Sunday, June 29, 2008

Our Trip To Puerto Rico






J u n e 2008







Our hearts kept racing with anticipation for fun and excitement the entire time!






















We danced, laughed, drank, loved....



































OMG! 
I can't began to tell you how beautiful Puerto Rico is!

But I'm going to try.



The food, my awesome husband, the fruity tasty drinks (or "dranks"depending on how much you consumed at any particular time) were fabulous!


Simply fabulous....

The RUM, the dancing, the majestic scenery, the people, the architecture, the monuments, the weather, the water, the catamaran glass-bottom boat ride to the private island of Palomino, visits to the Yunque Forest and Catano left us almost speechless!





The MOFONGO was to die for!!!







Ahhhh Yes... PLATO'S




We went to a very extra cool (and fun!) restaurant in San Juan, just walking distance from our hotel. The best food, the awesome service, the best presentation of it and the most fresh fruits and vegetables ever. Not to mention the great drinks.



We were impressed.



The name of the restaurant is called Platos and I have to say that we had the best meals everytime we went there! We fed each other often, which was a very fun thing to do, in trying out each other's choices. Loving every moment of it.

Check it out!





Cynthia's Dinner







Iba's Dinner





Dinner is never complete without Tostones!






We had a blast at the The Bacardi Distillery TOO!










Taking the Tour Was very fun and informative!!!!






We met a lot of fun and interesting people

from across the globe

who couldn't wait to take the Bacardi tour as well!



High expectations my friends, high expectations...






Inside the Barcardi distillery



















This Barcardi bartender was hooking a sister up outside too...!


















We had to give the Bacardi folks the courtesy of trying out their various rums. It would have insulted them if we hadn't!



Hee Hee :)



Our well-prepared drinks of course!!!!



















Iba standing beside a ton of Barcardi!!!!







Inside the Barcardi entrance.

Check out the Bat, their symbol...




The Barcardi gardens




















The Ferry



We experienced various ferry rides to other parts of the island!

These were tickets purchased to sail to the port of Catano.





We drove (the lovely drive took approx. anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 hours at any given point of interest) to: Ponce, Carolina, Farjardo, Porta De Sol, Old San Juan, watching beautiful sunsets on the beach together, buying a ton of things, which included buying more luggage to take our goods back to Calif, the Caribbean sea, the beaches, etc. was so wonderful!






PONCE

















Ponce is a very interesting, clean, peaceful, full of friendly people, known for it's beautiful old-world architecture and it's historical richness!




This bill used to be the only currency they used in the 1930's

















The 1st thing we did was get some of Ponce's great food!



We'd driven approx.. an hour and a half and we were very hungry.



We were drawn to a historic restaurant, known for it's great atmosphere, great food and especially known for taking it's time in preparing food to perfection. It was well worth the wait....



La Casa De Las Tias














Our Savory Lunch in Ponce...


















Iba's Meal


















Cynthia's Meal








MAYAGUEZ




The port of Mayguez was absolutely majestic. Very peaceful, not touristy. So much of this city hasn't changed much from earlier days. (which is a very good thing!)



Some of the city was restored after their big earthquake on October 11, 1918, with a magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter scale. There's such an intimate and majestic romance about it all, we couldn't help but take it all in.


















Old San Juan
















































These birds were literally eating out of Iba's hands!





This was our 1st time visiting this lovely, well kept, majestic, romantic awesome place, and we will definitely return! Really... There aren't enough words to describe this place....






EL SAN JUAN HOTEL!!!





























































































































Our hotel, the El Juan Hotel in San Juan was to die for as well. The presentation of the scenery, the comfort of our rooms, the awesome service, peace and quite as we slept, etc. was totally awesome!


The casino's kinda gripped me too!



Especially after investing $20 and winning a grand total of $1,300 on the 2nd day! I'd say that's fair enough!





NEXT....





Our Trip to The El Yunque Forest

The El Yunque Rain Forest is a cool, mountainous, sub tropical rainforest. The Eastern side of the Luquillo Mountains, which has the El Yunque rainforest at the top elevations, gets most of the rain.



