Unfortunately, it wasn’t the incredible week I had hoped for. The four of us got a cold the week of and it hit our mom hard two days before our flight. Although my sisters and I were pretty much recovered, we just had a pesky, lingering cough, our mom wasn’t sure she’d be able to go. She pulled together just enough strength and with some help packing, we headed to the airport. Our first flight was so delayed we missed our second flight but our mom was able to get us on another one–barely, they wanted to give us the same flight the next day. The flight change meant we were now arriving at two in the morning instead of one. I can now say I definitely prefer early morning flights to late night ones.
I was not anticipating the mugginess. By the time we had a day left it was slightly more bearable, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I prefer dry heat to muggy heat. The house we were staying at had an open plan so the kitchen/living room were muggy and let in more than a few pesky mosquitoes. Under different circumstances it would’ve been a pretty neat place to stay. If it was a place I was living I would definitely want glass instead of nothing. Thankfully the rooms were chilled and bug-free for the most part.
Our first day we picked up our pre-ordered food and shopped around for fruit and other foods. We couldn’t find any organic fruits–I guess Puerto Rico doesn’t get organic fruit?–and other breakfast and snack foods. If it weren’t for the kosher dinner, we would’ve had hardly anything to eat. Maybe living there we’d be able to do a better search for healthy foods but at a glance it doesn’t seem like Puerto Ricans have a large selection of healthy food options. Perhaps being an island has something to do with it.
We took a salsa class, which was fun, just the basic steps. It would’ve been more fun if my husband could’ve taken the class with us and then all of us gone out one night dancing. We were back at the house pretty early most nights because what we had planned for the day didn’t take long and we’d be too worn out to go out and do other things. We spent a day and a half on Vieques to horseback, kayak in a bioluminescent bay, and snorkel. Our horseback ride was by far my favorite activity because it was much more interesting than any other the other trail rides we’ve been on. The heavy rains the previous night had washed out portions of the trail along the beach so we had to convince our horses to wade in the ocean. Our mom’s horse, at one point, was refusing to follow the same path and instead tried to go a different way–that was on a small ledge. She said she saw her life flash before her eyes because her horse might jump and the both of them being older, she didn’t think it’d go over well. Vieques has a lot (a lot!) of wild horses roaming the island and one of the yearlings tagged along behind us but our guide was not happy when he broke into her pasture to be with the other horses.
The bioluminescent bay was definitely a unique and beautiful thing to see, even though our guide said that because of the abundance of rain they’ve been getting–which I guess isn’t typical for the time–it wasn’t as bright as it normally would be even for a moonless night, which it was. Having a fear of falling into murky or dark water kind of dampened my enjoyment, especially since 90% of what’s in the ocean is in the bay.
We were supposed to snorkel the next day but, again because of the excessive rain, the water was too murky to see anything. I was really disappointed about it being cancelled because it’s something I’ve always wanted to do and being pregnant, there was no other snorkeling tour I could go on. This particular one you walked into the water instead of taking a boat out.
Our mom and one of my sister’s did a zipline (I couldn’t, being pregnant) while my other sister and I tackled a short, hot hike. Another day we spent at the beach, half of it anyway since I spent the first half of it napping. The night before I developed an ear infection or something and the pain didn’t lessen until about seven a.m. Our last day we went to El Yunque National Forest and walked the trails a bit. It was hot and I didn’t have the energy, neither did our mom, so we left after only partially hiking two of the trails. We went to the ocean the day before and all I did was ride with the waves, hardly even swimming, but I guess it took more out of me than I realized.
Monday, our flight home was later in the day, so we were going to do some souvenir shopping and see the old fort at San Juan. We almost didn’t see the fort because we were walking to it and we went right instead of left. After we shopped for souvenirs at one store our mom just dropped my sisters and I off outside the fort. There were no open parking spaces, so she drove around for a bit while we walked the fort. Doesn’t seem fair but I envied her being in the air-conditioned car. It would’ve been nice to take our time walking around the fort but it’s definitely something better seen on a cooler day. Or at least not seven months pregnant. At the airport there was a brief moment of panic because the line to get through security was very long and our mom’s TSA pre-check isn’t working for some reason. She did make it through, but I think she really thought she would miss our flight.
I don’t know if we made the best of that vacation or not, but it was definitely disappointing. I would say we need a redo but I’d rather vacation to another island, maybe the Virgin Islands. Maybe in a couple years. Next year I’m thinking a family vacation to Utah. It would be our first family vacation with the little guy–not that he’d remember but that’s okay, there’ll be plenty of pictures.
Mikaela Nicole 