Thursday, July 05, 2007

Puerto Rico Honeymoon | Friday Through Monday


The next day was Friday. We went back to Rosemary and canceled our Vacation Club, and then hung out at the pool until it was time for our Spa.
The Spa was well worth the time we spent listening to the lovely Rosemary. Lizzie and I were escorted into our separate changing rooms. Inside the changing rooms we were able to use the steam room, sauna, jacuzzi, and showers. After about half an hour of using these facilities, we were then escorted up stairs where our massages would take place. We were together in a room and had to lay down on the massage tables without any clothing on, but covered with a sheet. The two girls then proceeded to give us two amazing 45 minute massages.
We also had been planning on going to the evening Kayaking, but had a mix up with the time to meet the bus which was to take us to Kayaking. We should have been out in front of Gran Melia at 530pm, but were told to be there at 730pm. Regretfully, we rescheduled the Kayaking for the next night.
Since we had missed the trip we decided to head out of the resort for dinner. We ended up going to McDonald's off of Rt 3. The staff of the McDonald's were very friendly and helpful. Funny thing, I tried to order a vanilla milk shake using the name on the menu, but they seem to know it as shake as well.
On Saturday, we got up early and were planning on going to one of the islands off of Puerto Rico, Culebra, which we were told was a cool little artist type community. However, we met the owner of the local Avis car rental in the parking lot, and she advised against it since today was the holiday of Noche de San Juan and the beach on the island would be very crowded. Also, we were a little late as the ferry to the island leaves very early. It was about 9am, and we should have left at about 6am to make the ferry.
On the night of San Juan, at midnight, there is a tradition of stepping backwards into water and taking seven steps and flipping into the water. We did not participate in the event, but chose to go back to our villa. I was still a bit under the weather, so were asleep by 10pm.
Taking the advice of the Avis owner, we decided to head out to Rincon instead, which is at the other end of the island. We were told that the waves at Rincon were some of the best on the island. We had a nice drive, but had a little trouble locating the beach in Rincon. We did eat lunch in Rincon at El Cerdito del Cielito the only Barbecue pit restaurant on the island. I had a great sandwich, but Lizzie, not being a meat lover, was not pleased, especially since her sandwich arrived with moldy bread, which was replaced with a much fresher role. But at that point, Lizzie's appetite was affected badly.

After lunch, we headed south on 115 or the main road out of Rincon and saw a beach sign which is where we headed. We ended up going to the beach outside of Rincon on a public beach which cost us 3 dollars for parking. Very nice little beach. The waves were pretty small, but the sand was very soft. This is also were Lizzie took the coconut pictures. We were only at the beach for a short time, because we had to make it back to the resort so that we could meet the bus at 530pm for the Kayak tour.
We made it back to the resort without getting lost since we are now pretty familiar with the roads and the Avis map.
At 530pm we board the bus that would take us to the town of Fajardo for the Kayak tour. This was a very enlightening experience for us, that thankfully did not end up with divorce. We had to pat ourselves on the back, because we were by far the worst Kayakers, having had to be pulled by our guide. The lure of going kayaking at night is the fact that the waters of the bay that we went into were filled with bioluminescent plankton that lit up when disturbed by your hand or paddle. This is one of less than a dozen places on Earth that this occurs. If you ever have a chance to go during a rain storm, I hear it is spectacular.
We had a really good time on the Kayak tour in spite of our difficulties. We would highly recommend going with Enchanted Island Eco Tours, which proved to have a very knowledgeable and capable staff. Note: Take waterproof camera on kayak trip to take pictures.

The enchanted Kayaking was probably our last planned activity out of the resort. The rest of the honeymoon was spent as Lizzie wanted, hanging out by the pool relaxing. We also did a little gambling, mostly slots, but a little roulette also. Lizzie ended up being the big winner of the two of us.
Monday morning came all too quickly. We had very little trouble getting to the airport, and found the lines at the airport to move pretty quickly. Other than having a two hour delay of our US air flight, it was pretty much a smooth sailing flight.
We got into Philly, and seemed to have to wait for ever for our bags. Finding the location to pick up our luggage ended up being another little trip that involved going outside of the airport. After getting the bags, we quickly got on the shuttle to parking and eventually located our car.
Side note: never leave your car with a nearly empty tank.
We ended up stopping at The Boat House in Conshohocken, PA, and then headed home to Boyertown at about midnight.

View the other posts in our Puerto Rico Honeymoon series.


Also please check out our Gran Melia honeymoon photo's on Flickr.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Greetings -

Your honeymoon sounds like it was great!! If you make it to Culebra feel free to drop by our place

http://www.palmettoculebra.com/

for a cup of organic coffee and a chat.