I’m sure if you follow our family blog- you know we travel a lot, and you know that sometimes I like to brag about how good of deals we get on our travels! Well, this trip was the ultimate good deal trip for us simply because we had TONS of accrued airline miles, hotel points for free hotels, and car rental points to get a whole week free. Basically, if we would have paid for everything- we wouldn’t have gone because it would have cost around $3000. We ended up doing the trip for around $500!! Our biggest expense was food because we mostly ate at resorts and hotels! A couple years ago we would probably have ventured and eaten at all of the authentic Puerto Rican restaurants, but Puerto Rico is NOT really Americanized like you think, and with me being pregnant and us bringing out 2 year old, we stuck with what we knew would be safe!!
Speaking of food… All three of us loved the Puerto Rican food! It wasn’t too spicy, but had a great taste to it! Also, we were only in Puerto Rico for 5 days, so our first day we bought a 24 pack of water bottles because it was on sale (the same price as the 6 pack). It’s a good thing we did. I think we ended up drinking almost the whole pack!!
Like I said, Puerto Rico is not very Americanized. Everything is in Spanish, and EVERYTHING (house, building, business) is barred and gated. Apparently, there is a pretty high burglary rate.
Our trip was booked out of Chicago because unfortunately the airports around us do not fly Spirit and that is where all of our miles were. It worked out, though, because we left a few of our exercise equipment at our friend’s house in Oak Lawn, so we were able to pick it up, and we even got to attend our old ward for church on our way home! It was awesome seeing everyone in the ward, and my number one question that people asked me was, “How much longer do you have?” Guess my belly grew since we were in the ward!!
Anyway, we drove to Chicago the first Saturday of our trip and flew early Sunday morning. We got to Puerto Rico around 2:30ish pm, so we headed straight to our first Resort. If you haven’t noticed from out other trips, we don’t really stay in one place for more than two nights! Josh loves to see new hotels and areas, and for this trip it actually worked out pretty perfectly because since most of our hotels were resorts with it being Puerto Rico and all, each hotel/area offered something different.
Our first stop was El Conquistador Astoria in Fajaro! This place had it’s own little island, so Monday morning we took the 10 minute ferry ride to the island, called Palamino Island. Since it was still considered “off season” the island was not crowded at all, and we found the perfect spot with shade, beach, and sun! Payson loved the beach and ocean this first day. After swimming in the pools, he only wanted to swim in the pools and hot tub versus the ocean- silly boy!!
The island offered many things to do. Of course, Josh and I wanted to spend most of the time in the ocean and tried snorkeling here. There was actually not much to see snorkeling, but Josh did blow up the big yellow floaty, and we took turns watching Pay and laying on the yellow floaty, while the other person tried to see something cool!!
Other things we could have done were basketball (we did stop and play for a minute for The Pay), mini put, volley ball, and other lots of similar activities around the island. Josh did play soccer with Pay while we waited for our lunch to cook!
On our way to lunch and at lunch we saw lots of fascinating creatures like iguanas, annoying birds that wanted our food, and a rooster!
One of the coolest things we did on the island is rent a Hobie Cat sail boat. It was fun, and Pay actually fell asleep while we were sailing.
After taking the ferry back to the resort, we swam in the pool and had pool side pizza!
The next day we were planning to go to Culebra Island, but decided to change our days around and go to El Yunqie National Rainforest because we got small sunburns at Palaminio Island and wanted to give our shoulders a break from the sun. Well, we didn’t get to do El Yunqie because it was closed from mud slides from a storm.We did drive along the road that was open, and got a few pictures.
We ended up going to our second resort, Grand Malea, and we were glad we did because this resort had a great swimming pool and hidden paradise hammocks! It has a beach, too, but the water was murky, so it wasn’t ideal to swim or snorkel in. The resort was beautiful! The palm trees and tropical plants were so pretty, and the smell in the lobby was Heavenly! Josh was reminded of Tahiti a lot on this trip, especially with beauty like this place!!
We did try to go to Culebra Island the next day, but despite waking up early to catch the only ferry in the morning, we didn’t make it to the ticket booth early enough to get tickets before they were all sold out. We met a guy there that had been there an hour before us, and tickets for that day were sold out before he even got there. He was waiting to buy tickets for the next day. We decided to forget about Culebra Island, and since El Yunqie Rainforest was still closed we decided to visit the Nature Preserve. It was okay, and probably the least coolest thing we did on our trip, but it was still pretty, and didn’t take much time, which gave us time to do something else.
Don’t mind my outfit in the pictures. I was dressed to protect my sunburnt shoulders, and we thought we were going to another island, so I didn’t wear my cute maternity shirts.
