So, for the last two weeks, I've been pretty much impossible to get ahold of and almost unseen to the world and my friends. This is because I have been gallivanting off the puerto rico for the last two weekends. This all started because Alex almost two weeks of vacation that he needed to get rid of before they expired in february. We had first decided on some place warm, but almost went to China due to a wedding for one of his cousins. However, that fell through, so we ended up wanting to go someplace that wasn't a hassle and where we could go scuba diving, which was our ultimate goal. So on January 15th, Alex and I flew out to San Juan, PR together after work and spend the weekend together. We had quite an adventure the first weekend, since we had no idea where we were going and Puerto Rico roads are quite difficult to navigate. Plus, neither one of us know spanish very well (him better than I, but not by much). So when we first got in at 2am on saturday morning, we drove around for an hour to find a hotel that had advertised being 15 minutes from the airport. But once we found it, we headed to a 24hr diner that was there that served the famous PR entree Mofongo. It was the most interesting thing we ever had and it was a happy ending to a stressful night.
The next day, we headed to Fajardo, which is on the east side of the island and we thought we would be able to scuba diving there. We booked a hotel there and decided to do the sunday morning dive, while doing the bio-tour saturday night. After getting lost for another hour in the town of Fajardo and ending up in this really ghetto part of town where no one spoke english, we finally got into the Fajardo Inn, which sat upon a hill that overlooked the ocean. That was pretty great, but nothing compared to the Bio-tour we did that night. A bio tour is pretty much a kayak trip done at night with no lights other than some glow sticks stuck to the back of the kayaks to light the way. The reason for this is as you kayak through the river, the movement of the kayak and oars will make the river glow from bioluminecent algae. Think Avatar, except for real. It was amazing. And yes, it was very difficult to row because you can't see where you are going, you get whacked in the head by branches from mongrove trees that live long the edge and you are eaten alive by mosquitoes, but it's worth it. As I put my hand in the water, the sparks of thousands of algae made it all worth it. It was absolutely beautiful. I wish I had pictures to show, but that would've been impossible. When we came back, we ate at the hotel resturant and had mofongo again as well as a whole bunch of appetizers that was a sample of PR fare (everything was fried). We also got a phone call that said our scuba dive was canceled, which I was a bit disappointed about, but there was nothing to be done.
Sunday, we decided to head to the beach and go swimming, then headed back to San Juan. That was a good decision on our part because a celebration called Dia de Los Reyes which translates to three kings day in Old San Juan. I think it was supposed to be celebrating the voyage of the three kings to the birth of Jesus, but it ended up just being streets full of music, food and lots and lots of drunk people. We tried a sandwich called a tripleta, which I'm pretty sure was pork and pork skin with some spices stuffed in a hoagie. Not bad, but not really that good. We then walked around old san juan for a while before decided to give up and go back to the hotel. Then monday I headed back to NYC and back to work on tuesday while Alex stayed in Puerto Rico.
While I was working, I found out that Alex experienced some things that I did not get to do, like swim in a lake full of bioluminecent algae and went scuba diving two times. However, on friday the 22nd, none of that mattered because I took my flight back out to PR and met up with him. Since I got in a 2am once again, the reunion was pretty mello, but then saturday we were on the road again, this time to the west end of the island to a place called Rincon which was said to have the best scuba diving on the island. On our way down, we decided to stop at the largest single dish radio telescope in the world. It's the radio telescope that's in the James Bond movie "Golden Eye." As a nerd who went to astronomy camp, this was very exciting for me. We spent an hour and a half at the telescope before heading all the way to Rincon. The hotel we got for the night was incredible as it was right on the beach and we got in just as the sun was setting over the ocean. They also had drinks served in coconuts so naturally we had to get them. Our room also had ocean front view with a private balcony (I think the consierge may have given us the honeymoon suite, but for $165 a night, I'm not going to say no). So we drank our coconut drinks on our balcony, watched the sun go down and talked for quite a while. It was a very happy night for the two of us. Except for finding food, which we mistakenly tried to do at 11pm at night and nothing but a bar that served pizza was open. It was super sketchy.
Sunday was the dive and it was UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! We had to get up at 6:30 in order to get to the docks in time, but once we got there, Alex and I were fitted with gear, met up with other divers and a couple of snorkelers and headed out on a boat to a random mountain that was a 45 minute boat ride out to sea. Once we got to the moutain island which was apparently a nature reserve, we parked and went scuba diving. Now if anyone has ever seen the discovery channel, imagine those documentaries where the camera is underwater and there are fish swimming all around in crystal clear water and coral swaying and vibrantly colored. That's what the scuba diving was, except it was real and I was there! The actual learning the basics of diving was pretty simple for us and Alex had done this twice before so it was even easier for him. We saw so much coral and fish and even some huge crabs. That dive was about an hour and we were 40 feet under the ocean. Then we headed toward another spot and the advanced divers (the ones who were certified) did their dive and we went snorkeling as the discovery divers like ourselves weren't allowed or able to do the depth the next dive required (at 80ft). However, that was ok because Alex became really sea sick and couldn't even snorkel very well. So we mostly spent our time floating in the 85 degree water of the ocean on noodles and talking to the captain who was also our scuba instructor for our dive about becoming certified. I am thinking that is something I would like to accomplish in the next year and head back to the Caribbean and do just a diving trip. However, tragedy stuck on our way back and I realized that Alex was still feeling sick and I was starting to realize how burnt by the sun I was getting. I also could feel myself getting a little sick. By the time we got back to the hotel, I realized I was burnt on over 70% of my body and was in so much pain I could not move. So we spent the last night just relaxing in our ocean front hotel and me trying not to move due to searing pain. I also found out I may have gotten a UTI, so it was kind of horrible, but considering the awesomeness that had been going on for the last couple of days, something had to go wrong. I'm just glad it happened on the day I got back to NYC.
Now it's back to the routine of life, but at least I have some amazing memories.
No comments:
Post a Comment