{ El Yunque Rainforest }

Aaron had planned out all of the activities we were going to do all week, and each day we would finalize the activities for the next day at the front desk. Some of the day trips that left from the resort had a minimum number of people that needed to sign up for them to take the tour. We had planned on taking our tour to Old San Juan today, but at the last minute it got switched to taking our hike through the El Yunque Rainforest.

I swapped out my necklace for a pair of tennis shoes and we were on our way. We got lucky and had a tour guide that is a forest ranger at the rainforest. His name was Frank, and he was on vacation leave from work, but agreed with the resort to do this tour. He was a local and the whole trip on the bus to the rainforest he clued us in on everything about Puerto Rico. More on that when I blog about our visit to old San Juan, but he did let us know some great local foods and restaurants within walking distance from the resort we could go to.

One of the things he told us was how the weather is always 50% chance of rain. When we looked at the weather for the week we were a bit worried and thought that we would see rain the whole week. He laughed and said the weather forecast is always 50% chance of rain-and 50% of the time they are right.We ended up having overcast weather for most of the trip, and any sprinkles were missed by us because the tree cover was so massive where we were walking. We stopped by a waterfall at the beginning of the trail, and then took a small hike for the next few hours in the rainforest. We took our hike on the Bano De Oro Trail, a small trail that most of the other tourist usually don’t take. It was nice to have it all to ourselves and get a lot of first hand information from our expert guide. Baño de Oro is a former swimming hole. The water hole takes its name from the Río Baño de Oro, which feeds the pool. The name means 'bath of gold' in English, and Spaniards gave the river this name because they mined for gold here in the 16th century. The Baño de Oro Natural Area surrounding the pool is the catchment area for the river and pool.
This is the old swimming house that the trail got it’s name from. It is so crazy how the forest has almost just enveloped the whole building. The rainforest gets about 200 inches of rain a year, so everything there grows super fast. It didn’t take long for the building to be almost completely hidden in the mass of trees.With so much rain, there wasn’t just moss on the shady side of a tree here, but everything was covered is this soft green layer of moss. I think if we would have stood still long enough, we would have started sprouting a little of the green stuff as well. Our guide wanted to make sure we knew this was a touching forest, and encouraged us to touch everything. The moss felt like a layer of feathers that grew out of the wood, it was so soft.We hiked by a small stream that continued to waterfall down the whole mountain. Our guide said that is was their local, “Fountain of Youth”. They believed it would keep them young forever. We took turns having a drink, and he told us a story about this tree on the other side of the trail.

I loved how Frank was so sincere in all he did. You could tell he loved what he did, and found a lot of peace out here in the Lord’s creations. He told how he used to be in the military and after returning from being deployed in Desert Storm he was having a hard time with PTSD, and had turned to a lot of the things the world had to offer to help (drinking and other addictions). He became depressed and really wanted a change. He showed us this tree....and explained that when he got this job and was able to be out here in the rainforest day in and day out, his life took a sharp bend, just like this tree. He became happy and well from his PTSD. It was such a touching moment to be out there and feel his testimony that someone else in this universe cared about his well being. He got choked up, and you could tell how much happiness this place brought him. The rainforest was fun to hike through, and interested to see, but to see his love for it, really make the trip worth it. I think I will always remember him when I think of our hike that day.We had hoped to see some beautiful birds there that day, but there were quite a few people there hiking and I think most of the birds were scared off. We did see a lot of small creatures that Frank pointed out to us along the way. Snails, walking sticks, sounds of birds, and the sound of the famous Puerto Rican Coqui frog. We didn’t get a picture of one, but they make this really loud chirping sound, almost like a bird, and there are suppose to be 800 of them in every cubic foot of the forest. That makes for some really loud sounds at times in there. It wasn’t necessarily a quite place.They had some itty bitty orchids that would grow on the side of trees or on the underside of leaves. This one was about the size of a small pea. It was so small, yet every little detail was still intact. It was quite amazing. It’s the yellow and red thing on the upper leaf.There were rocks along the way that showed proof of how the island was formed from hot volcanic rock that would slide down and cool, and of course would then grow moss on it, just like everything else here.As our touring was coming to an end, we topped the summit to take some pictures, and then the rain started. We couldn’t have asked for better timing. The clouds hung so low and just kind of hung on the mountain the rest of the day. We could see the mountain from our resort, and it was beautiful and sunny there, and then cloudy on the mountain. I guess with 200 inches of rain a year, it pretty much just rains all the time. When we got back to the resort we decided to take a walk down by the Marina into town to eat lunch at a local place. The meal that everyone had recommended was a dish called Mofongo. Mofongo is a mashed mound of plantains into which a combination of seafood, meat, or vegetables is added. It can be served as a side dish or a main course accompanied typically by beans and rice. They mash up the plantains and form it into this sort of bundt cake shape, then the meat is put into the middle and inside of it. There was a ton of meat that was served with it, and the plantains tasted kind of like potatoes. I didn’t happen to take any pictures, but I found this picture from online (friendseat.com) that is pretty close to what ours looked like. Aaron had a kind of fish with his, and I had some shrimp, and then some beans and rice on the side. Our was also topped with your choice of sauce like this one is. We really had no clue what any of the sauces were like, so just had the man put on his favorite one, and it turned out great. It was nice to taste a little of the authentic local fair.

