My Trip To Puerto Rico: Part 1

WARNING!!! What you are about to see is a very, VERY white woman who doesn’t tan (at all) in an extremely over the top modest swimsuit (due to my fear of sunburn) and the photos may cause some temporary blindness. I’m NO SWIMSUIT MODEL and I’m owning that. I’m happy to report that I did not get burned at all. I looked exactly the same from arrival to departure. ? Image above via Sonya Payne.

Planning a tropical trip in February is the way to go because if you haven’t noticed, MN downright stinks this time of year and I think it’s a healthy excuse to run away from it all for a little bit.

 

For Nate and I, this was our first tropical getaway. Our friends, Dave and Sonya, invited us to join them in Puerto Rico for a week and it didn’t take very long for us to say yes! It’s non-stop laughter with these guys and we love them dearly!  We had the privilege of meeting their good friends, Jake and Nikki, while on our tropical adventure, as well. Any friends of Dave and Sonya are going to be good folks. Jake and Nikki were amazing. Very down to earth and it felt like we’d known them for a long time.  

 

On Saturday at 4:30 am (at a temperature of 12 degrees) we picked Dave and Sonya up on our way to the airport, ready to party. When we arrived at the airport it seemed like everyone wanted to head for the equator. It was SO PACKED! The lines were horrible. We noticed there was a shorter line outside, so we braved it and stood in the below-freezing temperatures with thoughts of sunny beaches warming our hearts. Sonya and I had sandals on and our little bare toes were exposed, so the boys let us go inside for a bit while they held our spots in line. 

Leaving MN!

Flying over the clear, blue Atlantic made me feel giddy. The sun was out and the most beautiful white puffy clouds filled the sky. I’d never traveled farther south than Florida, so Puerto Rico sounded really exciting and new. 

Over the Atlantic!

Arrived!!!

After our flight arrived in San Juan we had a tight deadline to meet because we were headed to the island of Vieques for the first half of the week. Jake and Nikki were flying from Oregon and ended up having a delay, so they were coming in later that night. Long story short: we drove like crazy across eastern Puerto Rico and made it onto the ferry to Vieques with 4 minutes to spare. 

When we arrived at our destination we saw horses, roosters, and lizards (Oh, my!). They were everywhere. When Nate and I road tripped through the UK, the sheep took over the narrow, winding roads. In Vieques, the horses (brought over by the Spanish) and roosters took over the narrow, winding roads. It was so funny to see random kids riding these horses through town with no saddles. By the time we got to the place we were renting, we were starving!

I wasn’t a fan of the food in Vieques. Some of it was okay, but nothing to write home about. Not that it was poorly prepared; it turns out that I just don’t really care for Puerto Rican food.  However, we did learn about some restaurants in Puerto Rico that I will brag about in Part 2 of this post. 

A lot of places closed early on the little island of Vieques, except the bars. We ended up finding a cute place to eat at the Vieques Food Park called Rincon del Sabor. As I said, it was okay. Most of the food has plantains, beans, and rice and is seasoned with A LOT of garlic (but not much else). I mean my breath was kickin’ like Jean Claude Van Damme! Now, a lot the food is shipped over to Vieques, but traditionally the islanders had limited resources, so they learned to make foods with the ingredients that they could grow. Some of the locals told us that they load their cars onto the ferry to Puerto Rico and go buy groceries from Costco every 6 weeks or so. 

The place we rented (Hacienda BellaVista) was AMAZING! The view was AMAZING! There were two homes on grounds that overlooked the island. Getting to the place was an adventure. The roads are tight and the turns are sharp. The driveway alone was something out of an Indiana Jones movie; you know the iconic scene when the huge boulder comes rolling down the path, ready to crush you?!? Fun road!

It was such a lovely place to take a break from life and relax. It was the kind of place that made you feel like, “Yep, I must be doing okay, because I’m right here right now.” I’m just going to show you the video. It speaks for itself. 

 

Waking up there and eating breakfast on the open air porch was breathtaking. I savored every second of that view.

The location made such an impact that I was even willing to overlook the lizards, beetles, and spiders that lived there.

Image via Dave Payne

We had lots of lizards on the walls, inside and out. They only startled me once when one ran across my towel when I was reaching for it in the bathroom. Whenever I was done getting items out of my suitcase, I would always zip it up, so no stowaways would travel back to the states with me. The lizards were pretty cute, especially when they were doing their push-ups, so they didn’t bother me at all. 

This is where we ate and played games. 🙂

I want this room!!!

