I took around 600 pictures on our trip to Puerto Rico. Don't worry, I won't post them all. However, since there's still quite a few, I'm going to split up the PR blog into 3 separate posts - Adventures, Family, and PR Life.
This first installment is our Adventures so grab a big cup of coffee, sit back, and check out the isle of Puerto Rico from the Cruz family perspective.
This is Mason and Siena's first time being able to play in the ocean! Doesn't feel a thing like the Oregon Coast.
We went with Junior and Joel's families, as well as Luis' aunt Gladys' family, to visit Puerto Rico's National Rainforest El Yunque on our second day. Siena found a giant leaf.
El Yunque has many amazing waterfalls like this one.
Yaya joined us in PR for a week. She's teasing Mason here with a leaf.
At least until we decided that leaf would be the perfect shield against sunburn for Luis' bald spot.
Daddy and Siena at the falls.
The Cruz boys with their aunt Gladys.
Yaya at the base of the falls.
Cruz cousins at the falls.
The tower at El Yunque.
At the top!
The view of the rain forest from the top.
The kids at the base of the tower with a lot of local foliage behind them.
Mason does his Tarzan routine with the vines.
After visiting El Yunque, we went to the beach in Luquillo. The water was amazing, especially in the 90+ degree heat. Even Yaya came into the water - in all her clothes!
Th next day, we did a mini-tour of Luis' childhood spots in his hometown of Naranjito. This is the outside of his grade school.
Up the street, we found his best friend from childhood, Victor. Victor runs a roadside hot dog stand with his family. They hadn't seen each other since Luis moved to Oregon in 1986 so it was a fun, long overdue reunion.
Mason enjoying his second of Victor's dogs.
After visiting Victor, we went with Luis' parents to visit Luis' godmother, Aida. It had also been many years since Luis had seen her.
Finally, we went to Luis aunt Yoli's house to see family and so the kids could play in their pool.
Gloria found some marshmallow treats for the kids. Siena approved.
Mason, rockin' out by the pool.
We had some free time the next morning before a family reunion with Gloria's relatives so took advantage of the weekend traffic (or lack thereof) and drove into Old San Juan to walk around a little bit.
The kido's by a fountain in Old San Juan.
The fountain from the other side. It may have been 9 am, but the spray from the fountain still felt pretty darn good. Did I mention it was really hot?
The kids by the wall surrounding Old San Juan. The wall is 42 feet high and surrounds almost all of Old San Juan.
Me, with the wall in the background.
And the kids...
The kids with the wall and city in the background.
Mason knocking on a old storage door to see if anyone's home.
An ancestor?!?
Luis and the kids take a break in one of the parks in the center part of Old San Juan. This part of the city is reminiscent of older European cities and is beautiful.
The buildings are brightly painted and many of the streets still have the old cobblestone as seen here.
Later that day, we went to Luis' childhood home in Naranjito (now rented by his uncle Luisito) for a family gathering with Gloria's family. See the 2nd blog installment for more pictures of this gathering.
We were up bright and early the next morning to catch a catamaran in Fajardo for a day of swimming and snorkeling. What we couldn't have imagined is that what should have been an hour drive to Fajardo turned into a 3 hour traffic nightmare trying to get through San Juan during morning traffic. We did manage to make the boat, barely.
This was the first island we stopped at. Fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie may recognize it from the 4th Pirates movie.
Mason, Luis, and Yaya enjoy some surf. For poor Yaya, it was a welcome reprieve as she suffered some nasty seasickness on this boat tour.
Me, making the plunge from the top of the boat.
Luis follows behind.
Siena LOVED swimming in the ocean!
I got some snorkeling in, and even saw a sting ray. It was a pretty amazing day. Even Yaya was glad she went, despite the, uh, vomit.
The next day we decided to go in a direction completely opposite of San Juan so we headed due west to Arecibo for a visit to the Arecibo Observatory. If you've ever seen the movie Contact with Jodie Foster, you may remember the Arecibo Observatory as the giant satellite dish from the beginning of the movie.
Here the kids are checking out a giant meteorite.
Yaya and Luis taking a break.
Learning how clouds work.
And finally, the satellite - the largest of its kind in the world. This is the reflector and antennae. The dish itself is stationary so this is the mechanism that scientists move and manipulate to capture far off radio waves.
The kids and I with the satellite behind us.
Yaya and Mason.
In the foreground, a sample of the mesh material the dish is made from. It's designed to let rain flow through it.
It was hot here too.
South of Arecibo is the town of Lares which is home to
Heladería de Lares (Lares ice cream parlor) which has been featured on multiple food and travel shows. It's famous for having over 1000 flavors of ice cream.
Here are a few of the more exciting ones - corn, codfish, sweet rice...
Even here I can't get away from rice and beans...
Luis samples the rice and bean ice cream...I did too. It tasted like rice and beans.
We settled on more normal flavors like guava, strawberry, chocolate, etc.
We did sample the codfish flavor though. Yaya's reaction about sums up what we all thought of it.
The next day we decided to brave San Juan again. This time we took a ferry over to Old San Juan to again attempt to avoid traffic and parking issues.
A post lunch fountain pose in Old San Juan.
These are famous goat statues in San Juan. Luis confirms that this is indeed a boy.
