A few weeks ago, we headed to Puerto Rico for a getaway with just the two of us. Southwest just started flying to San Juan and we 'thought' this would be an easy way to get to the Caribbean. Everyone else thought this too, because it was impossible to fly out standby. We spent the day at the airport (5:30am-5:30pm) and finally decided to buy a ticket and Justin would fly flight attendant jumpseat. This is the first time in 12 years that this had happened- craziness! We finally made it to San Juan around 8pm and then drove about an hour to the east part of the island to the town of Fajardo. We were exhausted. We missed our day at Old Town San Juan, but we were thankful we made it and we were so ready to start our vacay!!
The next morning we woke up early and went ziplining on the outskirts of El Yunque Rainforest. Ziplining in the rainforest has been a bucket list item of mine, and I was so excited to check it off!! We were scheduled to zip 5 lines and repel down at the end. Let's get this started!
About to go.....
I did it!!! So much fun!!
Now it was Justin's turn....
Whohooo!
Getting ready for the second line
Woohoo!!
Such a fun experience together
The last zip was the longest, and the most beautiful. It opened up to the rainforest and the views were breathtaking. Definitely, our favorite line of the day.
After this we repelled down the tree to the bottom....very fun!
We did it! Such a fun morning and a great start to our vacation!
After our fun morning, we headed to the town of Luquillo and ate at one of their kiosks on the beach. We were craving a good burger and this place was perfect! Such a good find.
I was working on relaxing during this trip and the pina colada also helped as well. :)
That night we went on our Bioluminescent Bay Kayak Adventure. There are five BioBays in the world and three of them are in Puerto Rico. We kayaked out at dusk and the algae in the water glowed once it got dark. It was such a cool experience and was beautiful! We weren't able to take our camera with us, but the tour company emailed us these. So much fun!
The next day we went on a snorkeling excursion to a small island off of Puerto Rico called Culebra. It took about 45 minutes to make it out there and it was relaxing!
Our first stop was snorkeling. The coral reef was beautiful!
We then headed to the beautiful Flamenco Beach- it was breathtaking! White, white sands and the water was turquoise blue. It was just ranked the 3rd beach in the world by TripAdvisor and we can see why. It was gorgeous! We spent about two hours here and it was perfect!
We then headed back to Fajardo
Once we docked this little friend was waiting for us!
Such a fun and relaxing day!!
While we were on the excursion, we got a call that they upgraded us to an ocean front room. What?! This view was waiting for us when we got back!! Wow!!! This was our view from our new room!
Our new room- ours is at the top- beautiful view!
That night, we headed to Tasca Ole Lelolai for dinner. It was amazing!! Puerto Rico is know for their mofongo (mashed plantains) and it was so good! We sat on the patio overlooking the bay and it was relaxing. It was so nice to not cut up anyones food and not have food thrown at you. Or to have someone say they want pb&j (10th meal in a row) and not the food you made them!! Haha. Such a peaceful dinner just the two of us!
The next day Tropical Storm Bertha had other plans for our day of going to the El Yunque Rainforest. Never experienced a tropical storm and hopefully this was the only one we experienced. The winds were 40-50 mph and it was a full day of rain. Bummer!
We did venture out that evening to a local Mexican food restaurant. It was good and helped our Tex Mex cravings!
Our last day, we headed to Palamino Island for our beach day!! We were going to spend half the day at the beach and the other half at the Rainforest, but because of Bertha El Yunque was closed for the next few days. So, a full day at the beach it was!
Welcome to Palamino Island- paradise!
Perfect ending to our trip!!! Such a relaxing day!
That night we got dressed up and headed to dinner at La Estacion. Another wonderful meal!!!!
Justin was in heaven with his meal! Puerto Rican BBQ.
Great last dinner!!
Bye bye beautiful Puerto Rico. We had a great vacation and thank you to Nana and Papa and Gigi and Pops for watching the boys while we had our getaway. It was a great re-charge before the school year!
