everyone clap your hands, zach and i made it back safe and sound from puerto rico! it was a trip well done. this is the first time that we have done some really serious travelling on our own--getting through puerto rico's interior on remote mountain roads is not easy stuff. zach has apparently been describing our itinerary as "aggressive", which i kind of have to agree with. but it was worth it, and we were smiling on the shuttle to the airport, unlike the grumpy couple sitting behind us who had already botched their trip within 1 hour of being in puerto rico. sucks to be them...so here begins the tale of our one week trip to puerto rico, which had enough adventure in it to fill several trips to puerto rico :)
us in culebra, a small island off of Puerto Rico |
DAY 1 and 2: SAN JUAN!
as zach will probably mention to anyone he recounts the trip to, we were up before 6am three times during the trip. the first time was to catch our uber-early, direct flight out of DCA into san juan. because of this, i was very tired on the plane ride. i've found that on most planes i am just about the right size to use my arms as a pillow on the tray table and lay my head on them so i can sleep. i'm not sure if this is considered rude or not, but the only thing i can see that's bad is sometimes my arm slips and hangs over the tray table into someone else's space. however, if i'm not feeling the tray table, i might lean back, take off my shoes, and squeeze my feet in between the seats in front of me--just enough to hold them there but not so much that the person in front of me can see my feet. i'll sit in a number of strange positions on planes trying to get comfortable. if that's rude, then so be it.
this is a good depiction of how i look on a plane, i happened to find it in san juan |
so i did the tray table trick on this plane ride and fell asleep, which i know for sure not only because when i woke up my arm was hanging near someone, but also because i had a dream. usually i have pretty unusual dreams, but this dream was probably the most boring dream i ever had. my dream was that the plane landed. that's it.
view of San Juan from the plane as you land |
but once i got there it was marvelous |
san juan is a beautiful city! old san juan, which you can see in the picture above, is small small small. you can easily walk across the entire thing in like 15 minutes, and the tip, which again you can see in the picture above, is an old spanish fort.
el morro, the spanish fort |
yes caribe hilton, i will swim in your giant pool |
part of the local beach |
very quickly we realized that resort heaven was right around the corner from our modest little beach. the receptionist at the front desk of our hostel had already planted the seed in our heads about sneaking in--she had suggested that we do it and told us that caribe hilton couldn't do anything about it.
the balcony was the best part of the hostel |
forget you caribe hilton |
no caption needed |
i should issue a word of warning about san juan (and puerto rico in general)--there is a lot of trash, there are lot of stray cats, and there are a lot of dogs that are likely not stray but wander around everywhere as if they were.
los gatos |
it was clear though that these cats were not really feral in the true sense--they were much too healthy and pretty looking. this is all thanks to the most powerful non-profit in puerto rico, the Save A Gato foundation. the Save A Gato has an "exclusive agreement" with the National Park Service to manage the cat colony. according to their website:
Save A Gato manages the colony of cats on the Paseo del Morro and the rest of Old San Juan. We manage them through T/N/R. This stands for trap, neuter, and release. Cats are first trapped, then with the help of local vets we are able to neuter, vaccinate, and de-worm the cats. The cats are then returned healthy to the Paseo to lounge and sunbathe on the rocks.
painting depicting old san juan's cat infestation that you can buy on Save a Gato's website |
non-profit dollars are at least not needed for efforts to revitalize the slums in the city--leave that to donald trump, who is apparently buying a portion of them. that is what a man from the slums told us as we were overlooking them. he said the area was donald trump's "new toy", and ended by saying, "we are going to kill him." donald might want to rethink his new toy. at any rate, these are the prettiest slums i have ever seen:
and that is the end of the easy part of the trip where we walked everywhere or took the bus. then comes the car, and the trouble begins...muhahah
so in conclusion...
san juan is a place where you can find giant murals of birds on buildings, and everything is brightly colored.
if you want to paint your house bright pink, go for it.
but beware of the park with spiky sculptures, it will give you a fright.
instead, find the park where the palm trees reflect off the wall in the setting sun. oh wait, it was the same park!
I would go to Puerto Rico but I am currently under house arrest,
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