Puerto Rico

Our cruise was out of Puerto Rico so after we got off the ship we decided to stay a few days. First we explored Old San Juan. We had a delicious lunch of the traditional Puerto Rican dish, mofongo. It's a mashed mound of garlicy plantains with meat, seafood or vegetables on top. I have GOT to learn how to make it. It's so yummy! After lunch we went to the Fort San Cristobal, the biggest fortification built by the Spanish in the new world - 27 acres at its largest in 1783.

The Spanish successfully used it as a stronghold to protect San Juan from 1634 to 1898. When Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States the fort became a U.S. army post. The fort was used strategically during both the World Wars. During World War II an additional bunker was built on the fort to direct coastal artillery and watch for German submarines. In 1961 it officially became part of the National Park Service. It is now a World Heritage Site and sees thousands of visitors every year. We were certainly impressed by this awesome fort. It is one of the best preserved and the biggest we have ever seen. Not to mention it has some incredible views!

After seeing the fort we headed to Fajardo, a town about an hour outside San Juan. Brad found us an awesome deal on a condo there and it ended up being perfect. It was a beautiful home and had everything we could possibly need. After resting a while we headed to dinner at the Luquillo kiosks. It's this cool little strip of about 50 kiosks selling everything from traditional Puerto Rican food to Italian, Peruvian and even hamburgers. We all loved tasting the deep fried, fat filled goodness - especially the  alcapurrias, which is basically a plantain or yuka dough stuffed with seasoned meat and deep fried.

Mmmm... so good. We ended up eating our dinner at the Peruvian kiosk and it was excellent. Mike and I love Peruvian food after trying it several times while we were in Chile - plus Ben served his mission in Peru so it was a win win. We were even more excited when we found out they served Inka Kola, a delicious Peruvian soda. After dinner we were still ready to party so we rented a movie, picked up some snacks (couldn't go back to the pre-cruise eating habits yet) and headed home. What a great day!

The next morning was Valentines Day. It was a perfect day. We woke up late, had pancakes and headed out to see the Puerto Rican rain forest. The El Yunque rain forest was only about a 20 minute drive from our condo. The forest is breathtaking. You grow up hearing so much about the Rain Forest and how important it is to the world, so seeing it in person was awesome.

The best part was when we hiked to one of the waterfalls.

Being the rain forest, it was raining pretty hard. We were completely soaked halfway there so by the time we made it to the waterfall, we figured we might as well jump in! Okay, it did take a little coaxing by the guys but we did all make it in. Only the guys got pictures though.

When we got out it started raining even harder so we went with it. Bathing suits were the perfect attire! The hike was beautiful and Mike and Brad even played Tarzan, swinging on a vine over the forest floor.

We saw some spectacular views and had a great time taking in the beauty. We had to get a kissing picture on Valentines Day :)

 After the rain forest we were all exhausted so we took a nap until dinner time. Then we went out for another yummy Puerto Rican dinner followed by desert. Then we headed out for one of the best experiences of our trip, the Bioluminescent Bay in Fajardo. Las Croabas Lagoon in Fajardo has 500,000 to 700,000 of bioluminescent dinoflagellates per gallon. Dinoflagellates are tiny, microscopic plants that gain energy from the sun during the day. At night they produce bright blue light when they are agitated, so when you wave your hand through the water it lights up like a mini florescent light show. It is unbelievable! Check out this website to see a video showing how they light up. Fajardo is one of only a few biobays in the whole world. We kayaked in couples for about 20 minutes through a narrow channel lined with Mangrove trees to get to the bay. It was totally dark, except for the light of the moon through the leaves. We didn't really know what to expect when we got to the bay, but it was truly unbelievable. The water seriously lit up right in our hands. Mike discovered that by throwing water onto ourselves in the kayaks we could actually see the tiny droplets of water light up on our skin. The biobay is truly one of God's most amazing creations. I have never seen anything like it! Unfortunately our experience couldn't be documented because it's impossible to capture the Dinoflagellates on camera. Even National Geographic has tried and failed. Any glowing biobay pictures you see have been photoshopped. Click here to read more about the amazing Dinoflagellates. It was an amazing way to spend Valentines day. I'll never forget it!