You Give Love a Bad (Dot) Name

Just got back from Puerto Rico!

Here's a rundown of the trip:

Friday night – take a bus from South Bend, IN to O'Hare, swearing because I decided to loan my car to my mother for a week instead of drive it there, and swearing even more because the timing of the flights required me to leave from O'Hare instead of south bend (the flights from south bend all got in after my flight left). Spend the night reading books in O'Hare. Can't check baggage until 5am, so I'm lugging a big heavy bag all over the place.

Saturday morning, check baggage, go through security. TSA agent notices informs me that my drivers license is expired. D'oh!!!!! He lets me on the plane anyway, but I get selected for secondary screening. TSA agent #2 is a funny guy and jokes about giving me the "uncle Sam massage, paid for by your tax dollars", 30 seconds later I'm back in the normal line, as I've entered weaponless.

Loooooooooong flight to Puerto Rico. Movie is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but my audio isn't working properly so I doze instead.

Arrival! They have a costumed band dancing through the airport playing Latin music! cool!

Shuttle to Enterprise… they won't rent me a car… expired license. Not cool. But very nice about it and very helpful.

I call the my hotel, the Sheraton Four Points resort in Humacao — they switch my reservation to the Old San Juan Sheraton. I end up in a $350 suite at $160 a night. Not counting Internet or the fact that even drinking a bottle of water in the room will cost me $4. Beautiful place though.

I spend Saturday evening in the hotel mostly.. I take a nap, have dinner in the hotel restaurant, and lose some money in the casino. Sunday I spend exploring old San Juan, the forts and the walls and the cats in the rocks (Save a Gato!), the street vendors and coffee shops, and the DonQ Rum tour.

Monday morning I happily expect to be able to receive a license extension from the Indiana BMV and be on my way…. but it was Columbus Day and everything was closed. So, I explored the other side of Old San Juan, including the Plaza del Cristobal Colon, appropriately enough. Couldn't sleep so I hit the casino again that night, won $120 goofing off on penny slots and then lost it again… lol.

Tuesday morning, worked out the license extension with the BMV and rented a car, checked out of the Sheraton and drove to the Casa Grande, up in the mountains. Roads were scary. Hotel was like summer camp. Grounds were stunningly beautiful. I had the whole retreat to myself the first two nights.. even the staff leaves from 9pm until 8am, locking the gates behind them. Perfect peace and quiet. Fell asleep to the sounds of the Coqui frogs, cicadas and night birds, and occasional gentle rain on the tin roof. (I can't decide — every word here would easily be a link to an image. Here's the photo gallery link for all the pics I took at Casa Grande.)

Wednesday morning, woke up very early and walked around exploring, taking photos… watched the sun rise over the mountains. Had an amazing breakfast of freshly picked guava, papaya, mango, grapefruit and pineapple, most of it from the casa, the pineapple was from somewhere local (the casa's pineapple wasn't ripe enough or something) and some of the best coffee I've ever tasted… then I headed off to Arecibo observatory. Took lots of pics there because I figured my scientist friends at Manus would enjoy.

After Arecibo observatory I went to the actual town of Arecibo, which is nowhere near the observatory (town is on the ocean, observatory is in the mountains), and visited the lighthouse there, which was sort of a … like a little museum/park/something or other… combination tourist trap, kid's museum, relaxing vista, actual historical stuff… they had 1/3 scale models of the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, and of the Queen Anne's Revenge… a beautiful view of the ocean… and a real lighthouse with a little museum attached to it and almost no explanation of anything there, it was kinda odd. They also had a "pirate's cave" with a neat little aquarium (including a huge blowfish, which I'd never seen before), and after the lighthouse, a little zoo which I skipped because it looked cheesy and I was tired and thirsty.

Thursday I was going to go to the Taino ruins and the caves, but decided to do a little exploring in the mountains first. A few hours later, every muscle in my body cramped from being clenched in fear I came back to the hotel planning to give them my car keys and get drunk off my arse… but the hotel bar was closed so I got a sunburn instead.

Friday I spent the whole day at the casa reading in my hammock and tanning/burning by the pool. Friday night the casa was full, and I discovered that, as I'd read in some reviews, the walls were paper thin. Next room was full of cute college girls, so I didn't complain.

Saturday, back to San Juan and the airport and then to Chicago and finally back to south bend, many dollars poorer, many pounds of coffee and rum richer, and with about 1400 photos, a good 40 or so minutes of video clips, probably 30 minutes of recordings of ambient sound (most of which sadly I wasn't to recover).

Here are a few shots, the rest are in my photo gallery.

Walls of Old San Juan

More of the Old San Juan walls

Relaxing in a hammock on the mountainside

Sunrise behind a banana leaf