Puerto Rico--Days 24 & 25: ¡Adiós Puerto Rico!

Today we were all really tired after our late non-water adventure last night, so we all slept in this morning. And then spent most of the day packing.

We went out for ice cream, that was our big adventure for the day.

We're going home tomorrow morning, so I won't be posting anything. It will be a very long day, from the time we leave the condo here until the time we get back to our house it will be about 15 1/2 hours travel time. I'm sure we'll all be exhausted.

It's been a great trip, none of us are ready to leave (maybe John is) and we're all hoping to come back as soon as possible.

¡Adiós Puerto Rico!

¡Mucha Gracia, Nos Divertíamos!

Puerto Rico--Day 23: Bahía Bioluminiscente

So, today I was able to check off the last of my Top Three Things To Do In Puerto Rico: The Bioluminescent Bay.

Puerto Rico is home to three of the seven bioluminescent bays (or biobays, as they call them) in the world. Two of them are on the main island of Puerto Rico, and one of them, Mosquito Bay, is on Vieques, a smaller island just off of Puerto Rico. Mosquito Bay just happens to be the brightest one in the world, and has been declared as such by the Guiness Book of World Records. It also happens to be the only one in Puerto Rico that you can swim in, the other two are too fragile for swimming.

The link above is to the Wikipedia article about Vieques, and this link is more information about bioluminescence in general.

We booked a reservation with a tour company (you have to go with a tour company, you can't just go there yourself, they're very protective of the bio bays and they're really hard to get to, on purpose, I think) and arranged for them to pick us up at the condo, but they gave us conflicting information on transportation pricing and when they called an hour before pick-up time with a new price that was higher than the last one, I decided to just drive us up to the marina myself and we just canceled the transportation. John’s co-worker Steve had picked up another car since we’re leaving soon, so John could ride with him and leave us the car.

Which actually went off without a hitch. We got right to Puerto del Rey Marina in Fajardo an hour early. So we sat in the car and listened to the audiobook we’re listening to and put on our DEET-free bug repellent (DEET kills the biobay’s glowing microorganisms, and some tour groups will not even let you in the water if you’ve used a bug spray containing DEET.)

While we were waiting to check in, we saw this waterspout forming not far from where we were. I didn’t really know anything about waterspouts, but no one from the tour company seemed concerned by it, so we decided we wouldn’t be either. It never touched down as far as we could tell and after a couple of minutes, just dissipated.

After getting checked in and selecting our meal choices, we boarded the boat and picked our seats. We ended up sitting with a family from Pennsylvania who had just finished a cruise around the Caribbean. They had a daughter Squig’s age and the two of them and Sam hit it off right away. By the end of the evening, they had exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep in touch.

The boat ride over to Vieques was very bumpy, but thanks to my good friend Dramamine, I didn’t get sick. None of the kids had any problems at at all.

Here are Ruby and Sam inside the catamaran boat.

This is the El Faro Punta Mulas (Point Mulas Lighthouse) that you see as you come in to Vieques. It was built in 1896 and restored in 1992. It's really cute and is still in use. We saw it working when we left at night.

After docking in Isabel Segunda (named for Queen Isabel II, and is sometimes written that way), the largest town on Vieques, we boarded públicos, which are public vans that run around town, kind of like a cross between a taxi and a bus. The tour group had arranged them ahead of time and they were waiting for us. We were then driven across the island to Esperanza, which is the second biggest town on Vieques. There, we ate the dinner included in the tour. It wasn’t anything special. I had a chicken breast with vegetables and tostones (fried plantain cakes, which are really good when made well, but these were just okay). The kids each had a cheeseburger. So adventurous they are.

Here they are just outside the dock in front of the "Welcome to Vieques" sign.

A quick shot of Isabel II as we drove through town.

Ruby, waiting for her dinner to arrive.

After dinner, we were gathered together and given a brief introduction to the bio bay and the dinoflagellates Pyrodinium bahamense, which glow when they're touched. They had this cute painting of one of the little dinoflagellates just outside the gift shop at the restaurant/tour launch site.

