San Juan, Puerto Rico

Wow- I know I do a lot of posts about traveling, and boy do I know I'm spoiled in that area. Humor me for two more before I leave on my mission.
Once upon a time 5 years ago my mom started working for jetblue. I immediately set to work researching all the places they flew and discovering that if I could only go one place on that list I wanted it to be Puerto Rico. I set to work writing essays for my parents of why we should go, why it was the best place to go. After a while I was convinced that it was pretty much out of the question. 5 years later I find myself at the end of my flight benefits, but with a last minute plan to finally go to Puerto Rico. So was it all that to get my hopes up about? Yes, I believe it was.
It kind of reminded me of Hawaii, except everyone spoke Spanish, the food was Mexican, and it was much less touristy.


Meet the party bus. You thought school buses were just for children on field trips? Well this one travels downtown blinged out and looking for people who want to party- I actually don't know it's real purpose, but everyone cheered each time it passed.

 Streets full of little taco and churro busses and all sorts of snacks. The best tasting is awarded to the dulce de leche churro. The weirdest snack eaten out of a bus goes to....strange fried banana scone filled with unknown fish and what tasted like tomato paste. Not bad though.

 What a better way to spend a Saturday than walking around Old Historic San Juan- filled with people flying kites on the open grass, statues, many many island cats, beautiful views and cemeteries, and an old fortress (who's pictures are scattered).

Now it's occurring to me that I probably should have turned some of these into collages...oh well. 

Many colorful simple houses packed everywhere. 

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Seriously, there are cats running wild everywhere. We even saw the policeman playing with one- of course when he saw us he went right back to his post. 

people flying kites

 Best statue award goes to the sheep with the flag.

Erika- these sheep statues remind me of something you would like.

 If you stare at this tower too long- you will be convinced it will fall on you.

Another day of boogie boarding and being lazy on the beach. 

 A day of hiking and driving through the jungle and finding waterfalls and great views.

And then the last day which includes no pictures of zip lining and midnight kayaking at  the bio luminescent bay. 

Zip lining for me certainly shoved out the door the possibility to still be afraid of heights. Especially in those moments when I got stuck hanging above the canyon and would either have to pull myself in or wait for someone to come get me. But I love that feeling of flying through the air over the canopy of lovely trees and smells and rivers. 

And the bio bay- in case you don't know what it is, is a river covered by mangrove trees and lake full of these micro organisms that glow when they are moved. They light up like little stars under your hand- it's incredible. Really it's  an awesome experience that I can't quite explain. 

And here's a video of some music being played on the streets (which really was everywhere, the people are just so happy!) But be warned, you should just listen to it, and not actually watch it, because it will make you motion sick to watch- I wasn't quite paying attention to holding the camera.