Puerto Rico

This weekend I had some good friends (the Phillips) in town. We met a few summers back when we worked together in Puerto Rico. Saturday night at dinner we were describing to the others there how necessary it is to visit Puerto Rico and ended up writing up a list of absolute have to's for visiting PR. My big first is Bioluminescent Bay, which unfortunately I don't have a picture of. It is a bay on the NE corner of the island with a type of algae (?) that glows when disturbed. You kayak around the bay and the water running past your kayak makes your kayak glow. While we were there you could jump in and your body would glow, but now you are not allowed to leave your kayak. Definitely number one on my PR list and maybe number one of things I have ever done. Here are some other pictures from Puerto Rico summer 2006.

This is the view from one of the apartments I stayed in that summer. Yup - the beach was literally our backyard. I remember the first time I went to the beach that summer, it was after dark and I was kinda reluctant, because I didn't want to get cold - but as soon as the water touched my toes, I jumped right in. The water is as warm as bath water.

This is Cabo Rojo, which is the SW corner of the island. It is a very secluded area with lots of cliffs, a lighthouse and a small, but breathtakingly beautiful beach. I think that we saw only one other group the whole day we were at this beach.
And this is something alot of people may have seen - think 007 movie... It is called Arecibo Observatory. I love that it is right in the middle of all of these trees.

Another of my favorites that I don't have a digital picture of is San Juan. It is definitely a fun place to visit and in my opinion the best cruise port. It definitely is more touristy than the rest of PR, but it is a beautiful port, beautiful city and lots of very close cool things to see (like El Castillo). I would recommend a vacation to the island to ANYONE!! No matter your vacation style - PR is for you!