Then the younger kids donned life jackets and we all boarded an old school bus. An old school bus with seat belts even! Which turned out to be a good thing, as we then traveled down the bumpiest road you can imagine. It was nuts. So narrow that the tree branches on either side were constantly scraping the windows (they warned us to keep the windows closed on the bus), and so bumpy that you could barely stay in your seat!

At the end of this road (the only one that goes to the BioBay), we met up with the electric boat, which took us out into the bay. It was a perfect night. The weather was clear and you could see more stars that I can remember seeing in a long time. And the moon hadn’t come up yet, so it was nice and dark. The boat driver had what can best be described as an extra-long light saber with him, which he used to point out constellations and other features of the night sky.

And then they gave all the adults flotation belts and we all climbed into the water.

It was amazing. Truly amazing. All you could hear aside from the splashing was the oohs and aahs and giggles and exclamations of delight from everyone as they swam around lighting up the water. Every time you moved, even a little, the water would glow bright neon blue. And when you took your arm out of the water, each little drop that ran down would sparkle, and it looked just like fairy dust. We had so much fun playing in the water. And then when we got out, our bathing suits kept sparkling if you brushed your hand across them.

Now, I did try to take some pictures, but as they warn you, it is extremely difficult to take pictures of the glow in the water. It has to be very dark for the best viewing of the glow, which makes for really poor pictures even with the glow. I did get a decent picture of the wake from the boat (the quiet electric boat, as gasoline is damaging to the bay) by setting the ISO on my camera to 3200 and setting the shutter speed really slow (that's right, I figured out how to change both the ISO and the shutter speed on my camera in the dark! Thankyouverymuch.)

That worked really well for the wake. But not so well for little kids who tire easily. The glow is not quite this brilliant. It’s more of a soft glow, but it is pretty bright. You can even see where fish are swimming, because they leave a trail of light through the water.

I enhanced a couple of pictures, but really, this is something that has to be experienced in person. This is Ruby making a water angel.

And this is after I tuned it up in iPhoto. I didn't add any color, just turned up the color that is there (and the contrast and whatever else worked). She was wearing a big square life vest, which is why her outline inside the angel is so boxy.

Here's Sam making one:

And this is the enhanced version (his head is to the left and his feet are to the right.) His didn't turn out as well. It was impossible to see on the camera screen if anything was captured, or I would have had him keep at it a little longer.

After taking those two pictures, I decided that I had given it a good try and I went in to enjoy the water myself.

If you do a search for biobay pictures, all the bright ones you’ll see have been enhanced or have really long exposure times. And none of them really show the true nature of the glow. It is truly one of those things that must be seen in person.

We took the bus back down the bumpy road and met up with the públicos at the end of that road, and they took us back over to the dock where we boarded the boat to return to Fajardo. Ruby and I dozed on the ride back, but I could hear the other two kids chatting non-stop the whole way back.

The kids and I arrived back at the condo safely and ready for nice (and quick, it was late) showers only to discover that there was no water! And I don’t mean no hot water, I mean no running water at all from any of the faucets! We were able to get enough out of the pipes in the kitchen and downstairs bathtub to fill one pitcher. So, I had the two younger kids wipe themselves down with a wet washcloth, and used one cup of water each to rinse their hair and then they brushed their teeth with water from a water bottle and went to bed.

Squig and I took the ice from the ice maker in the fridge (which leaks and actually had a big lump that we had to chip out) and melted it in a pot on the stove. We used some of that water to washcloth off and dip our hair in a big bowl.

Fortunately, just before 7:00 a.m. the water came back on (I know this because I left one of the bathtubs on and the running water woke me up). We’re not sure what happened, but while I was running around trying to find water to use to clean up, John was kind enough to call around from work and he got a hold of someone at the Palmas water utility and they said they were aware of the situation and someone was working on it. Whatever it was, I'm glad it's fixed. It would have been awkward to be staying somewhere else and trying to pack up this place at the same time.

