watch and it was only 1pm! We ate lunch at a roadside vendor and swam some more. It was pure heaven.

The highlight of the day was when Isaac spotted a baby sea turtle swimming right next to us. We both got to hold the little guy for a few minutes until a wave crashed over us and swept our friend off to his next adventure. For dinner, we stopped at a kiosk and had our first of many (many, many, many) pina coladas. I had the best crab taco on the planet, and Isaac had a chicken taco. Mmmmm.


One thing we both really wanted to do while in Puerto Rico was see the famed biolouminescence. There are only 4 bays in the world with such a high concentration of these glowing microbes and three of them are in Puerto Rico (the fourth is in Japan, and I doubt we'll make it there anytime soon).

We signed up for an evening kayak ride and took off at about 10pm. We kayaked in pitch black for about 45 minutes, through the ocean and then through a very long and narrow grove of mangrove trees, until we were at the bio bay. The kayak in front of us had a tiny glow stick attached to it, that was the only way we knew where to go. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Every movement would cause the water to glow. Around the kayaks and paddles were orbs of light, we could see fish darting through the water because of the light they left behind, and it was so fun to stick our hands in the water and bring them up covered in glowing things. Totally amazing. Biggest regret is that we didn't get any pictures! We got back from the trip around midnight, totally soaked and freezing and filthy dirty, but it was so worth it. You can read a bit more about it here and here.


Tomorrow: The rest of the trip!