Puerto rico April 29- may2

[Nullifier]

This is a short get away to celebrate our 5th anniversary, upcoming baby and my birthday which was yesterday. I will have our spot active starting tomorrow when we leave our hotel the hotel. Our goal is to enjoy some time in the rain forest, go snorkeling and kayaking, and drive some of the back roads in the Jeep we rented.

I am really looking forward to trip since our hawaii trip was cancelled. I will be posted pics hopefully everynight. This just depends on how the hotels internet access is.

Here is the link to our spot page. track us here

 

[Nullifier]

Well after an exhausting 18 hour day we fianlly got into our hotel room at the Wyndam Rio Mar. It was nice to finally get here after picking up our rental Jeep JK (expo white of course). The biggest complaint about the place online was finding it, but I after having drove here at night I have to say that those that couldn't find it are stupid LOL!

Here is our room as we discovered at 1 a.m.

After getting a good sleep we woke up to this view.

After a good breakfast in the hotel we headed out to explore the grounds. It is a huge area the hotel owns with beautiful landscaping and tons of wildlife like birds iquanas etc. Here is Gen by the fountain out back the hotel on the way to the beach.

Here is the beach in front of the hotel. Not my favorite kind of sand but it will do.

Here is view of the Rio Mar from the beach. As you can see very nice.

Well from here we are heading up to El Yunque rainforest today to go exploring. I'll post more pics later but so far off to a good start.

 

[Nullifier]

Ok so day one is under our belt. We had a blast. Took the Jeep up to El Yunque a n.p.

The main office had a nice exhibit\

All the colums had these great orchids on display!

There are 2 observation towers in the park and those were out first stops. One is about half way up the mountain and just off the side of the road. Sorry the hotel comp doesn't have microflash and will not let me rotate images in photobucket.

Next we headed up the mountain to go to the high elevation tower. We were told it was a 45 minute walk each way through the forest on a park trail.

 

[Nullifier]

I took my time photographing stuff since my pregnant wife was taking alot of breaks along the way!!! It's tuff hauling a yourself and an undorn up hill for 45 minutes! But it's pretty bad when you fall behind.

We came across an old park structure that had afireplace. It was odd since there was not aroad or anything near it.

Eventually though she got tires of leading and well just got tires but I gave her a little motivation that only a pregnent woman would understand.

But soon we made it to the tower

So I gave her motivational treat. Some swedish fish i tossed in the pack for "survival" food LOL!

The view was worth it Gen said.

There was a survey marker in the floor of the tower on the top level which was cool. It is always neat to find these in remote places.

Then we headed back down so our 2.5 hour hike was nice and Gen was a real trooper. Especially for being 7 months pregnant. Tomorrow we are going on a night tour kayaking but during the day we are probably just going to explore the area in the jeep. Hopefully a little 4wd.

 

[Nullifier]

We had our spot on today but it looks like it didn't work unfortunetly. I modified my setting so hopefully it will function properly tomorrow.

 

[sseaman]

I was in PR around New Years wow is it a beautiful place. The rain forest is very cool, we spent some time swimming in the pool beneath the water falls. El Morro is also a must see.

 

[Nullifier]

Well it was another good day. First we headed out for some b-fast and then down the road to a public beach Gen wanted to see called Luquillo. It was nice but just your typical public beach.

From there we headed out for some lunch and a "scenic drive. All our maps suck so we were driving south west of the rain forest on mountain roads all around it. Unfortunetly no unpaved roads were found to my surprise so not alot of pics but here is one.

Then we found our way back to Fajarta where we had scheduled a guided night kayak trip to exprience the bio illuminecent water. It was a neat trip although a bit pricey for the time on water. It was cool seeing the water light up as it rushed throught he mangrove roots. About half way into the trip it started to poor down rain. As the rain hit the water and would light it up which was cool to see. Of course you could make out alot of fish and iquanas swimming in the water which was cool. Unfortunetly my camera did not pick that stuff up but here are a few picks. It was a cool trip and if you come here you should do it.

Well that is all for today Tomorrow we are headed out to one of the islands if we can get to the ferry and deal with that madness in the a.m. Wish us luck. We went down there this afternoon to preourchase tickets and were unsuccessful lol! I am very frustrated with my spot as I can not figure out how to set it up to show tracking on the map for 2 days now. Any one know how to do this. I set the filter to show to map.

 

[datrupr]

Great pics. Looks like you guys are having fun. Thanks for sharing. I love Swedish Fish.

 

[telwyn]

Awesome trip! We stayed the Wyndham and did the same night kayak tour in Fajarda a few years ago.

By the way, there is a little flea market a decent walk down the beach to the right of the Wyndham with about 15 little restaurants. Kiosk # 13 if I remember correctly has amazing local food - mofongo, etc and good, cold beer.:drool:

p.s. Should add it's a little off the beaten path and VERY local. A few of our friends were uncomfortable there although we loved it and felt as safe as we would anywhere.

 

[sseaman]

The shelters you saw in the rain forest are for backpackers, from my understanding there are quite a few of them.
Luquillo is a very popular beach, I thought it was nice but really wasn't sure what the big deal was about.

If you get in the mood for a quick mean try pollo tropical, they are very good for fast food.