{"id":124,"date":"2010-09-18T12:45:12","date_gmt":"2010-09-18T17:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.adster.net\/blog\/?p=124"},"modified":"2011-02-21T15:01:20","modified_gmt":"2011-02-21T20:01:20","slug":"days-10-12-puerto-rico-on-my-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.adster.net\/blog\/days-10-12-puerto-rico-on-my-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Days 10-12 – Puerto Rico on My Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

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!<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

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The pool at El San Juan<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Mofongo!!<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Can you play "Spot the Adam" ?<\/p><\/div>\n

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?<\/p>\n

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The Gipsy Kings in our hotel lobby (there are like 10 more member off stage left)<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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"There's gold in them thar hills!"<\/p><\/div>\n

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..<\/p>\n

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Coconut with rum!<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Bacardi Distillery<\/p><\/div>\n

Our next stop was the San Crist\u00f3bal\u00a0fort. 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.<\/p>\n

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Fort Something (can you tell how little I cared?)<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a0bio luminescent\u00a0algae. 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!<\/p>\n

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Bioluminescence Bay *stock photo*<\/p><\/div>\n

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!<\/p>\n