More photos from our trip! 

I think I’ve looked back at our Puerto Rico photos at least once a day since we’ve been back. It was such a memorable experience. Emerson is recovering from surgery well, but it hasn’t necessarily been the easiest couple of weeks. We’re adjusting to life with crutches and although it’s a bit more difficult than we originally anticipated, we know it is just for a season and we’re grateful. 

Our trip to Puerto Rico was a quick one and, as I’ve mentioned, it basically rained the entire time. We got a few pockets of sunshine, but for the most part it pretty much poured. It was great, though. Our daily naps were phenomenal in the rain. 

This post isn’t very organized, but it’s what I’ve got for ya! The photos aren’t in chronological order, but you’ll get the picture;)

Our first day is a bit of a blur for me. We got to the airport around 11, picked up our rental car, and  decided to drive around before check in time at our Airbnb home. I took a wrong turn out of the airport and started heading in the opposite direction of where we were supposed to be going. We had time to kill, so no biggie. Or so I thought. We quickly realized we should just turn back around when we saw a man. Not just any man, though. This man really needed to use the bathroom, except I think he didn’t have a bathroom of his own or one to share — which is an unfortunate situation already. So, he used the side of the road. The side of the road that we happened to be sort of lost in. And by used I mean squat position and all. I was quite surprised that this was the first person we sort of encountered. 

That was our queue. No more driving aimlessly — we headed back to San Juan. We followed signs to Old San Juan and drove around looking for somewhere to grab some lunch. We learned that Old San Juan would probably be better on foot or bike so we decided to drive towards our Airbnb and find somewhere to eat a little closer to there. Pizza. Yes! We stopped at a pizzeria that wasn’t very good, but we were so hungry so we didn’t really care.

It was almost check in time and we were e x h a u s t e d. We fly standby and we had been trying to fly since the night before at 6pm. This meant we were at the airport from 4pm to 1am and then back the next day at 5am. #teamnosleep

We checked in at our beautiful Airbnb and knocked out. I don’t even remember if we put anything away or if we just collapsed. We woke up much later on in the day and it was basically past dinner time. We drove into Old San Juan for dinner and ended up having smoothies. Simple and sweet. 

Day 2  — We woke up, had breakfast at our Airbnb communal garden, and planned to drive to El Yunque Rainforest, since it’d be raining anyway. It stopped raining for a bit so we decided to quickly stop at the beach (five minute walk away) before we took the 45 minute drive to El Yunque. 

I think we stayed at the beach for less than 20 minutes because the clouds started rolling in. We packed up the car and headed towards the rain forest. The drive into El Yunque was so beautiful. The more we drove up, the foggier it got. We got out of the car a few times to look around but we didn’t go too deep into the forest. We missed most of the waterfalls, but even the few that we saw were breathtaking. 

From El Yunque, we drove towards Luquillo beach for lunch. There was a strip along the beach full of restaurants and little shops. Of course, we had pizza! We headed back to San Juan and ended up having Red Mango for dinner. Smoothies again. It sort of became tradition. 

Day 3 — We decided we wanted to rent bikes to ride around San Juan and Old San Juan. We used San Juan Bike Rentals and LOVED it. Robert, the owner, delivered the bikes right to us. One of the other couples staying on the same Airbnb property rode along with us into Old San Juan and it was so much fun. When we left the house the house, there was no rain. After a few minutes of riding, it started to  p o u r!!! I felt as if I had jumped into a pool with my clothes on. I was completely drenched, still riding the bike. It was amazing! I couldn’t believe how much fun I was having. We stopped under a bridge for a little bit because at this point is was getting hard to see. The rain lessened a bit (but didn’t stop) and we kept on going. It took about 45 minutes to get into Old San Juan by bike. We parked the bikes and walked around the charming little town. After lunch and Señor Paleta, we headed back to our Airbnb tree house. Later on in the evening, we decided to skip the smoothie tradition for dinner and walked a few blocks to Pirilo for, you guessed it, PIZZA <3 I think Day 3 was my favorite. 

Day 4 — Last day. Checkout was at noon so we rode our bikes early in the morning to our host’s hotel, the Dreamcatcher. Breakfast was prepared by an amazing chef — it was a three course vegetarian meal, which I didn’t think I would like because I’m quite picky, but it was very yum. The hotel itself was so relaxing and peaceful to be in. The breakfast area was also so beautiful, it was impossible to not enjoy breakfast. We then rode to the beach a few blocks away. It was so windy we ended up staying for about 20 minutes once again. We headed back to the house and got ready to go home. On our way to the airport, we decided to stop for lunch instead of eating at the airport. Emerson wanted to eat tacos our entire trip, so we stopped at Acapulco Taqueria and had a quick lunch. I have to say, it was so good! The place itself is quite small, but in a cute way. The staff was super friendly and the tacos — delicious! Emerson was so happy we didn’t end up eating at the airport and we were so excited about our lunch decision that we forgot to put gas in the rental car. It ended up making our rental more expensive than we originally planned, but you live and you learn. 

We really enjoyed our short trip to Puerto Rico. I think it would be a lot of fun to go with a group of friends. There is so much to do and we barely scratched the surface. For us, it was meant to be more of a relaxing trip and that is exactly what we got. I hope you enjoy the photos!