{ Kayaking to Fajardo’s Bioluminescence Bay at Night }

Aaron had planned a special activity for our anniversary day (tomorrow), but we ended up going to it tonight instead. Bioluminescence Bay is located right next to our resort, and for most of the day is remains pretty calm, with just a few boats coming and going. As nighttime approaches though it becomes flooded with people and companies taking tourist on kayak trips into the Bioluminescence Lagoon. What’s so great about this Lagoon? It glows. Yep, glows. In the bay and lagoon are tiny flagellates, which are micro-organisms. They spend their day at the bottom of the bay collecting energy from the sun, but when night comes they swim to the top to feed. In the process of photosynthesis which makes it’s food, a light is emitted when it is disturbed by any movement and causes a glowing effect.

We got there with one other couple from our resort, and loaded up with the hundreds of others there to see this amazing phenomenon. We were instructed to wear our swimsuits or clothes that could get wet, so I decided to leave my camera behind. It was almost pitch black where we were, so I’m not sure that the glow would have even shown up. I will do my best to describe it along with some pictures I can find online.

There was individual and two man kayaks. We of course went on a two person one, and boy was that an experience. Aaron and I have never been kayaking together before, and let me tell you-it’s a real marriage builder. Aaron was in back as the steering guide and I was the front navigator. Not a good idea to put a bossy navigator in front. Let’s just say, by the end Aaron was a saint, and was still okay being married to me.=)

It wouldn’t have been so bad, but by the time we paddled all the way out there, it was pitch black. They gave everyone glow sticks that were placed on the kayaks so we could follow each other out to the lagoon without getting separated from the other members of our group. There were about 20 kayaks total in our group alone. We got loaded up and then had to follow each other through this passageway that would lead into the lagoon. As we were going through it, it kind of reminded me of a dark spooky swamp. There were trees on either side, so it was super tricky to not run unto the side and get stuck in a tree.

The trees that surrounded the banks were for the most part mango trees. The mangos drop into the water and the high concentration of B12 that they contain are what adds to the perfect conditions for this glowing effect to happen. As we were paddling we would hear loud splashes as mangos were constantly dropping into the water. I was just sure one of us were going to be knocked out by a huge mango falling on our heads.

When we were about halfway into the passageway, it was finally dark enough as we were away from the city lights to see the glowing. They had us run our hands through the water and watch. Wow, talk about a super science fiction movie type experience. It was as if your whole hand was glowing. It would last a few seconds and then slowly dissipate.

This picture I found online, and I think is a bit photo shopped, but hopefully you get the idea. I think that the light actually looked more sparkly that a solid light. It was like there was bright fairy dust that was glowing and floating in the water.The coolest thing was when a fish would swim by. It looked like a firework squiggling through the sky. Once we kayaked out to the lagoon, they let us just sit there and play around a bit while we watched. You could scoop up some water, and then watch these glowing water droplets fall off your hand. It was just SO cool. I had no idea what to expect, but it was by far one of our favorite things to see.

They used to let people get out and swim, which would have been super fun, but the sunscreen and bug spray from people are damaging the environment of the water and actually killing off some of the micro-organisms that create this magnificent glow. This picture is a bit more accurate (greeblemonkey.com),this family did get to go swimming, and they have a few more pictures on their blog.