A little history... This forest is one of the oldest protected areas in the Western Hemisphere by virtue of having been set aside by the Spanish Crown in 1876 while Puerto Rico was still ruled from Madrid. On the ground, this translates into virgin forest that looks much as it did when Christopher Columbus visited Puerto Rico 500 years ago.



This is a very gentle forest. It's beauty continued to draw me in. The beauty was overwhelming...

































Check out these awesome and interesting photos!


















































































































































































































































































Of Course we can't forget the beauty of the
Bioluminescent Bay of Vieques Island!




















Next...



FARJARDO


We ended our day with a trip to Fajardo.

We sailed to the private island of Palomino.








We had BIG FUN sailing on a catamaran and snorkeling!




















Our catamaran Captain. All Aboard!



















My personal catamaran captain, Iba.... Sail that boat Iba!!!!!













































A Friend we met getting his groove on!




















More friends friends we hung with!





















Iba and I are worn out from snorkeling, but as you can clearly see, we're having a blast!





















Wild Iguanas Everywhere!


















Ohhhh Headed Home!!!































































Te Quiero Mucho Everyone!

17 comments:

Lonely Paul said...

Hello

Anonymous said...

What beautiful pictures. You look like you had a wonderful time. Miss ya. Des

Linda Lane White said...

How absolutely AWESOME!!!!!!!! I bet you never wanted to come back!

Hoda Mana said...

WOW!!! looks super gorgeous :) So glad you guys had a good time!!!

Paulette McGee said...

WELCOME BACK SENORITA PERELLO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE TRIP LOOKED ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS !!! I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU AND YOUR HONEY, IT LOOKED SO PEACEFUL AND TRANQUIL, IT TAKES ANYONE'S BREATH AWAY !!!! I LOVE ALL OF THE GREENERY ! NOT TO MENTION ANY WATERFALLS............. I AM VERY HAPPY FOR YOU. YOU GUYS DESERVE IT, YOU ARE 2 GREAT PEOPLE IN LOVE AND WHEN YOU WORK AS HARD AS YOU ALL DO, YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO PLAY JUST AS HARD TOO ! ;-) IN EBONICS " I AIN'T MAD AT YAW " !!!!! : )) LOLOLOLOL
HAVE A BLESSED DAY AND AN EVEN BETTER WEEK !

Shelby B. said...

Hey girlfriend - good to hear from you. I'm so happy for you both that you got to "get away from it all" and enjoy such beauty.
It renews the soul
Love to you both
Shelby

Rodney G. said...

That looks incredible. Fantastic!

Carol P. said...

So glad to hear that you had a great time!! Welcome back, Ms Worldwide Traveler!!

Sabrina P. said...

Welcome back!! Looks like you two had a blast! Good for you! So when are you going back?

Olga G. said...

These are beautiful...too bad you had to return...Now it is my turn to enjoy my island!!!

Gwen W. said...

Thank you for sharing your vacation! They are beautiful pictures you love birds!

McNeil, Deborah M. said...

AWESOME SHOTS! And I love her little tub dress, ask her where she got it. And did I mention her hunny is a cutie! I am glad they had a blast!

Tom Lizzio said...

Cynthia, Wow, your trip to Puerto Rico sounds like it was a real once in a lifetime experience for you and Iba! Thanks for sharing your blog about it.

Michael C. said...

This looks like it was a very nice trip. Looks like you had a great time.

Good to see you smiling so much.

Mike

TONY CHUN said...

Very cool!

It looks like you and the hubby had a fantastic time! How long were you in Puerto Rico?

Was it just a getaway or like a honeymoon type of vacation? (Sorry, if that sounded too personal! – I didn’t mean it that way!)

The pictures are amazing…did your husband take most of the pictures?

Sigh, I wish I could get a way for a while but it’s just not do-able for me at the moment.

olga morris said...

Cynthia:

Muy suavemente!! I like! Especially the tostones, and all the food!!! Si!!

Laurie Dea Owyang said...

Cynthia: Good to hear from you and thanks for sharing the Puerto Rico
photos - gorgeous! My daughter has a close friend from Puerto Rico so
maybe we'll visit someday. It looks beautiful and historic (and fun).
Hope to see you and Ibarionex sometime soon