Wait, what happened to Day 9? That was a day spent in LA (less then 24 hours actually) to catch up on some freelance work, laundry and sleep – not necessarily in that order. That night I took a red eye flight from Burbank to New York and the next morning a flight from New York to San Juan, Puerto Rico!

Day 10: On my flight to San Juan was Phil, a buddy from Aruba. When we landed another jetted picked us up and we drove to the El San Juan Hotel, just 5 mins from the airport. I had a little trouble checking in thanks to the concierge who was apparently angry I got such a great rate and wanted to charge me more then double in order to check in – seriously. A few words with the manager and that was all taken care of. The hotel was a little old but absolutely gorgeous!

The pool at El San Juan

After check in, the 3 of us went to a local restaurant to check out some local flare. The major Puerto Rican dish is called Mofongo, and is amazing! It’s a pile of fried squashed plantains, topped with some kind of meat (chicken, seafood, or beef) and soaked with a red sauce. I highly recommend.

Mofongo!!

Back at the hotel, a small group was forming at the lobby bar of a bunch of “jetters”. (From here on out, everyone doing this JetBlue pass will be known as a “jetter”. Trust me, it’s easier that way.) I also met my new roommate for Puerto Rico, Katelyn. All in all, there were about 15 people, with more showing up every few minutes. We all decided as a group to check out the local bar scene and took a small caravan of cars to a bar district called “la placita”. Wow. The streets were crowded with hundreds upon hundreds of people. The only thing I could compare it to was Mardi Gras in New Orleans – minus the beads. I think.

Can you play "Spot the Adam" ?

After an hour or two of bar hopping, we went back to the El San Juan hotel to a crowded lobby. Apparently a small stage was set up and the Gipsy Kings were playing in the lobby. Yes, the real Gipsy Kings – the super popular Spanish band. How random is that?

The Gipsy Kings in our hotel lobby (there are like 10 more member off stage left)

Since I had taken a red eye that morning, I was exhausted and headed to bed. Plus, Katelyn and I booked a few tours for the next day and had to get up early.

Day 11: This was a day of tours. Katelyn and I booked a hang-gliding adventure tour that afternoon, but we got a phone call that due to Hurricane Igor which was 500 miles north of Puerto Rico at the time, the upper level winds were unfavorable for a hang-gliding adventure. I was super bummed as I was really looking forward to it. But, we booked a few other things in it’s place, so I wasn’t too upset. Our first adventure was a half day tour of the Puerto Rican rainforest!

This was a long bus ride to the top of one of the mountains. There was a small lecture and a hike through the forest. We saw some amazing views, awesome waterfalls and neat stories.

"There's gold in them thar hills!"

Like any good tour, this ended at a gift shop at the bottom of the mountain. There was a small restaurant where we got lunch, plus they would chop open a coconut, top it off with rum and stick a straw in it. I swear, rum is like water in Puerto Rico..

Coconut with rum!

Speaking of rum, our next tour took us to the Bacardi factory in Old San Juan. This is the largest rum distillery in the world, so I was excited to see how rum was made. Unfortunately, the tour was not very good. It was a very Disney-like tour of short videos, lectures and replicas of their original distillery in Cuba. Not once did we ever see a working part of the factory, which was a little upsetting. Good thing it was free! The free drinks at the end eased the pain a little bit.

Bacardi Distillery

Our next stop was the San Cristóbal fort. I would love to tell you everything about it, like what it was used for and when it was built, but frankly I forgot all of that. Must have been the Bacardi. Anyways, here are some pictures.

Fort Something (can you tell how little I cared?)

Our last tour was one I was really forward to, Bioluminescent Bay. A few people had told me this was the one thing I had to do while in Puerto Rico, so a bunch of us piled in a car and drive an hour and a half to the launch point. I have never kayaked before, so that alone was a neat experience it, but doing it at night made it even cooler. I’ll try to explain it as best as I can. There is this bay in the eastern part of the island that produces this bio luminescent algae. It glows a faint blue color when disturbed. According to our tour guide, it does that as sort of a defense mechanism. I wasn’t able to get any photos of this because A) I was in water without a waterproof camera and B) It wont show up with a flash. I am providing a stock photo of the bay, but I have to tell you, it is SO MUCH COOLER IN PERSON!

Bioluminescence Bay *stock photo*

Day 12: Got an awesome night’s rest and headed to the airport. Next stop, Orlando, Florida! The next few days won’t be as interesting as I’m actually working for the 2 days I’m there. After Orlando, it’s time for Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic!