Introduction
Our recent trend has been to choose a vacation spot last minute. My aunt was going to Puerto Rico and highly recommended it. Flights were relatively inexpensive, San Juan was close by (4 hours away) and we decided that it was a good place to spend a week. Once we booked, we convinced my dad and our friends to join us.
We stayed in the Fairmont El San Juan Hotel. It was a beautiful resort with 2 pools and beach access. Free activities included hair braiding, face paint, and an ices cart. This was the first trip where I brought cooked food with us for every meal. I numbered each bag depending on which day I needed it and kept a list for myself of what food was in each bag. The hotel is very familiar with kosher food and stored all of our food for a small fee. Each day, I told them which bag of food to bring up. I let it defrost and then heated it on the hot plate that I brought with us. (They would also have heated the food for a fee.) There were several spots around the resort where we could sit to eat. The hotel is located near the Chabad House, which was very convenient for Shabbat and other daily prayers.
Most of the days we sat in the hotel by the pools and beach, but we did venture into the city for 2 days.
Old San Juan
Our trip happened to coincide with Festival de las Calles San Sebastian, a Puerto Rican street festival that takes place in honor of Saint Sebastian. The city is completely taken over by live music, impromptu dancing and other performances. The streets are filled with local artists and craftspeople. We had a great time taking part in this cultural tradition. (To get into the city, we took a cab as far as we could and then walked. The streets were insanely crowded because of the festival.)
Once we were in Old San Juan, we also made sure to check out a few National Historical Sites, including Castillo San Cristobal and El Morro, two fortresses built to protect the island.
El Yunque National Forest
No domestic trip would be complete without a stamp! El Yunque is the only tropical rainforest in the US National Forest System. You MUST reserve tickets in advance for the drive to be able to enter the park. Our stops included La Coca Falls, Juan Diego Falls, Yokahu Tower and Bano Grande. La Coca Falls is a viewpoint from the parking lot of a waterfall. Juan Diego Falls is a hike to a beautiful waterfall where you can wade in and swim / go under the falls. I think that we took a wrong turn in the hike because it was much more challenging than we anticipated. (Shoutout to our kids who were champs and climbed fervently and to me who did the hike while pregnant!) We were able to climb Yokahu Tower for an aerial view of the park. Finally, Bano Grande was a short walk around a natural pool of water.
