This fall we took a trip to Puerto Rico for our vacation. A friend shared that a passport wasn’t necessary, clearly it’s been years since history class so I google’d it  and Puerto Rico has been a U.S. territory since 1898, the end of the American-Spanish War.

Shortly after pulling out of the airport I was surprised at all the traffic. In my mind, I had imagined it being far less developed then it was.  San Juan reminded me of Miami with it’s tropical climate and modern high rise hotels. Old San Juan was more like what I expected, aged and quaint with cobblestone streets. Actually the cobblestone streets were blue and made in Spain in the 1800′s. It was beautiful.

We also toured Castillo San Felipe del Morro which was complete in 1589, and has been made a World Heritage site by the United Nations. This fort lies on the northwestern point of the San Juan Inlet allowing them to defend the city from seaborne enemies.

We also visited Castillo de San Cristobal another spanish fort built to protect against land based attacks on the city of San Juan. This fort was the largest fort built by the Spanish in the New World, finished in 1783 and covered 27 aces.

When booking our hotel stay we learned an expensive lesson. Although the distance between San Juan and Rio Grande, traffic is heavy and the cab fair can run between $65-85.00 each way. So be sure to rent a car and keep your money! I will confess, we got directions to the same place from concierge and the car rental place and neither was good about listing the street names, they seemed to use landmarks (even old ones no longer there) in their directions. It was an adventure to say the least.

One of my favorite tours was the kayak tour of Bioluminescent Bay.  Basically it’s a lagoon in Fajardo that has 500,000 to 700,000 microscopic bioluminescent plankton per gallon. So when you wave your hand through the water you trigger a reaction which causes your hand to glows in the water. The same goes with your kayak as it moves through the water, where the water parts, it glows. I was a little anxious about whole idea, but the waters were calm and the entire experience was so serene. Worth the the trip.

We stayed at the Wyndham Rio Mar in Rio Grande. I was excited after seeing the site and knowing the Wyndham brand. The hotel was dated and in need of repair. They were generious to offer a room upgrade after my husband informed them of our anniversary and we were pleased with our upgraded ocean view room.

When booking our stay we were drawn to this hotel because they advertised that they had an on site dive shop, which we found to be convenient as well. Upon a visit to the concierge desk, we were informed the dive shop had closed and that if we weren’t PADI certified, that no dive shop on the island would allow us to dive. We explained we’ve dived all over the world and that no one else has ever had an issue with our SSI certification. Finally, my husband asked for a list of dive operations on the island so we could inquire into booking a few dives. A two tank dive cost $120 and the cab ride to and from the dive shop to catch the boat was another $160. We asked about renting a car, and they were all booked, so we had to be added to a waiting list.  Good news is…. The diving was worth it. Check out this video!

I have to confess, I really didn’t do the research into Puerto Rico I should have before our arrival. I found it to be a pleasant surprised with beautiful beaches, aqua blue waters, more populated than I imagined, amazing historical sites and very pleasant people. Thank you