Park staff coached Heidi how to hold a piece of banana in her hands so that a wild monkey that had come out of the woods would perch on her and eat it. One leaned on me for a while and we had a nice talk.
We spent a few hours lounging in the crystal clear water at Grand Anse Beach. The water was so clear, the Miles' found a diamond in the sand (or maybe not, we'll have to wait for the jewellers opinion!). We bought a Christmas tree ornament, a towel and bottle of aloe for our sunburns - all the classic souvenirs.
Taking a water taxi back to the beach, we got a rather daunting view of our boat the Celebrity Millenium next to the much bigger Norwegian Epic. I didn't think you could ever think of a 5000 capacity cruise ship (passenger and crew) as puny, but man, staring up at the big boat it was hard not to feel a little inadequate. I felt better sitting in the hot tub an hour later chatting to 2 couples who had both been on the Epic last year and said that the line ups for the activities were epic, as well as the boat.
After a week of hunting, and a comical comedy of errors finding each other, Heidi and I finally found out how to access the helipad for sail away. We didn't see any dolphins this time, but we had seen them as we sailed away from Dominica. We saw flying fish however which go a lot further than I would have guessed.
Our one At Sea day was the final day of the cruise. This is my only complaint with cruising - I don't have the self restraint to not get off and explore every port, but I feel terrible if I don't explore everything on board too. So Rob and I divided and conquered this day. First he read and napped by the pool, then by the front movie deck, then in the indoor pool Solarium area. I started the day with a backstage tour of the theatre with the twins, then met Rob for lunch, then watched an Irish dancing lesson (Happy St Patty's Day!), went to a close up magic show with Harrison, went to a talk from the Captain on Navigating a Cruise Ship, watched the emotional conclusion of the movie Rob was napping through with him, had a cold Corona on the pool deck, sat in the hot tub, grabbed a burger, then dressed for pre dinner cocktails with the Miles in the Sky Lounge. Checked it all off the list!
Hands down the best food on the cruise was the mushroom, onion burger. Not that the spiced duck rilette quenelles weren’t impressive, but this burger was mouthwatering. It became our welcome back on board treat every day. Life is good.
Dressing up with my handsome/lovely family is one of my favourite parts of the experience!
Land ho! We docked in San Juan early Saturday morning, self disembarked and were in Old San Juan by 8:15am. We dropped our luggage at the Barrachina Restaurant - the orginal home of the Pina Colada, according to them, and meandered the quiet morning streets of the Old Town, taking waaaaay too many pictures. We toured the old fort at San Cristobal, with it's sentry towers and underground tunnels and learned about Puerto Rico's role in WW2 which I'd never heard before (they bombed German U Boats in the area, among other things).
Then, sadly, it was time to split up from the Miles' and let them catch their plane back to Canada. We did a private walking tour of the Old Town from a great guide named Johnny who took a break mid way so we could get Paletas (frozen popsicles) - I got Strawberry Mojito, since I hadn't had a cocktail in the sunny south yet. We toured all the way over to the fort at El Morro, and then toured it on our own. We finished up with a lunch picnic on the rolling grass lawn, watching the kids ride cardboard toboggans down the slopes and the kites duck and weave endlessly.
We picked up our rental car and drove an hour to the more south-eastern side of the island for our final 2 days of touring. Our adorable little Airbnb had been gutted by Hurricane Maria 5 years earlier, and they had been without power for 8 months. The hurricane made landfall very close by and in the small neighbourhood our house was in, 2/3 of the houses still looked like they had been storm ravaged and never moved back in to. We got groceries at the local Econo supermarket and stocked up on local pop (Coco Rico and Pineapple Fanta). We unpacked for the 3rd time and get ready for the 3rd leg of the adventure.
The back yard of our little house looked like something straight out of a 5 star resort, so we adapted the original plan from going to the beach and elected to stay at home and enjoy our pool. Rob and I discussed the pros and cons of travel vs. snowmobiles while sipping strong Puerto Rican coffee and the kids played 3 1/2 hours of Marco Polo.
Once the Marco Polo players started to turn on each other we headed out to a swamp forest with huge cypress trees called Pterocarpus. There was a boardwalk with an audio guide that we followed along with and discovered that Iguanas are an invasive species and not particularly well liked.
We finished up strong on our final day of sightseeing, Monday, Mar 20. Flights were almost twice as cheap to fly Tuesday to Tuesday (vs Sat to Sat) and staying the extra days before and after our cruise let me see the rainforest and book a bioluminscent lagoon tour for a night with no moon (more to follow on that).
After another morning of Marco Polo in the pool, we spent the afternoon at a local swimming hole called Charco El Hippie. It looked like something out of a calendar.
Afterwards, we drove up to Laguna Grande to see if we could experience a bioluminescent lagoon. There are, supposedly, 5 places in the world that plankton, or dinoflagellates live who emit light when they are moved. Think fireflies in the water that light up when they are touched. They are getting dimmer as ocean temperatures warm, as more light pollution covers the touristy, coastal areas around them and can be wiped out by Hurricanes. So I felt the clock was ticking. I have had Puerto Rico's rainforest and biobay's on my list for at least 20 years. Unfortunately, the tours do NOT guarantee how bright the dinoflagellates will be, and we got a warning the night before that the cold weather storm front (Ha!) and changed current this week had affected the brightness. After this long wait, I was sure the light would be invisible or the tour would be cancelled like so many other things were by this current.
Come 5:45 we were ready at the dock with watershoes and longsleeved shirts on. We kayaked in to the bay in 2 person boats through a narrow tunnel of mangrove trees (I think) for a kilometer - already a magical experience.
We then rafted up to each other an listened to a talk from the guide on what we might see once the sunset and it turned to pitch black.
At first, it looked like a little white water, they type that is created in a little eddy around your paddle when you pull back on it. Except you shouldn't be able to see that in the dark. Then, you could notice gradually, as you put your hand in and swirled it around in a circle, little sparks and tiny flashes of light would materialize at your fingertips. Finally, once the dark had settled in and your eyes had adjusted the water looked like it was filled with glitter every time you scooped your hand through the quiet lagoon. In Harrison's words, it was "magical". We scooped and swished and swirled to our heart's content until our guide called to us to gather together and retrace our steps. We followed one another in a quiet single file, each following the single light on the back of the kayak in front of us, back through the tunnel of mangrove trees and out into the open bay. I'll never forget it. It was quite a way to end an incredible 2 weeks.
At 3 am the next morning, we loaded the luggage and the family up one last time and headed for the airport. I had meant to take nice daylight indoor pictures of the condo, but never did, so here are the official photos of our second holme
We had a nice, quiet day of flying with no drama, no late flights, no lost bags. Again, with Jet Blue we had snacks and drinks and watched movies and read. We had a layover in New York JFK and it was fun to look at Manhattan where we had been only 3 months before and see how different the skyscrapers of 5th Avenue looked from above than below. We flew back into Buffalo airport, a blissfully peaceful experience with minimal customs or line ups and Rob literally walked 10 minutes from the luggage carousel to the parking lot in the Hampton Inn where our truck was waiting for us. We drove over the border and started to connect to the internet, download missed school work, respond to missed messages, send pictures of our adventure and otherwise begin to softly transition to real life.
Luckily I have just over 1000 pictures and videos to sort, edit and eventually turn into a photo book, so the trip won't truly be over for months to come...
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