Puerto Rico December 7-14 Part 1 San Juan

Hey blog, I bet you forgot about me. It's been over 2 years since my last post! And another year and a half since the last post before that.... okay, we're off to a slow start. A lot has happened in the last 2 years, most notably I got pregnant, became a mom and survived my baby girl's first year, which I really should have blogged about!  We'll start that next time.  This post is dedicated to the trip my husband and I just took to Puerto Rico from December 7-14. It was absolutely fantastic and we have some friends who are going in the next few weeks and months so I wanted to share some of the highlights here!

We stayed for 4 nights in San Juan (Isla Verde) and 3 nights in Cabo Rojo, on the southwest corner of the island. The weather was perfect all 7 days so we really got to enjoy our time to the fullest.  I should also clarify that there were pop-up showers every day in San Juan but they usually lasted about 5 minutes and never killed our mojo so I'm still calling it perfect. It started to rain when we got to the airport to go home so we really could not have timed this one better.

 Rich's MO when we go on vacation is to experience everything there is and go on memorable adventures.  Mine is to relax poolside with a magazine and a beverage.  I am happy to report that we found the perfect balance of both on this trip and we even enjoyed each other's favorite parts.

We stayed in condos that we found through airbnb.com and were very happy with both. We spent some lovely relaxing time by the pools at our condos and we used the blenders that we found in the kitchens to make pina coladas which were outstanding poolside. At the local Supermax grocery store we got the smallest bottle of Bacardi white rum they carry, a couple cans of coconut cream and a jug of pineapple juice. Fill the blender with ice, those 3 ingredients and you have yourself a fantastic afternoon. We finished off the rum and two cans of coconut cream over the course of the week but we did have some pineapple juice left over. A smaller jug would have been ideal but there's only so much of your vacation you want to spend browsing in the (sorry, Puerto Rico) crappy Supermax for a smaller pineapple juice. Ok let's get to the good stuff.

Rich's highlights from the trip:

• Kiteboarding lesson through 15knots.com. He did the 3 hour lesson and did manage to kiteboard on his own by the end of the lesson which apparently most people don't manage. He absolutely loved it. His instructor, Frances, has a prosthetic leg.  She broke her leg kiteboarding and it got infected and had to be cut off. Even with a prosthetic leg, though, she made kiteboarding look SO easy. I'm pretty sure you can find her picture in the dictionary next to "badass." 

I just hung out on the beach, which was very nice, during the lesson. That was when I got fried to a crisp.  Note to self, duh, you need to load up on sunscreen when you are in the sun for 3 hours in Puerto Rico.

•  We did ziplining in El Yunque National Rainforest through JungleQui. That was fun. Bug spray and water shoes/mud-friendly shoes needed!! We had the place to ourselves, which was also our experience for almost the entire trip. Everywhere we went, restaurants, beaches, our condos and pools, we were practically the only people around! However, the Walgreens in Cabo Rojo and the grocery store were packed. If you're looking for people, just go to the store.  You will find numerous Puerto Ricans.
• The same day we went to El Yunque, we did the Kayak Trip to Monkey Island. You will want to book this more than 24 hours in advance. If you like kayaking and want to see lots of monkeys, this excursion will not disappoint. The tour guide Bob took us in a group with 2 other couples and you don't actually get to step on the island but he ties up the kayaks just offshore and you stand in the shallow water and watch the monkeys from there. We also saw some enormous iguanas and a stingray. We went just before sunset, which is a great time to see tons of monkeys.
• In between those two adventures we stopped for a delicious lunch at Erik's Gyros and a brief siesta at Luquillo Beach, which it turns out costs $4.25 for entry, but if you are out of cash and you can scrounge up about $3.43 in coins the kind lady at the gate will let you in. You may not feel your rental car is entirely safe in the parking lot when you notice the broken glass from a previous car window in the parking spot next to yours, but we didn't see any shady characters when we were there.
• The fort at  San Cristobal. We only went for about an hour, it's not really my thing but Rich really enjoyed it and it was cool to walk around, I wasn't toooo grinchy about it.

Some of the restaurants we went to:

•  Kasalta for brunch.  This was walking distance from our condo and we had an enjoyable 15 minute walk to and from there. Rich enjoyed his presidential sandwich and I had a fantastic $12 mimosa which totally satisfied my need for a mimosa on our first vacation morning. We also sat at the table Obama sat at when he was there which was fairly entertaining. It was the only empty table by a window which was why I grabbed it, not realizing it was The Table. I took a picture of the plaque next to it when I noticed it, which then triggered a few other tourists to come over and take pictures. 
• We had dinner our first night at Pamela's on the beach which was excellent. Especially the passionfruit tilapia ceviche. I was nearly licking the plate. It was a little pricey but the food was good. The drink to get at a lot of places is sangria, we had some great white wine sangria there.
• We had mofongo, the Puerto Rican cuisine that you have to try, at Raices in Old San Juan which is right next to the parking garage, which is super cheap to park in. It's touristy but a good place for mofongo, which is mashed fried plantains and a tomato-y broth with your choice of meat/fish/vegetables. I also really enjoyed my passionfruit mojito.
• We had awesome sushi at Sushi City in Condado which is apparently THE hip happening area of San Juan. We love salmon and the salmon sashimi was great here, as well as the sangria. We sat on the front patio which I of course loved, getting to sit out in the perfect temperate air in December. 
• By far my favorite and the best dinner we had was at St Germain also in Old San Juan. It. Was. Amazing and I wish we'd gone there before our last night in San Juan so we would have known to go as many times as possible. Great prices, awesome drinks, super fresh ingredients. If you are there on a Sunday, by god please go there for the brunch, I'm so sad we didn't know about it in time. They have a bar which serves craft cocktails upstairs and it is the old home of Don Pedro Albizu Campos, the Nelson Mandela of Puerto Rico. There are bullet holes in the wall next to the bar where the feds busted in to arrest him... crazy history there.  And then a rooftop level which we didn't get to see because it wasn't open on Tuesday when we were there... seriously go there for the brunch and go again for dinner and teleport me there to join you PLEASE.

This was just the San Juan portion of the trip. I'll do another entry on Cabo Rojo but wanted to get this one out ASAP for our friends who are going next week. This was an outstanding place to vacation that I would recommend to anyone looking for a quiet, relaxing, honeymoon-type trip to the tropics in the winter.  Perfect weather, sunshine, beaches, just a one hour time change from the east coast, relatively short travel time, and no passport needed from the US. And for me, the parent of an almost one-year-old, it was the place I went and got so much sleep every night and felt so marvelously rested for a whole glorious week and can I go back now?