I took a different approach.
Yaya was happy with a shady spot on a bench. Did I mention this island is very hot?
Now for the highlight of Mason's trip - El Morro.
The construction of the Castillo San Felipe del Morro began in 1539, its purpose to defend the port of San Juan. The fort was attacked several times and withstood each attack.
This is a monument commemorating the resisted siege of El Morro by the Dutch in around 1625.
Luis is pointing out the building where his uncle Vitito works. We passed this building many times and each time someone felt compelled to point out "that's where Vitito works!"
The kids in a storage room in El Morro.
The view of Old San Juan from El Morro.
Mason reenacting the defense of the fortress.
The kids and I in the lighthouse on El Morro.
Another lighthouse shot.
Siena taking a break. Did I mention Puerto Rico is hot?
Mason being adventuresome.
Another spot to rest.
Cannonball!
Yaya made it to the top!
The view of the port entrance from the other direction of El Morro.
Cannon!
Time for a break. Did I mention the heat? It was especially hot here where we were constantly exposed in the sun.
There were numerous staircase designs within the castle meant to help soldiers get from one place to the next quickly.
Lots of stair climbing...
On the ferry ride back to the car.
Yaya left to go back to Oregon on Friday, the same day as the big Cruz family reunion. See the Familia blog for coverage of this event.
On Saturday we drove to Cabo Rojo in the southwestern corner of the island. We stopped first at this amazing beach at the end of a long dirt road.
Wave jumping!
Mason and I decided to make the hike up to the Cabo Rojo lighthouse from the beach. This is the view of the shore from the top.
Mason at the Cabo Rojo lighthouse.
My hiking buddy!
While we were gone, Siena was busy making a sandcastle.
It was back to the water for Mason and Luis. Did I mention it was hot?
After grabbing a late lunch, we visited San German. San German is one of the oldest towns in Puerto Rico. This was the Porta Coeli church which is one of the oldest church structures in the western hemisphere, built in 1609.
View of the town from the top of the church steps. Most of the downtown area retains it's Spanish Colonial style. This was one of our favorite towns we visited.
The kids at the church.
Mason checks out some ruins.
Siena can't let her brother have all the fun.
We decided to go back to go back to Arecibo the next day. We wanted to try out ceti - a small fish mainly found in the river in Arecibo. This was also featured on Andrew Zimmerman's bizarre foods. More on that in Blog 3. Here's Siena outside the restaurant though.
And Mason.
We went up to the park at the Arecibo lighthouse after getting our fill of ceti. They had several replica ships including the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria plus one of Black Beard's pirate ship. Mason loved it!
Siena didn't mind the playing around on the ships either.
Okay, I thought it was sort of fun too.
Aaarrghh...
Luis and Mason with the Arecibo lighthouse in the background.
Siena and a view of the coastline from the roof of the lighthouse.
Luis and the kids at the light.
After the lighthouse, we went to check out the Cavernes del Rio Camuy (Camuy River Cave Park). The Camuy caves are one of the largest cave systems in the world with
over 10 miles of caverns, 220 caves and 17 entrances that have been mapped so far. Many experts believe that there are another 800 caves yet to be discovered. At the entrance, trees grow upside down!
A few outside from the interior of Cueva Clara (Clear Cave).
The interior of Cueva Clara.
A view of the sinkhole. These caves were pretty amazing.
We were given headsets to learn about the caves and it's inhabitants on the tour. The kids both really enjoyed this part of our trip.
Getting goofy in the cave.
We were stuck behind some Asian tourists that felt compelled to strike a stupid pose every 10 feet or so within the caves. Luis and I couldn't help but mimic them.
The exterior of the caves - absolutely amazing rainforest view!!!
On our last full day, we drove to Ponce in the south central part of the island. Ponce is the second largest city in Puerto Rico and is known as the Pearl of the South. It contains a wonderful historical district in the center of the city, highlighted by Parque de Bombas, Ponce's fire station for many years. It now serves as a museum. If you've happened to have been in our living room, we have a painting of this.
Mason in the upper floor of the museum.
Siena in the stairwell at Parque de Bombas.
Testing out the old pumps.
And checking out the old fire truck.
In the park area outside Parque de Bombas.
On the back side of the fire house is Ponce Cathedral.
The cathedral has a history that dates to 1670 and has been damaged several times by fires and earthquakes.
Mason taking in the interior of the cathedral.
The pipe organ inside.
Fountain outside the cathedral.
The kids cooling off by the fountain.
We also visited native Taino ruins in Ponce.
Mason learns what he can about the ancient homes.
A ceremonial site.
The kids check out an old canoe.
The exterior of the huts.
The rock formation behind the kids are the original rocks from hundreds of years ago and served as the boundaries for an ancient game played by the Taino's.
This was an ancient ceremonial area - again the rocks are all original and as they were discovered after a tropical storm in 1975. Many larger ruin sites have been located in the region but no funding can be generated to continue the exploration of the region.
An old carved face...
Luis seeing if a foreign moracca will play.
Siena playing with Mason's hat as we all eat popsicles. Did I mention it's hot?
We left for home the next day where the temperature is a respectable 80 degrees. It was a wonderful trip but it's good to be home. Stay tuned for blog installments 2 and 3 to follow whenever I get around to it.
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