Thanksgiving in Puerto Rico

I spent Thanksgiving weekend on the neighbor island-Puerto Rico!

Thursday (Thanksgiving)- I had work on Thanksgiving Day so my friends and I arrived to Puerto Rico late on Thanksgiving night.  By the time I rented my first car (I guess that’s one of the perks of being 25), we had a late night dinner a restaurant near our hotel.  Although I didn’t have a traditional Thanksgiving meal, I did have a very American hamburger.

Our ride for the weekend

Friday-We went to el Yunque rainforest. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip because I loved hiking and seeing the beautiful views and waterfalls.  We also swam under one of the waterfalls.  El Yunque rainforest is the only rainforest on US territory.

We swam under this waterfall. 

hiking to see waterfalls

The view from Mount Briton

among the clouds

beautiful rainforest 

taking time to smell the flowers :)

Friday night we went on a bio bay tour.  Prior to the tour I knew very little about bioluminescent bays, but they are fascinating!  The bio bay contains hundreds of thousands plankton that are bioluminescent. These dinoflagellates glow whenever they are moved.  Kayaked to the bay and then continuously played in the water to watch it glow.  Every time you touched the water it was like thousands of tiny, sparkling stars.  I especially loved letting the sparkling water run down my arm or leg.   It’s hard to describe but it was unbelievable to see.

Saturday-We took a ferry to a small island off the Puerto Rico called Vieques .  After the ferry ride we took a taxi to a practically deserted beach.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  

Vieques Island

clear, blue water

The island also had wild horses.

what a beautiful world we live in

I found this huge (empty) conch shell in the water.  

Sunday-We toured “Viejo San Juan” or Old San Juan.  This part of the city has two huge forts and pretty houses.   We toured both forts and took a guided tour with a park ranger of the underground tunnels (super interesting!).  I learned that the control of Puerto Rico was extremely important because it was the halfway point between Europe and South America, hence the forts.  

touring the fort

city street

 view of the city from the fort

Food-It was very nice to be able to drink the water the water in PR.  I had a popular snowcone called Piragua.  The man shaves the ice from a large block, and then pours your preferred juice over the ice shavings.  I had passion fruit, a newly discovered favorite flavor in the Caribbean.  

The man shaves the ice from this huge block.

many signs were in both English and Spanish, like the flavor choices for the piraguas

Puerto Ricans seem to like fried food.  Although fried food is not my favorite, I had a thin piece of dough with little pieces of fish, an empanada with conch, and a ball of mashed potatoes with meat in the middle (I think this should be the next food at the State Fair).

I'm eating an empanada stuffed with conch.

Every street seemed to have a man that had a cart with 3 orange coolers.  These coolers contain 3 flavors of ice cream-passion fruit, pineapple, and coconut.  

enjoying passion fruit and pineapple ice cream

 La Bombonera is a famous bakery/restaurant.  It is most famous for Mallorca-a baked piece of bread, toasted, and covered with powdered sugar.  Need I say more? haha

DELICIOUS

I'm obviously very excited about my new favorite  restaurant in  Puerto Rico.

Kasalta Is a famous local restaurant that has sandwiches and desserts.  President Obama ate there on his trip to PR this past summer.  I ordered their most popular sandwich-ham, pulled pork, mustard, and pickles.

I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and everything I did/saw/ate.  J