Parguera to Vieques

The next day, I woke up early to go diving at The Wall and the Mermaid Point. I had not heard a lot about Puerto Rico being a great dive destination. I was pleasantly surprised! The Black Coral reef was incredible. Everything was covered with fans, sponges, coral, and sea life. It was one of the prettiest dive destinations that I've been to in years.

Photos from About.com


Afterwards I started on what I thought would be a relatively short drive to the port for Vieques. Puerto Rico is not a huge island, but its roads that are not part of the freeway system are narrow, winding, and absolutely terrifyings. There were stretches along the coast where there was a sheer cliff dropping into the ocean right of the lane, no guardrails, narrow shoulder. To top off that harrowing drive, the signs are wrong. There was one town where I followed the signs leading to the highway I was supposed to following and ended up in the middle of nowhere. I backtracked and tried it again, sure that I had just misread the sign. Once again, I ended up lost. The third time, I just asked someone where to go. They gave me directions that were opposite of the signs and I ended up in the right direction. After all of the time I spent getting lost, I missed my ferry and had to wait for several hours for the next one.


By the time I made it to Vieques, it was already dark and I had missed my appointment to visit the Bahia Mosquitos. As unpleasant as that bay sounds, it is a bioluminescant bay with the highest concentration of dynoflagellates in the world. Luckily for me, an incredibly awesome crew at Blue Caribe felt sorry for me and ended up giving me a private tour of the bay (and hooking me up with a hotel room). It was unbelievable. We kayaked out to the part of the bay where the bioluminesence is most apparent. At first it was just glowing as I moved my paddle through the water, but then I jumped in and it was glowing all around me. When I lifted my hands up, the water would run down my arms in green streaks like a bad trip.

Photo from http://www.biobay.com/


The next morning, I spent the morning walking around Vieques. I had a nice breakfast at Bananas and a telephone conversation with my best friend Mindy about officiating her wedding ceremony. That is definitely one of the perks of traveling in Puerto Rico: nationwide cell phone coverage applies. :)

After making it back to the mainland, I headed back towards San Juan. I went to dinner with a friend from high school who happened to be stationed in Puerto Rico--small world--and met my family back at their Resort.

Ponce to La Parguera

The next morning, I got up early to check out the Tibes Indian Ceremonial Center. According to the guidebook, it is one of the most important archaeological sites in the Caribbean because of the evidence of pre-Taino cultures. Although I'll admit the bowls and artifacts were really cool, the rock roadways and replicas of huts paled in comparison to all the ruins on the Yucatan and in Honduras and Peru. I'm a bit jaded.






La Parguera was a couple of hours away. It is on the southwest corner of Puerto Rico, described as a sleepy fishing town by day, favorite nightlife hangout at night. The town was small, but somewhat confusing with all the one-way streets. After finding a place to stay (not nearly as cute as Hotel Belgica), I went to hike in the Guanica Forest Trails. It is a beautiful park with trails along the seashore. There was quite a variety of habitats on such a short walk.


Later that night, I had what may be the worst mexican food I've ever had. At least the beer was cold (but I did have to buy it at the bar across the street).

Bienvenido a Puerto Rico

Although I haven't been on a trip with my family since high school, when they invited me to go to Puerto Rico, I couldn't resist a weekend with my adorable sibs. So that I could see a little bit more of the territory, I headed out a few days before them. As soon as I landed, I hopped in the rental car and headed South to Ponce. It was obvious from the begining that this was not going to be my typical South American travel experience. For starters, there was an actual freeway to Ponce, four lanes in each direction. That didn't stop me from seeing sights like this, though.



When I got to Ponce, I found an adorable colonial hotel, Hotel Belgica, near the town center.

View from my room.

It was HOT and HUMID. I took a quick nap before exploring the plaza.

Plaza Las Delicias

Parque de Bombas (The Firehouse)

Catedral Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe

That night I went down to the malecon (Paseo Tablado La Guancha) to explore. This too was a very different experience. Usually when I go to a place where there are a lot of spanish speakers, they are always excited that I speak Spanish and want to talk to me. Here, not so much. People just responded to me in English like it was too much of an imposition to attempt talking to me in Spanish. I did enjoy listening to their conversations, though. Everyone was talking in Spanglish, going back and forth between English and Spanish. The food was strange, but tasty. I enjoyed my first mofongo, basically mashed plantains with a meat filling, at Kiosk 15.

The Long and Beautiful Road Home

The next morning we started our long trip home at the beautiful Kodachrome State Park. Our morning hike to the Grosvener Double Arch was other-worldly. It reminded me of the scene in Beetlejuice where Geena Davis and Alex Keaton leave their house and end up in another dimension with sand, bare trees, and sand snakes.




We took the long way home to check out Route 12, which goes through Capital Reef and Escalante. The views were unbelieveable!

We stopped to check out some cute roadside stands and to eat at the most interesting restaurant. It is a real house that has been remodeled to be a restaurant. The people there all seem to know each other, and the food was ridiculous! It was so crowded that we ended up sitting with a couple we didn't know. It turned out that we had a lot in common.


Before we knew it, we were home. It was so nice to have that weekend with just me and my best friend.

Zions to Bryce

After the awesome homemade breakfast at the Hogan (and playing in the costume shed), we hiked to the Emerald Pools and spent some more time exploring Zions.

It was hard to leave the park on such a beautiful day, but Bryce Canyon was waiting for us.

Unfortunately, my camera broke halfway up the first hike. Luckily, Min let me use her camera. I just wish I knew how to use it. I guess I'll just have to go back. :)

Bryce was unbelieveable! I have never seen anything like it. It was especially beautiful under the dusting of new snow. We couldn't help taking a hike around the rim.





The pictures don't do it justice!

We stayed at the Bryce Canyon Inn. The rooms weren't all that inviting. But luckily, after a big dinner of comfort food, we were so exhausted! We just went straight to sleep.

Welcome to Zions

Believe it or not, after living in Utah for almost ten years, I have never been to Zion's National Park. I'm not really sure why I waited. It is beautiful.

The only negative part of our whole day was that it was unseasonably cool. During our "hike"--the Riverside Walk--, it started raining and when we got off the bus--there are no cars allowed in most of Zions--to see The Court of Patriarchs, it started to blizzard!
After waiting for the bus in the snow, we were done exploring the park. We warmed ourselves over a bowl of curry and walked through the Fatalli gallery. Sufficiently warm, we headed to our Hogan, a mud hut with a fireplace in the middle. The drive was gorgeous.




Although we had previously been excited about our stay in a Hogan at the 10,000 Villages campsite right outside Zions, the mud hut was not the warmest option on a snowy night. We used all of our fire wood before we went to sleep! But luckily the drinks and s'mores we made before bed, kept the edge off the cold until we could sufficiently warm our sleeping bags.

It was just like old times staring up at the starry night, talking about what we want for the future.