{ Palomino Island and Snorkeling in Fajardo}

Our first full day in Puerto Rico started our with gorgeous weather, perfect for us to have a full day at the beach and snorkeling. We ate a buffet brunch at the resort’s Las Brisas Restaurant-fresh fruit, pancakes, waffles, fresh made omelets, cereal, juice. The restaurant was situated just below where we were staying, so we got to enjoy the most amazing views out the restaurant’s floor to ceiling windows that surrounded the whole restaurant’s exterior-just like the views out our room’s balcony.

We finalized our afternoon snorkeling trip and than caught the 11:30am ferry out to the island. If we thought we were in paradise before, boy were we impressed to see that the real paradise was out on this island. It was absolutely breathtaking. It was like every beautiful photo shopped island picture in the latest travel magazine-with crystal clear turquoise water, white soft beaches, palm leaf umbrellas, and perfect blue skies-only this was very real, and very unphoto shopped. It made me love the beauty of this earth all over again.

Loving my “soccer” tan I’ve been working on all spring in preparation for this trip. Nice. I spent all week trying to blend in those nice white arms of mine to the rest of my tan arms and face.I still can’t get over how blue and absolutely clear this water was! Everywhere the water looks a darker blue is where there was a coral reef with tons of fish swimming around it.

We were a little surprised how empty the whole beach (and resort for that matter) was. When we asked someone about it, they said that the just got done with 3 weeks of Spring Break madness, and this was heaven to have almost no one here. Who knew? What a blessing for us to have our pick of the beach chairs, and any part of the beach we wanted. We scouted out a great spot to sit, and then walked around this side of the island, picking up coral pieces to take back to the kids, and seeing all the island wildlife.

True to his nature, Aaron couldn’t pass up a soccer ball and net and not kick in a few goals. Soccer is fun everywhere, especially on a paradise island.

A little ways out from the main island was a tiny little island that some people would kayak or ride a wave runner to. We found out later that is was pretty shallow and you could have swam out there, but it a was a little ways. It was like those tiny islands they talk about being stranded on-with about one tree and nothing else. That was about it-but it sure did seem enchanting to me.We checked out our snorkeling gear from the shop, and spent some time snorkeling in this area before out official snorkeling trip later that afternoon. It was super shallow (only about 6ft), but full of many tropical fish. The water was so clear that you could see many of them from just standing up and looking down without even any goggles on.

At about 2pm we met our snorkeling boat out on the island dock, where we were taken about 15 minutes away to the Fajardo National Park (I didn’t actually know you could have an underwater National Park, but I guess you can), on the northeastern side of Puerto Rico, where we would snorkel and some would scuba dive for a couple of hours.

Our driver was so funny-he was totally local, and after every sentence he would say, “Okay?, okay”. It reminded me of someone from Minnesota who says, “Ay” all the time.

They dropped anchor and we snorkeled off of the boat for a couple of hours just on our own. We took some pictures with our underwater camera I still have yet to develop that I’ll have to add later. Some people we talked to later that go scuba diving a lot around the world said that this was some of the best water they have ever snorkeled/scuba dove in anywhere. We felt lucky to take it all in.

We snorkeled mostly in this water here. This island is Culebra Island, and was part of a small chain of islands in the area. Here we are after we went out snorkeling. You can really tell my nice farmer’s tan here. Love it. The water was so warm and mild. In the picture below us, is where some of the scuba divers in our group went diving-where those white buoys are.

More pictures of all the small islands around us.

When we jumped out of the boat and started snorkeling, it was so cool to look down and be able to see all the way to the bottom of the ocean-no seaweed, no dirty water, just clear as could be. It was so amazing. As we drove back, I was looking in the water, and even from the boat I could see down to the bottom some. Such clear and pure water-I loved it. As we were boating back and forth from the islands, I was taken back by just how much water there is on the earth. A really random thought, but it just struck me as we were constantly surrounded by water how much life is in the ocean, and really how little land there is around it. It was a testimony builder for me of how much thought and love our Heavenly Father put into creating this earth. Though I never would have the stomach to be a sailor, I can see how calming the sea would be and the lure for some to sail the seven seas. It’s quite amazing being out there.

That night we got dressed up a bit, and went to eat at a nice restaurant down by the marina called the Stingray Café. It had some of the best seafood I have tasted-so fresh and presented in such a classy way. It was nice. We both tried some local soups, and had great fish, lobster, and some steaks. It was a beautiful evening with a nice cool breezy coming in off the shore. I love that even though it is warm here during the day, at nice it still cools down a little. It was a wonderful taste of paradise at it’s best.