The flight from Florida to Puerto Rico was only two hours which was a nice, short, quick flight. When we landed we first went to find some lunch. We had lunch at this restaurant which was really close to the beach. Sadly, we couldn’t go down to the beach as there were rocks and signs that said we couldn’t go down. While visiting Puerto Rico we stayed in Luquillo which was in the area which we were planning on visiting. Our air bnb wasn’t quite ready yet when we showed up so we went grocery shopping while we waited. The grocery store was called Amigos, but it was very similar to a Walmart and it even had Walmart shopping carts. After our grocery shopping trip, our air bnb was ready so we went in. It was a pretty nice apartment. We spent the rest of the day relaxing before we went to find some dinner. We drove to this restaurant which was pretty close to the beach and it had some really good food. There were also a lot of stray dogs running around, which scared me a little bit, but the food was delicious. That area where we had dinner was actually the same place where we were going kayaking and snorkeling the next day!
The next day after we had breakfast, we got ready and went kayaking and snorkeling in the ocean. We first went kayaking which was so fun, but it was also my first time actually kayaking which was slightly worrisome as I kept thinking I was going to flip the kayak and fall into the ocean. Afterwards, we went snorkeling. The ocean is so much clearer in Puerto Rico and it was a lot of fun. We got some nice pictures and videos snorkeling as well! This took up a big chunk of our day, but afterwards we were hungry so we drove around and found this restaurant in this tiny town. After lunch, we walked around some shops and I bought a little stuffed parrot and a magnet. At this time we were exhausted so we headed back to the apartment. We stayed in for the rest of the day, but for dinner we went to this delicious restaurant. Everything was normal and nice, but on our way back to the apartment after dinner we started getting a warning sign that the air pressure in one of our tires was low. We made it to the apartment and right in front was a gas station so we pumped up the tire and parked our car in the apartment complex parking lot.
The following morning, when we came downstairs we saw that one of the tires was completely flat. We couldn’t see it in the dark, but in the morning light we saw a big hole. This definitely interfered with our plans, but we looked for a spare tire in the trunk. There wasn’t one. There was only a donut which is a smaller tire that is supposed to be temporary until you can get a real one. We planned on going to the rainforest that day, but we had to go replace the tire and the only place where we could was the airport car rental area. So, we got the donut on and then drove off to the airport. Funny enough, we weren’t the only ones. When driving in we saw that there was another car with the same issue. The car rental people put on a real tire and off we went to the El Yunque National forest. We spent most of the day there and it was a lot of fun! We hiked and there were also some areas where we could go swimming! By the time we got back to the airbnb we were exhausted from a day filled with adventures! We ended up having a lot of leftovers from the previous day so we just had that for dinner, and then it was off to bed! On our last day in Puerto Rico, we spent time driving around and just relaxing. We found this little stream that we hung out in and then we just went back to the apartment and swam in the pool! That evening for dinner, we went to the same place we had dinner the first night! Then, the next morning it was back to the airport and we went back home! Puerto Rico was definitely different from the U.S. and I will keep these memories with me forever.
Great trip Carina