Week 7- Puerto Rico Baby - Bioluminescent Bay, Cushman Cart and Salsa

Girlfriend/Birthday trip to Puerto Rico.  Crazy fun was had by all! 

My first "first" of the week, was a ride on a Cushman Cart ^^ in the airport!  This nice man offered to take us to the part of the terminal we needed.   6 Giggly gals on a cart buzzing through the airport waving must have been a sight to behold! haha

The weather was perfect!  84F and sunny most of the time. The resort has a beautiful pool with local iguanas visiting regularly. Really soft sand beaches and clear and blue water topped it off.  The only rain we got was when we were heading through the rainforest area to kayak and that turned out to be a blessing! (more on that in a second!=])

I love Puerto Rico's rich culture and history.  As and example, they celebrate Christmas from Dec 15-25th and begin decorating in early November!  This is followed by New Years and The Kings Days (celebrating the 3 kings). I believe this ends on Jan 9th. Long Christmas season for sure! haha

I was a bit disheartened when the tour guide mentioned that 65% of Puerto Ricans do not speak English.   (According to Wiki its even less http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_in_Puerto_Rico)  There seems to be a large % of the population living in the continental US  as well.  (4.9mil as of 2012 vs 3.5mil that live on the island  http://www.pewhispanic.org/2014/08/11/puerto-rican-population-declines-on-island-grows-on-u-s-mainland/).  Puerto Rico does not pay federal taxes either and they vote in primary but not in presidential elections.

We took a 3 mile kayaking trip through red mangrove lined channels leading to Laguna Grande and the Bioluminescence Bay one day.  Since it had just rained and the plankton glows as a response to movement, the bay actually sparkled when you looked into the water! We weren't allowed to swim in the bay, but when you splashed your hand around and lifted it out of the water your hand sparkled too! The microscopic plankton, called Pyrodinium Bahamense, even lit up the paths of fish in the water. They looked like shooting stars!  Really a cool experience and something that has been on my Bucket List for ages! Glad to check off that box =]

Some highlights besides the wonderful pool and beach:
The El San Juan hotel - Gambling and dancing.  We even saw the lead singer from the band Kansas do a cameo appearance with the band.  I am not sure that he was so fabulous but the band was good and I knew all the songs! lol

Old San Juan, the historic district, was interesting.  We had dinner at The Cafe Puerto Rico (http://www.cafepuertorico.com/intro.html) The food has a latin flair, but isnt what I would call spicy. It came highly recommended but I thought it was just fair.(We ate at another place close to our hotel, called Platos Restaurant and Bar which was much better. The food at The Ritz was actually the best we had the entire trip... the Fish Tacos were AMAZING!) After Cafe PR, we went to a Latin/Salsa dance club.  Before this trip I might have said I knew how to Salsa a bit, but I was dreadfully wrong! lol  These people were awesome!  Visiting a Salsa club was definitely a first!

My favorite memory was the night we happened onto this small bar while walking back to the hotel for the night.  The bartender of this quiet place (literally only 4 people in the place at the time) quite literally dragged us in.  Just when we thought our night was winding down, it got a second wind.  We stayed for hours.  They let us manage the music, get a little crazy dancing on the bar and I even got to play bartender! A fun time was had by all.  =] The people of Puerto Rico were wonderful.  I need a vacation from my vacation! lol  #puertorico #bioluminescencebay #salsa #ritzfishtacos