...or...The Island of Enchantment, for those of you who don't know Spanish. That is Puerto Rico's slogan, if you will. And how fitting it is. We just got back late Saturday night from a fabulous ten days there visiting Grandpa Siler, Abuela Carmen, Aunt Jessie and her boyfriend John, Carmen's son, Luis, and Carmen's daughter, Tashi with her four-year-old son, Nafet.
All ten days were perfect weather, 82 degrees, sunny, light tropical breezes. We only had a few rain showers at night while we were sleeping. Most of the amenities have closed down at Palmas del Mar (the resort where Ed's Dad lives and works) due to the economy and a called bank loan. The golf course, tennis club, and beach club are all pretty much shut down. They have been taken over by the homeowners, though, and plan to re-open in the new year. Preparations are being made now.
We were able to hit the beach club one day when they held an "open house" to try and entice residents to join. The "Beach Club" is a huge pool with swim lanes, volleyball courts (in the pool), a regular swim area, and adult water slides.
They also have a massive kid pool with an interactive water play area with a few small water slides, water guns, and a huge bucket that dumps water every minute.
Izzi had no fear this year, running through the powerful fountains in the kiddie pool. She had a blast, and I have about 100 pictures to prove it.
This was the first year I didn't go down the big-kid water slides at the Beach Club. Because the club was only open one day last week, and it hasn't been open in SO long, it was pretty crowded and I didn't feel the need to stand in line with screaming 10 year olds.
On Tuesday, we went on a ferry ride to Culebra, a separate island off the coast of Puerto Rico (but still part of PR). The ferry ride was ROUGH, to say the least. We all took Dramamine, but Isabelle still got seasick. She was a trooper though, as soon as we got back onto solid land and got some lunch, she was rearing to go! We saw a huge iguana at lunch whose name, apparantly, is Tangelo. He's been a member of the restaurant/bar "Mamacitas" for about six years now.
The water at Culebra was more turquoise than any of the Caribbean water I've seen (Bahamas, Jamaica, Aruba, Cancun). The pictures don't even do it justice, it was superb. The sand was like baby powder. The day we were there, the water was a bit on the chilly side (for that part of the world) and a little rougher than normal so Isabelle couldn't go in too far, but she was, again, fearless in her attempts. That's her in the back trying to catch up with Aunt Jessie, Luis, and John.
The ferry ride back to mainland was much calmer, thank God. Everyone slept the ride back except for me and Carmen. We took pictures and chatted most of the 90-minute ride. We saw one of the best sunsets of the week on that ferry ride. The pictures, again, don't do the sunset justice. The island up ahead is Vieques, another separate PR island located between mainland and Culebra.
One day, we went to Luquillo for lunch, a small town about 30 minutes north of Palmas. They have a group of "kioskos" (kiosks) with tons of choices of authentic PR food and other delicacies. I had the best Peruvian ceviche of my life that day and vow to learn how to make it just as good as I ate that day. I can't wait another year to have it again.
The rest of the week, we lazed around the beach and various pools in the resort. We traversed by golf cart (called golf cars there). We saw a pretty amazing sunset every night, and we took over 500 pictures so we could relive the vacation every day until we return.
Te amo, Puerto Rico, la isla del encanto...
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| Palmas from the Beach Bohio |
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| Izzi and Ed on the golf cart at Palmas Doradas (our neighborhood) |
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| Izzi and Jen at the Beach Club |
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| Another sunset, from Edd and Carmen's backyard |
We were able to hit the beach club one day when they held an "open house" to try and entice residents to join. The "Beach Club" is a huge pool with swim lanes, volleyball courts (in the pool), a regular swim area, and adult water slides.
They also have a massive kid pool with an interactive water play area with a few small water slides, water guns, and a huge bucket that dumps water every minute.
This was the first year I didn't go down the big-kid water slides at the Beach Club. Because the club was only open one day last week, and it hasn't been open in SO long, it was pretty crowded and I didn't feel the need to stand in line with screaming 10 year olds.
The ferry ride back to mainland was much calmer, thank God. Everyone slept the ride back except for me and Carmen. We took pictures and chatted most of the 90-minute ride. We saw one of the best sunsets of the week on that ferry ride. The pictures, again, don't do the sunset justice. The island up ahead is Vieques, another separate PR island located between mainland and Culebra.
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