Puerto Rico--Days 21 & 22

Well, Saturday was a day of nothing to write home about. We decided to take it easy and stay out of the sun. We stayed at the condo and played games and read books and knitted and whatnot. After John went to work we made Father's Day cards. They were cute.

This is not a good picture, but it's the only one I got of the cards. They look like little dress shirts with ties. I can't find the cards right now and everyone's asleep, but I'll try to get a better picture in the morning. The kids did a nice job.

Today was our last day at church in Humacao. It was a nice day. I read the Sunday School lesson ahead of time in Spanish and looked up words I didn't know and prepared some thoughts in case I felt like commenting in class. Which I did. In Spanish. And it made sense. I felt pretty good about myself. I also played the piano in the Relief Society meeting. I'm just fitting right in.

After church we drove up to El Yunque again. We were hoping to go on an easy hike (more like a walk, actually), but it was raining and we forgot to bring the ponchos. So we just drove and took some pictures from the car.

See how green it is? And you can't see the peak of the mountain because of the raincloud sitting on top of it.

Then we had clean-out-the-fridge-because-we're-leaving-soon dinner (we owe John a good Father's Day dinner later), including large bowls of clean-out-the-fridge-because-we're-leaving-soon ice cream, played a game together and sent John to bed. He only got a couple of hours of sleep so he could go to church with us.

Puerto Rico--Day 20

Today I had one of those moments where I tried to figure out a way to just stay here. They have schools here, John will be working here for a while, we could just stay. . .

We just had a most excellent day today. I don’t think a blog post can properly express how much fun we all had today. Today we went to the Palmas Beach Club. And it was awesome. We didn’t even do everything they have to do there and we still had a great day. I didn’t take a lot of pictures, because I was in the water most of the day. I did take a couple.

First off, we staked out our spot. We got a few lounge chairs under an umbrella, and they had these egg-shaped cabana beds and we got one of those too. When we first got there, it wasn’t very crowded at all. It was really windy and dark clouds were rolling in. Thankfully, due to the wind, they rolled out quickly, I think I felt two drops of rain and I can’t be sure they weren’t from someone splashing. Once the clouds blew through, we had a nice breeze and occasional clouds, which helped make it a nice, not too humid day.

So, at the Beach Club they have a bunch of pools (kiddie pools, lap pools, volleyball pools, waterslide pools, etc.), with lifeguards, two tall waterslides, a big old water play complex thing with one of those giant buckets that fills up and dumps out and fountains and water squirters, a soccer field, sand volleyball, ping-pong tables, a non-water playground with swings, a restaurant, poolside service from the bar and grill, towels, lockers, and whatever else you might need.

The kids pretty much spent the whole day on the waterslides and the water play complex. There isn’t a lot to tell about, but they made friends and just had a great day. Sam had some lap races with some boys his age. I think they were playing some sort of Mario Kart game. He also played water basketball. He and Squig played ping-pong for a quite a while, too.

Here's a good shot of Sam and Ruby by the play complex. You can also see the dark clouds that were there in the morning.

And Ruby on the waterslides:

I played in the water with the kids (yes, I rode the waterslides, and yes, they were a lot of fun), then sat and read a book in the cabana thing for a while, then went in the pool for a bit, then read a bit while sipping a frozen blended drink. We got a pizza and ate lunch poolside. This is my idea of a vacation: sitting by the pool reading while someone else watches my kids (well, I still kept an eye on them, lifeguards get distracted sometimes).

Squig took this picture later in the day with me in what we called the "egg beds". I'm glad she took this picture, because it helped me figure out how only the right side of my legs are sunburned. It does not explain how my shoulders are also a burned. Everyone had double sunscreen on their shoulders this morning before we left: lotion AND spray, and I re-applied mine at least twice, and the kids all got a full spray-down at lunch whether they wanted it or not.

The kids kept finding coquí frogs swimming in the pool! It was pretty funny. They’d catch them and try to take them around to show everyone. And I learned that Ruby is not very gentle with the frogs. I made her put hers in the bushes. She was just a little too rough and I kept having visions of squashed coquí frogs.

Squig found the first frog of the day.

Ruby with her frog before I made her put it in the bushes.