The Nature Preserve was not a great substitute for El Yunqie or Culebra, but luckily, I had read something prior to our trip about Charcul Azul in the Carite Rainforest. The Carite Rainforest is not as big as El Yunqie, but it turned out to be a perfect substitute since we couldn’t go to El Yunqie. Charcul Azul was a freshwater hole at the base of a small waterfall in the middle of a river. We had to hike to get to the water hole, and it reminded me of some of the beautiful hikes I did in Hawaii to get to water holes and waterfalls. The hike was beautiful, the water was nice, and it even rained on us like a rainforest should, however, getting to the actual hike was a nightmare. I drove so Josh could navigate. Somehow we ended up on the top of a mountain with roads that only fit one car at a time that were extremely steep. Most of the roads ended up being dead ends that just led to people’s houses. I wish we took pictures of these crazy roads because it was certainly an adventure trying to drive on them- especially when a car was coming the opposite way. Finally, Josh was able to navigate us out of the craziness, and we made it to our destination. We had Charcul Azul to ourselves, and even Payson loved jumping in the water. (Josh jumped off the rocks into the water hole, and I would have too if I wasn’t 7 months pregnant).
On our way back from the forest we drove through a cloud. I tried to snap some cool pictures, so you can kind of get the jist of what it was like!
We headed to San Juan to stay the last two nights in Puerto Rico. Here is a couple pictures of me with San Juan in the background.
The Condado Plaza had Josh from the moment he put his snorkel gear on. The hotel had a little beach with great snorkeling. We put Payson in his floaty and we both snorkelled around holding on to him. I checked on him often, and he seemed to just relax and enjoy floating around. I didn’t take him too far out and not near the rocks, but Josh went all over, and there was enough people snorkelling or around that he was okay to go by himself. I saw lots of fish, including flounder. Josh saw lots and lots of fish and a baby octopus. After being in the ocean, Payson really wanted to go on the slide, so we took him on the slide since he was so good and let us snorkel! He loved the slide, and after every time we went down he would say, “That’s fun,” or”" “I like it!”
That night we walked along the big beach in San Juan. We didn’t swim, but we saw the beautiful sunset, and enjoyed watching the waves. This was really the only beach we went to that had big waves.
Our hotel that night was Embassy Suites, and although we didn’t swim in the pool, Payson did get to play on the toys because we ordered dinner to go so we could eat in our room without having to fight with Pay to stay in his seat!! While Josh ordered and waited for our food, Pay and I played by the pool on the toys, and then we went up to our room to facetime my mom for her birthday!
Our last day in Puerto Rico we didn’t want to get gross and wet because we had to fly to Florida later in the day. I feel like we (at least me being as far a long as I am in my pregnancy) still got pretty gross because it was HOT and HUMID and there was not much air conditioned besides the car. We went to Fort Cristobol and El Moro. I had gone to the outside of El Moro about 7.5 years ago while our cruise ported at San Juan. This time I got to see the inside! (I tried to find my cruise pictures from that trip so I could post a comparison of me in front of El Moro, but I can’t find them- Bummer)!
While we were driving/walking to El Morro, Pay really wanted black (chocolate) milk. Since we pretty much spoil him 
Puerto Rico was a fun and relaxing, but it wasn’t the end of our trip. We flew to Florida Friday, but we had all of Saturday in Florida because our flight back to Chicago was not until 8:20 that evening. Josh and I have both been to the Everglades and have taken airboat tours, but neither one of us had been to Everglades National Park. We saw tons of wild alligators in the National Park, as well as, a pack of vultures, a turtle, and some beautiful birds. We also saw huge pretty grasshoppers that everyone seemed to be fascinated with, including me!
We also went to Biscayne National Park, but most of the National Park is underwater in the ocean, so we really just went to the free visitors center.
Pay is giving the giant wall fish five in the next picture!
On our way to the airport we saw the new Fort Lauderdale Temple.
We packed light for the trip as we usually do because Spirit Airlines charges for checked and carryon bags, but you can have a personal item for free. Josh usually hauled the car seat on the stroller with the bags at the airport, but Payson wanted to ride in his stroller, so Josh ended up holding the car seat on the stroller with Payson in it, while also carrying a backpack and other bag. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but all I was carrying was the small backpack on my back!
At some point in the car on our way to the airport, Pay was playing with my ipod. He was taking videos of himself counting and saying “smile.” It’s too cute not to share.
The trip was great! Payson absolutely loved having daddy all day long for a whole week. He didn’t like him to leave anywhere without him, and always wanted “Dadda” to give him a bath when we got back to the hotel rooms! It was not a super adventurous trip given that I really am 7 months pregnant and we took a 2 year old with us, but it was perfect!
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