Snorkeling and Caving

 We took a boat trip to the island of Culebra to find some good snorkeling. 

After we snorkeled, we hung out on a beach for a bit, and Aunt Donalyn and Stephanie found all these beautiful and interesting shells.

That night we had dinner at the place Stephanie dreams about :) It was right on the beach, and we saw a double rainbow while we were there!

On Sunday, we went to the church building, only to find out that it was Stake Conference week! We were bummed, but that meant that we were able to go on a cave tour we were thinking about doing. It was about 1.5 hours away. It was called Cueva Ventana. There were 800-year-old petroglyphs (this guy looks like a skeleton!). There were bats in the caves, too.

We checked to see where the temple was, and it was only 10 minutes out of our way home! We pulled up and saw that it was gated, and the gate was shut...but there was a young man in the guard house who let us on the grounds. It was a very small temple, which was interesting to see. 

It was a lovely way to end our trip. I had such a great time!

El Yunque National Forest

The next day, we got up and out the door by 9am to hopefully beat the crowds to El Yunque National Forest, the only tropical rain forest in the United States. We first stopped at the lookout tower, and then headed onto an easy hike that led to a two-tiered waterfall. We were so glad we went when we did: when we got to each parking area, pool, or waterfall, there were a few people, but not too many that they spoiled the ambience or made it hard to get pictures. But on our way back down, there were crowds of people!

After another quick hike, we drove back to our apartment and then spent the afternoon at the beach and out to dinner! It was a pretty perfect day.

Vieques

The next day, we went snorkeling under the pier we'd seen the night before (we didn't see a lot, but it was worth doing), and then we went on a little golf cart drive (with all of our stuff again!) to an old lighthouse. We were the only ones there and had this little beach all to ourselves.

Then we took the ferry back to the mainland and checked into our third (and final) place for the trip- an apartment on the 17th floor with amazing ocean views.

Puerto Rico

I had the amazing opportunity to go to Puerto Rico with my mom, my Aunt Donalyn, and my sister-in-law Stephanie. Stephanie had been there twice before, and it was hers and Michael's raves about it that made my mom pick it for the location of this girl's trip. Stephanie was an amazing tour guide, my mom was so generous to pay for the trip, and my husband and kids were supportive enough to encourage me to go self-sufficient enough to not need me (too much) for a week. 

Our first day, we all arrived in San Juan, explored the beach for a bit, ate a yummy dinner, and then had an early night (they had all flown overnight to get there).  

The next day, we took the ferry to Vieques. We rented a golf cart to get around, which was hilarious, especially when we had all of our luggage! We ate a delicious dinner and then spent about an hour walking along the beach and waiting for it to get dark, because then we could do the main event: our tour of the bioluminescent bay.

Mosquito Bay in Puerto Rico is the world's brightest bioluminescent bay in the world. In this bay, when the water is disturbed (by your hand, a boat oar, a fish swimming, or rain), microscopic organisms in the water emit a bright pale blue. We were in clear-bottomed kayaks, and it looked like we were boating over thousands of diamonds. If you cupped water in your hand and let the water run down, it looked like diamonds were falling from your fingertips. It was hard to catch it in a picture, but it was an amazing experience.