 

Swimming in the pool with that view was awesome. When we were done at the beach, we’d hang out around the pool. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Image via Dave Payne

Image via Dave Payne

Can you guess what this says?

Image via Dave Payne

Speaking of lizards and swimming… OH MY GOSH, a HUGE IGUANA made its way right up to the pool. Sonya noticed it and said, “Melessa, you might want to get out of the pool on the other side because a HUGE iguana is right next to you.” If I didn’t get that heads up I would have totally pooped myself in the pool, people! Check out the photos of this guy that walked over to hang out with us. YIKES!! The warmer it gets, the bigger the bugs and reptiles!! We also saw some tarantulas crossing the road. They were so big!

Okay, let’s talk beaches. WOW! So calm, so lovely, and so secluded. I love a beach when you feel like you have it all to yourself. Those are the best. The photos don’t do it justice. The water was like bath water and very clear. I can’t say enough about how lovely they were. We had to go down some crazy bumpy narrow roads to find these places which made the experience even more fun. There were wild horses on the beach and a couple of naked dudes when the girls and I took a nice walk along the beach.  And the iguanas scared the crap out of us as they sprinted right across the path in front of us. It was funny watching the guys get startled. I’ll just show you photos. 

Sun Bay Beach – Vieques

 

La Chiva Beach – Vieques

Image above via Dave Payne

 

One of the main reasons we chose to go to Vieques at the beginning of February was the new moon. The best time to see the bioluminescent bay is when there is no moonlight.  Wow, Wow, Wow! If you haven’t done this yet, add it to your bucket list because it is a must see. It was truly magical. 

Image of a hand lifting up the water. Image via Mosquito Bay.

There are five bioluminescent bays in the entire world: Luminous Lagoon in Jamaica, Halong Bay in Vietnam, and Puerto Rico’s Laguna Grande, La Parguera, and Mosquito Bay. Mosquito Bay is currently the brightest of all the locations, so of course, that’s the one we did. When the water is agitated it creates a very pale blue/green glow that is absolutely stunning. It’s like something from the movie Avatar. The glow in the water comes from micro-organisms called flagellates. In the Bioluminescent Bay, there are specific species of dinoflagellate, that are able to make their food via photosynthesis. 

Image via Mosquito Bay.

We went kayaking in clear kayaks. So, as you paddled all the little dinoflagellates illuminated and the bottom of the kayak and it looked like you were on a spaceship jumping into hyperspace. When you stopped the kayak, the micro-organisms just sparkled below you like pixies. Even more amazing was seeing all the fish swimming below. The stingrays were amazing to watch. There were definitely a couple times we saw some really big glowing movement that went from cool to a little creepy as they passed beneath our boats. They were bigger than stingrays. Maybe a barracuda… maybe a shark… I didn’t really want to know. 

 

When you put your hands in the water, the dinoflagellates glittered in your hands in the most beautiful way. We did everything you could think of to agitate the water, with the exception of jumping in. Our guide asked us not to jump in, so we behaved. It was tempting, but after seeing some larger fish moving around down there, I wasn’t so tempted. ? We brushed our paddles around the top of the water, dragged our paddles in deep, smacked the water, flicked it, sprinkled it, you name it. I couldn’t get enough of this magical moment. Experiencing something like this confirmed my feelings that there is so much more out there that don’t understand or are even aware of.

Sailing and Snorkeling at Ensenada Honda – Vieques

Okay, I had never been snorkeling before, so when we sailed out to a reef I was thinking, “Oh, I thought we’d be much closer to the shore.” Nope! As someone who always breathes through my nose (even in my sleep) making the adjustment to all of the sudden breath through my mouth felt crazy at first. My body was like, “What the HELL are you doing, Melessa! You must be out of your damn mind!” After I put my face down in the water (not at all close to the shore, I might add) the only thing I could hear was my deep breathing, amplified like Darth Vader.  Very unnerving!

I’d also like to point out that my body doesn’t float. I’m a sinker. So, trying to maneuver to stay on top of the water while battling feelings of claustrophobia were really challenging. Mind over matter, right? That’s what I had to keep telling myself. I asked for a small life vest to take the edge off and it worked. I did it and I’m glad I stuck with it. Check out what we saw. 

I feel like I’m missing stuff. We saw SO much! All in all, Vieques is a humble Island with two small towns, great home rentals, stunning secluded beaches, and a Bioluminescent Bay that will leave you in awe.

Next week I’ll recap my visit to the main island of Puerto Rico. 

 

XOXO

Melessa