Puerto Rico, You Were Lovely

My long weekend in Puerto Rico was amazing.  It was so nice to get away from work and just relax and enjoy myself.  My goal this trip was to just go with the flow and have fun.  Relieve stress.  And it worked.  I spent most of Thursday on a plane, which kind of sucked, and which culminated in me flying as one of 6 people in this little puddle jumper in order to get to the island of Vieques:

I thought I would be terrified and motion sick but it was actually pretty thrilling.  It's way closer to the ground (so a great view!) and way closer to the feeling I imagine a bird would have while flying (as opposed to the feeling of walking upright through giant pressurized metal tubes that soar above the cloudlines).  Vieques was awesome.  We stayed at the W resort (quite posh) and had an ocean view room (see the first picture above).  The pool had latin music playing underneath the water another wading pool had incredible little lights in it that at dark looked like you were swimming the sky with constellations.  Every night they had free drinks at 6, and you could also borrow chairs and snorkel equipment for free.  Plus they had a firepit...

The first night we were there we ate at a delicious restaurant called Tin Box (you HAVE to get the bacon.  just trust me....) and then after a wrong turn and adventurous detour to a dead end road we met up with our tour guide back at the hotel and went on a night time biolumenescent kayaking tour on Bio Bay.  It was pretty spectacular, though unfortunately un-photographable...

The other cool/weird thing about Vieques?  Wild horses everywhere.  I mean everywhere.  Drinking out of the little decorative fountain next to our hotel room, rolling in the hotel's manicured grass, standing in huge fields, and even walking along the side of the road.

It wasn't quite what I had pictured when I heard "wild horses on an island" (I think I've read too many trashy romance novels....) but it was pretty cool none the less.  And we saw them everywhere.  The picture above is on our way to a gorgeous semi-secluded beach for an afternoon of relaxation after our late morning of snorkeling (more pictures of that when I get them from the other girls.  it was pretty awesome.  we even saw a sea turtle!!)

This is the gorgeous beach with the powdery sand, turquoise waters and rocky outcrops that created beautiful sprays of ocean water.  I slathered on some SPF 50 and pretended to tan/nap for a while while listening to the waves crashing against the shore (we had a similar soundtrack when we went to sleep at night as we kept our sliding door open and the sounds of the ocean lulled us to sleep).  It was SOOOO relaxing.

From there we spent our evening bar hopping in one of the nearby little towns.  Lots o' rum was consumed on this trip.  Each bar has their own special rum punch that we felt obligated to taste test and compare.  On our way back to the car we happened upon "LA NASA" of Puerto Rico and I just had to get a picture.  It was too perfect.  That evening we ate at the hotel restaurant, drank some rum and juice from the stash we kept in the room, and went and chilled out by the constellation pool until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore.  The next morning we got up and read by the pool for a bit while we snacked on pastries and locally grown bananas.  More sweet, sweet relaxation.  Then we hopped a ferry back to mainland and swung by the rainforest to see some waterfalls and Jurassic Park sized trees and vines.

On our way out of the rainforest (El Yunque) we ironically enough got caught in the rain.  A deluge if you will - we were soaked when we got back to the car!  We drove back to San Juan, changed into dry clothes and then headed out to Old San Juan for some ceviche and more rum!

The following day we nursed our hangovers and then explored more of Old San Juan.  We stocked up on souvenirs, padded our tummies with breakfast and guava pastries, and even got to see some street music that was quite the event.  People were literally dancing in the streets!

Then it was back to reality.  My flight into Atlanta (a layover) was late and I literally had to sprint to my flight in the next terminal, which was already boarding when I got there.  My flight to Houston got in after midnight and the next day it was back to the grind.  I've almost forgotten how relaxed I was for a whole 3 days this past weekend.  But it was certainly a lovely trip.  The company was fantastic, the beaches beautiful, and the fact that I was blissfully stress free was sublime...