Squig also found an itty bitty crab.

And that was our fabulous day at the beach club. We're all a little sunburned. Mostly the kids' faces, since they rub their faces a lot. We'll probably take it easy tomorrow and stay out of the sun. But definitely, two thumbs up to the Palmas Beach Club!

Puerto Rico--Day 19

Well, the big report for today is that it rained all day. In the morning we had window-rattling thunder and lightning, and then a pouring deluge, and then it tapered off to more of a drizzle.

I got a video of it while it was coming down really hard. Let's see if I can get it to work on here.

If not, here's a picture of it coming down.

And so I got out the Wii. And the kids played it all afternoon and I sat around and read.

A good time was had by all.

Puerto Rico--Day 18

I know, my post titles leave something to be desired, but I never claimed to be an interesting blogger.

Big tropical rain storm first thing this morning. Wind and rain and sideways rain. So, our plan to hit the beach club was kind of put on hold. We'll try another day.

So, the big adventure for today was that I drove to Wal-mart by myself. Technically Ruby went with me, but I had no navigator and did all the driving. It wasn't as harrowing as I thought it would be. You just have to have the right mind set. If you consider yourself the most important person on the road, and act accordingly, you fit right in! When in Rome. . .and all that.

We went to Wal-mart, made it there and back without incident, had a chat with some random person in the canned food aisle (let's be honest here, even after two weeks of sun, we're still the palest people on the island, and we get asked a lot if we just moved here or are visiting). It was one of the half-English/half-Spanish conversations that I seem to mostly have here. I give it a good shot in Spanish, and the people I'm talking to generally take pity when they see me struggling and fill in with some English. They have a lot of Spanglishy words anyway. I can't think of any off the top of my head. I'll try to write some down the next time I hear some.

After the shopping trip, we did nothing. Really. I needed a break from the sun and the water, so we stayed in today and played games and read books and watched videos. I didn't even take any pictures. It was nice. Our time here is winding down. I'm kind of getting used to this no responsibilities, no schedule thing. It might take me a while to get back into the swing of things when we get home.

Puerto Rico--Day 17

John got home about three hours later than he was originally supposed to (it happens when he’s on these trips), so he slept in late this morning. While he was sleeping, Ruby, Sam and I walked over to the hotel next door down the beach and bought some pastries from their little pastry/cookie/ice cream shop. Sam and Ruby both had a chocolate-chocolate chip muffin and I had a guava/cheese turnover of some kind. It was really tasty.

After John got up, we all got ourselves out the door and walked down to the safe beach for some snorkeling fun. John’s co-worker, Steve, joined us.

Here are the kids snorkeling with John and Steve (that’s him with the black goggles).

They saw lots of fish, a live sea urchin, and lots of shells and coral pieces.

Squig found this whole sea urchin shell. She was pretty excited about that.

Ruby spent a lot of time working on a sandcastle. It has a moat, a little piece of coral along the path to the entrance (because it’s called Coral Castle), a graveyard (to the right of the main building), a guard tower in front, and a flag (made from a leaf and a straw we found).

Later, she and Steve built an Iguana Bearded Dragon to guard the castle. There is an extensive cave system for the dragon, including a kitchen with a stove and fridge. You can see the entrance to the cave in front of the dragon there, and the kitchen is hard to see, but it's in between the dragon and his cave. His kitchen had pots and pans, too, so he'd have something to cook with. And we found a little green army guy to stand guard on the guard tower.

Here’s a close-up of the dragon. First he had little green beady eyes, like iguana’s do (we found some berries from a tree), but Ruby thought he needed bigger eyes. She also gave him toes.

Just as we were leaving, they caught this little crab. He was pretty easy going for a crab, and didn’t seem to mind being picked up. The kids called him “The Frab” or “The Crog” because he was speckled like a frog.

All in all, a fun day at the beach. Except that Ruby managed to lose her sandals. We looked all over and couldn't find them anywhere. How do you lose bright pink sandals when they were right there? We even dug through the sand to see if they were buried somehow. Sigh.

I guess she can always wear her rain boots!