We spent two weeks in Puerto Rico, with a two day stint in St. Thomas U.S.V.I. and I'm bushed. Between 7 hour jaunts on the beach, visiting family, and exploring the islands we didn't have much downtime. We visited the following places in Puerto Rico- Barceloneta, Arecibo, Carolina, Isla Verde {where we stayed}, Fajardo, Manati, Santurce, Florida, Luquillo, and Loiza. We visited the following places in St. Thomas- Bolongo Bay {where we stayed}, Charolette Amalie, Magen's Bay Beach (Amazingly beautiful), Peterborg, Ritz Carlton, Sapphire Beach Resort, and Red Hook.
After a long flight we arrived on the island and needed to rent a car. The condo we leased had three car rental agencies within walking distance, but we figured since we were already at the airport we could rent from a vendor there. Wrong Answer! No one had compact cars. After 3 hours we finally when to Charlie's, a block from condo, and rented a small car from them.
Once we got the keys to the condo we were beach bound immediately. With the beach less then 30 feet from our temporary residence we made quick work of putting on sunscreen and bathing suits.
After spending close to $100 a day to eat we decided to hit up the super market, Pueblo, and buy groceries. First we tried in vain to find a market that sold organic whole milk. Needless to say we the island doesn't sell it because its too expensive to import it and their are no organic milk producers on the island. What does that mean? Lil D has been drinking none organic whole milk for two weeks. I know shocking! We'll get her back on the organic track once we return to NJ.
Anything organic on the island is twice as much as on the mainland.
Besides going to the beach daily we took enough pictures to fill three photo albums.
It took Lil D about two days to get used to walking on sand without holding anyone's hand. She took to it well along with eating the sand. SMH . . . Obviously she wanted to experience sand with all of her senses.
Every evening we took a stroll around the various neighborhoods of San Juan. The pictures above show us in Condado {which has become to major hot spot since the last time we were on the island}.
Everyone told us the best beach in Puerto Rico is the Flamingo Beach of Culebra. We were sold on the idea of taking a ferry to the island and enjoying the beach. We drove to Fajardo to find out more information about the ferry and was told the wait is extremely long to get to Culebra. If we were interested in the 6:00 a.m. ferry we needed to get in line to purchase ferry tickets before 3:00 a.m. People get in line as early as 1:00 a.m. After hearing this I was like it's not that serious, so we decided to forget about the whole Culebra idea. Maybe next time. {Forgot to mention you can't purchase tickets for the ferry prior to the day of your trip}
