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kmusserOn to 2023. One of the things I've started to do is try and take advantage of the fact that I'm fully remote which means if I'm willing to work while travelling I can do so with taking minimal vacation time. I tried it out with some of the Ocean City and family trips and it seemed to work pretty well. So in February Sam was wanting some sun time so we headed to Puerto Rico with a working trip in mind. So there's not quite so much sight seeing since I'd be working a good chunk of the time, but still got to enjoy the scenery and most especially for this trip, the food.
Pictures at https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipMX3_1Grzbu5NwkSDWrxaHEG3eEX-fyPfR5ASlY
Days 1-2. Flying into San Juan and staying in a relatively quiet residential area. First couple of days are nothing too exciting, though we do take advantage of the Puerto Rican cuisine and also check out the Santurce market/nightlife hot spot - it's nice since most of the restaurants and bars are open air so you can just walk by and enjoy all the music. Also their restaurants tend to have in house DJs all the time, that's different!
Day 3 is for the touristy parts of San Juan, a walking tour of the old town, the El Morro fortress which Sam has a family connection to, and a long hike along the coast below the fortress and back to old town - there are many kitties and lizards - also first of many mofongo meals.
Day 4 is a full day, we head in to the interior visiting botanical gardens in Caguas and then a drive via Cidra and various adventurous backroads to a coffee plantation and then east to Humacao and up the coast via Naguabo beach to Fajardo where we'll be staying for a couple days. Surreptitiously checking out ranches we pass to see if the crazy erosion values I often map for Puerto Rico for work seem right, and yeah, those cows are on vertical pastures, seems legit.
Day 5 we visit Puerto Rico's rain forest (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Yunque_National_Forest), sadly we don't have time to go to deep into it, but we do a short walk to a waterfall and then spend a good chunk of the day doing an ATV tour on the border of the forest. The ATV's were a lot of fun, first time either of us had driven one, proved to be one of the highlights of the trip.
Days 6-9 My notes give out for most of the Fajardo portion and I know I spent a good chunk of it working and weather was being uncooperative for much of it. We were staying in a high rise with fantastic views and could often hear music drifting up from across the bay. Sometime in here we did get some beach time and did a little snorkeling just off the beach and then we also went out on a snorkeling boat - weather wasn't ideal for it, but still many fishies were seen. Also a failed attempt to see Fajardo's bioluminescent bay via kayak - I knew I was near their weight limit but on the phone they said they had some heavier duty kayaks, but that turned out to be a lie and I could not sit on them without flipping over in still water, they did refund us, but still very frustrating.
Day 10 Drive along the North coast back to San Juan and of course weather on last day is lovely, we do stop along the way at a nature preserve and get a last hike in. All in all a good trip, I'd definitely go back, felt like we barely scratched the surface here.
Pictures at https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipMX3_1Grzbu5NwkSDWrxaHEG3eEX-fyPfR5ASlY
Days 1-2. Flying into San Juan and staying in a relatively quiet residential area. First couple of days are nothing too exciting, though we do take advantage of the Puerto Rican cuisine and also check out the Santurce market/nightlife hot spot - it's nice since most of the restaurants and bars are open air so you can just walk by and enjoy all the music. Also their restaurants tend to have in house DJs all the time, that's different!
Day 3 is for the touristy parts of San Juan, a walking tour of the old town, the El Morro fortress which Sam has a family connection to, and a long hike along the coast below the fortress and back to old town - there are many kitties and lizards - also first of many mofongo meals.
Day 4 is a full day, we head in to the interior visiting botanical gardens in Caguas and then a drive via Cidra and various adventurous backroads to a coffee plantation and then east to Humacao and up the coast via Naguabo beach to Fajardo where we'll be staying for a couple days. Surreptitiously checking out ranches we pass to see if the crazy erosion values I often map for Puerto Rico for work seem right, and yeah, those cows are on vertical pastures, seems legit.
Day 5 we visit Puerto Rico's rain forest (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Yunque_National_Forest), sadly we don't have time to go to deep into it, but we do a short walk to a waterfall and then spend a good chunk of the day doing an ATV tour on the border of the forest. The ATV's were a lot of fun, first time either of us had driven one, proved to be one of the highlights of the trip.
Days 6-9 My notes give out for most of the Fajardo portion and I know I spent a good chunk of it working and weather was being uncooperative for much of it. We were staying in a high rise with fantastic views and could often hear music drifting up from across the bay. Sometime in here we did get some beach time and did a little snorkeling just off the beach and then we also went out on a snorkeling boat - weather wasn't ideal for it, but still many fishies were seen. Also a failed attempt to see Fajardo's bioluminescent bay via kayak - I knew I was near their weight limit but on the phone they said they had some heavier duty kayaks, but that turned out to be a lie and I could not sit on them without flipping over in still water, they did refund us, but still very frustrating.
Day 10 Drive along the North coast back to San Juan and of course weather on last day is lovely, we do stop along the way at a nature preserve and get a last hike in. All in all a good trip, I'd definitely go back, felt like we barely scratched the surface here.