Honeymoon Part Deux ~ Graduation Trip

As most of you know our honeymoon was a flop, and I just graduated Nursing school. So to redo our Honeymoon and celebrate nursing school graduation we took a 10 day vacation to Puerto Rico and a southern Caribbean Cruise. I plan to blog each island separately, but I just have to do Puerto Rico first as it was my absolute favorite island out of all that we visited. We got to spend the most time there and the food was excellent!

We started our journey in San Juan, we stayed at a hotel on Condado Beach. The El Canario hotel was just ok. We picked it because it was a smaller boutique hotel and less expensive choice. The front desk staff wasn't very nice and the room was mediocre. But they did upgrade us to a "suite" it was nice to have the extra space.

After checking in we rented a car; first stop old San Juan, one word: gorgeous. Now I'm a sucker for old architecture so this may not be for everyone, but if you like old things definitely check out the forts! We went to El Morro and San Cristobal forts. El Morro is right on the tip of San Juan, I could have spent all day there.

"Capital Building"


There is lot's of other things to do in Old San Juan there is a beach, a park, shopping, boating, exploring, and of course eating! If you’re looking for a good place to eat in old San Juan I would recommend Cafe El Punto on Fortaleza street. It’s a main street for major shopping in San Juan. But this gem of restaurant can be found smack in the middle of all the action. They had the best plantains! Great Puertorican food!!

After spending all day wandering around we got some rum punch and daquiri's at Senor Frog's to watch the Super Bowl.

The next day we left bright and early and headed our for El Yunque, in the northeast mountains of Puerto Rico, is the only rainforest in the Caribbean. We drove up the curvy roads up the the mountain; as we got further up and hiked inward the landscape changed drastically, offering us great visual rewards around every corner. I highly recommend seeing this if you are ever in Puerto Rico.

" Driving in the Yaris =) "

"Overlooking the Rainforest"

"La Coca Falls"

"La Mina Falls"

After our long Hike throught the Rainforest we worked up quite the appetite so we headed down the mountain to Luquillo Beach.

We ate at a beach front place on a local's recommendation, La Parrilla. DELICIOUS! Best Mofongo ever...I can now die happy =)

I had PR beans & rice like the one's Ramona's Dad made me once. La Parrilla came in a very close second!


Mostly after that we drove around visited Fajardo and other beautiful things. My Camera died so I didn't get any pictures =(. But if you ever go there spend some time in Fajardo it's gorgeous and has ferry ships to Vieques, another amazing place!

We were pretty full so for dinner we went to Plaza Las Americas a huge shopping mall. We actually ate at a PR style fast food kiosk in the mall. It was so so, but I enjoyed our time at the mall, because it was such a cool mall!

Puerto Rico is a Fantastic Place, and out of all the islands we visited it is the one we would like to go back and spend more time. I felt like we didn't get to see everything. Next time we go I def. want to go see the south side of the island, and the cool caves on the west side I keep hearing about. Plus I don't know how long I can go without real PR Mofongo ;)

Next up a review of our ship and St. Thomas.