el yunque national forest

On our last day in Puerto Rico we packed up our stuff, shoved it in the car, and took off for El Yunque National Forest for a few hours before we hopped on a plane to New York. We were a little nervous about timing, and weren't sure that we could fit in El Yunque after a drive across the island, but we did and it was well worth it! 

El Yunque is the only tropical rainforest in the United States and it is more lush than you could even imagine! The weird thing is how well maintained the national forest is. It has a lot of paved and dirt trails that allow you to really get into the forest.

the photos keep on coming!

This is the second half of the post from yesterday (it was too long to throw into one post)! If you ever head to Puerto Rico, make sure you drive a part of the Ruta Panoramica. It is a crazy climb that puts you near the highest point in Puerto Rico. We felt like it was never going to end on the way back down, and after the 100th switchback, I wanted off, but the view was definitely worth a little car sickness!

vieques to rincon

After spending a lovely Christmas in the small island of Vieques, we jumped aboard the 6:30 am ferry back to Puerto Rico. A ferry ride and two busses later, we were at the airport picking up our rental car so that we could drive to the other side of the island. We spent the next few days with our home base in Rincon. On our second day, we drove south on highway two, stopping at a little fishing village for lunch and then pushing forward until we reached crazy looking salt flats in the most arid part of Puerto Rico. The highlight of our little road trip were the puppies, Pirata and Puppy (he was really just named puppy). I begged Brian to let me steal them!

a photo tour of our final day on vieques

Hi you all! I hope you had a great weekend! Are you getting bored with looking at beach photos yet?! I am! It seems a little mean when you are sitting in cold weather, but i'll torture you a bit more with our last day in Vieques (which happened to be Christmas).

 

 Vieques was/ is partially owned by the US military, and there are old bunkers scattered throughout the island. It's kind of creepy to be driving along a road and realize that all those hills in the distance are actually concrete bunkers.

vieques day 3

Our third day on this little island paradise, we rented a scooter and toured the island. It was amazing to see the island in full! The roads are great, and it is super easy to find your way around the island, the only thing you have to look out for is the feral horses that roam the island in packs.

Vieques Day 2

Our second day in Vieques happened to be Brian's birthday as well, so I surprised him with a night kayaking tour in one of the best bioluminescent bays in the world! Mosquito Bay's luminescence is caused by mico-organisms, called dinoflagellates, which glow whenever the water is disturbed, leaving a trail on neon blue. It was an amazing thing to see! The kayaks looked like they were floating in neon blue and when fish swam by, they made eerie streaks that looked like snakes. Unfortunately I don't have any photos, and i'm not sure they would have turned out in the pitch black anyway...but if you've seen the Life of Pi, it is kind of like that!

 

vieques day 1

 After soaking up the sun and absolutely frying our pasty white skin in Culebra, we hopped aboard  another ferry back to the mainland (aka Puerto Rico). When we planned this trip, we thought we could take a ferry between Culebra and Vieques, which are both within a few miles of each other, but we sadly found out, the hard way, that we needed to get to Fajardo and board another ferry to Vieques. So that's what we did. We loaded up and made the 6:30 am ferry.  Two ferry rides and four hours later, we were on Vieques. This year Vieques was voted the best island in the Caribbean by Travel and Leisure, so we were definitely excited to find out why.

We spent our first day in Vieques getting acquainted with the town of Isabel II. We rented an apartment through Air BnB and once we found that, we took our cameras out for a walk. Isabel II is still a little rough around the edges. There isn't much of a tourist infrastructure, which is good and bad. There are no resorts, no high-rise hotels, no Mcdonalds, which is all great. The downside is, there really isn't much of anything else, outside of two cute boutiques and a handful of run-down bars.