El Yunque and old San Juan

After 2 amazing days in the south, we headed back to San Juan.  Before catching her flight out, Gwen joined us for a trip to El Yunque, the rain forest in Puerto Rico.

At the base of La Mina falls.

Great hike down to the falls, but very humid.

Here's the view from a tower we stopped at.  You can see all the way to the ocean.

Standing atop the tower.  93 steps to the top if I remember correctly.  Maria was running up them.

Stopping for a breather on the hike.

Lot's of vegetation, flowers etc.

One of may stops as we followed the river, creek down to La Mina falls.

Here we both are at the falls.  We didn't bring our suits, so we didn't jump in.

Now that's a set of balls!

After the rain forest, we dropped Gwen off at the airport and headed to El Morro the fort in Old San Juan.

More hiking.  Got lots of exercise in today.

Stuck between levels 4 and 5 of the fort.  Last time I was here, was 10 years ago with Wally Imfeld. The fort hasn't changed much.

Here's the beach from the hotel we were staying at in Old San Juan.  The sand was like powder, not coarse at all.  We were quite a ways from old San Juan, but still a nice place to spend a relaxing day before flying home.

Relaxing poolside with a Cuba Libre!

These little lookouts around the fort are one of the monuments you see all over.

Here's another one.  Most have been repaired, but still a site to see.

The Pina Colada was invented in Puerto Rico.  Here's one from The Parrot club.  One of the best we had while there.  They don't use/crush or shave ice.  It's made in a slushee machine, but they just use the rum and coconut juices to make it.

Here's a great dessert, a Chocolate Tres Leche cake with Coconut on top.  Pure heaven.

Our trip to Puerto Rico was a blast.  I got lot's accomplished with work, Maria was finally able to join me.  We squeezed in some diving, lot's of touring and a day of rest.  We didn't get bitten by the Chupacabra, which we heard and talked lots about.  Orlando was a great host.  The time he took us out on his boat and showed us around was wonderful.  I can't say enough about the hospitality of the team working in Puerto Rico.  I'm so happy to be associated with them.

The only part of the trip that was bad, was the return home.  Now usually that's just because it means the trip is ending, which still applied, but it was compounded in this case by United.  Our flight was 2 hours late leaving PR, as they had trouble loading fuel in the plane.  That meant we missed our connecting flight in Washington and had a 12 hour lay over.  After 2.5 hours in line waiting to hear what to do, they finally got us a hotel room.  Of course that meant we had to go outside and wait for the shuttle.  It's 5 degrees outside with a 20MPH wind and we just came from a tropical island.  Not prepared for standing outside.  We finally made it home safe and sound but it was quite and adventure.  Took us nearly 31 hours from airport to airport.

To stand outside we bought Maria a sweatshirt and these socks to wear with her flip flops.  How sexy!