first….

first, puerto rico… its been over two weeks since i got back, but i’ve been just too busy to write!! ok, so here goes…

the plane ride there was the first time i’d ever been on a plane in my life, but it was amazing– i managed to snag a window seat on our tiny “airbus”(only one aisle… 3 seats on each side of it) when we landed many of us were very pleasantly surprised to find out that not only did we have cell-phone service, but many of us (myself included) had better reception there than we did in our own homes (case-in-point… at my house my cell varies between 0 reception and 3 bars of service… in the airport i had full service [5 bars] ) not only that, but there weren’t even any roaming charges attatched (at least not for me)  any who… we went to the hotel, and then we had about 5 hours of free time before dinner… so i went to the beach with two of my roommates (jess and robin) for about 2 hours.. there was quite a bit of hard coral in the water though, and i kept stubbing my toes… then jess (who was running on pure adrenaline– she was just so excited to be there i guess :-/) decided she wanted to go walking around San Juan (the city we were in) well, we had been warned by our tour guide that the part of san juan that we were in wasn’t the safest place in the world, and if we wanted to walk around, we had to go in groups of at least 3… i didn’t really want to go– i was tired, but i wanted to be nice so i went along… i wish i hadn’t though… the street she led us down was dirty and gross… not the poorest section of the city, but still bad enough… and when we got back to the hotel, my sandals had rubbed my feet raw… i went back to my room and read a book for about 45 min or so (until it was almost dinnertime) while jess and robin went out again to who-knows-where… that first day, no one was allowed out of the hotel after dinner (7pm) which kinda sucked…we went swimming in the hotel swimming pool, but otherwise the first day as a whole was pretty much a bust, and left a lot of people complaining

day two– we took a bus ride across the bridge into Old San Juan, which is actually a smaller island off the coast of Puerto Rico. Old San Juan was so much fun… we took a walking tour along Paseo La Princesa (path of the princess) and along the wall (there’s a wall that completely surrounds the island of Old San Juan) and up into El Morro, which was the fort that guarded one of the only entryways onto the island in colonial times. then we were given maps of the island and allowed to go shopping in the area for about 2 hours. then we went back to the hotel… me and jess went out to the beach, until it started to thunder, and we walked the 3 blocks back to the hotel in the rain– which was fun in and of itself– the rain wasn’t hard, and because it was hot and humid, the rain felt good… it stopped raining almost as soon as we got back to the hotel, but we had to get showered and changed for dinner at a local restaurant… dinner consisted of chicken over some sort of pasta and herbs (supposedly a typical local dish) but many of us were left feeling hungry afterwards, because it wasn’t very much at all, so we stopped by a Baskin Robbins just across the street for some dessert… after we got back to the hotel, jess and i went for a walk on the beach by moonlight (the second night we were allowed out late) when we got back again, we had to pack because the next day we would be leaving the hotel by 8 am

day three– jess and i got up early (5am) to watch the sunrise on the beach…  it would have been more beautiful if it hadn’t been so cloudy, and the few pictures i did get ended up ruined (thats another story) we went back to the hotel, slept a little more, grabbed some breakfast, and then got on the bus… it was about a half hour ride to El Yunque… the rainforest… the shuttle bus tour in the rain forest was fun, but i think i would have liked a walking tour a little more– there would have been more picture ops… we did get out at one point and take one of the more famous of the many trails– the one that passes by La Mina Falls… the falls were gorgeous… and the water was so clear and cool… there was a pool of water at the base of the falls that we were allowed to swim in for a little bit… unfortunately i dropped my camera (not waterproof) into the water… some of my pictures still turned out OK with only a few spots… but the pictures i had taken earlier that morning of the sunrise and some the the pictures of the flora in the forest were completely ruined… i’ve learned my lesson though… next time its waterproof cameras all the way, no matter what! (they’re not that much more expensive than regular ones anyway) at the end of the trail, we got back on the shuttle which took us to another waterfall (the name of which i can’t remember at the moment) i took a picture, but it was the last picture on that particular roll and as a result, it didn’t turn out 🙁  there was also a tower at the very end of the tour that we could climb to the top and take pictures of the surrounding mountains and whatnot… we had lunch at a nearby restuarant … lunch was arroz con pollo (rice with chicken and native herbs and spices) and flan (a carmelized custard) for dessert– it was the *best* flan i’ve ever had in my life… anyway, after that, it was a 20 minute ride to Luquillo, where we had a few hours to spend on the beach there… the stretch was the most beautiful i’ve ever seen, the sand was soft… but since it was a public beach, and it was a saturday, it was *extremely* crowded… all in all it wasn’t that bad… i got a nice tan while dozing on the beach– jess unfortunately turned into a lobster (lol)  it was about a 3 hour bus ride after that to Ponce, where we were to spend that night… the hotel was gorgeous (despite no pool) and it was right across the street from a souvenier shop… there was also a plaza nearby with a number of street vendors that had their handmade crafts for sale… so obviously, i simply *had* to buy a few things 😛 lol… we were only staying in Ponce for one night, so it was senseless to unpack anything… i simply made an attempt at making my suitcase more organized to assure that i hadn’t forgotten anything.

day four– we walked a few blocks from the hotel to a museum dedicated to the history of Ponce… extremely… facsinating *yawn* NOT… after the museum, we were supposed to take a trolley tour of historic ponce, but because our museum tour ran over time, our trolley tour got cut short… we had to be out of the hotel by one…after that we had a little extra time to go shoppin in the area around the plaza… then we took the bus to La Gauncha… if i had to compare it to something, its most similar to our Boardwalk (in NJ)…. we were allowed to eat lunch there (i had *empanadillas de carne*… kind of like a perogie, only with meat inside instead of potato), and there were a few street vendors.. (its no wonder i managed to spend so much money..) then we travelled to Las Pargueras and our 3rd hotel… there was a pool, and i went swimming for a bit that night.

day five– by far, the *best* day of the entire vacation… we walked out to the dock at about 10am to go snorkelling!! snorkelling was so much fun… i wish i could go scuba diving so that i could see more!! this time, i remembered to bring a wat