The Busy Giffs: Puerto Rico

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Last year, we spent my birthday in Iceland and deciding that we wanted to spend every birthday somewhere wonderful. After looking at a few options, we decided on Historic San Juan, Puerto Rico for this year.

First, let's talk about how ridiculously affordable our trip was:
$300 each for roundtrip flights, direct form Boston to San Juan.

$600 for our accommodations for 4 nights,

another $470 for excursions we booked,

and after running through my purchases, I spent another $200 on food, drinks, and Ubers.

Bringing us to just about $1000 per person... BUT we booked a lot and ate a lot (and I drank a lot) so it could have been even less.

To start, we took Spirit from Boston to San Juan. I was hesitant given it being a low cost carrier and was really nervous when they didn't even know what gate we should be at. The boards said C37 but the employees were saying C38 and it took a bit to figure it out, however, we ended up in Exit row seats and had a great flight.

The beautiful thing about Puerto Rico is all you need is a Real ID (no passports required!) and most people spoke both Spanish and English. It was fun using the bit of Spanish I knew to speak to people and I was surprised by how much I remembered!

Our lodging was a great - a small rental in the center of town, called 310 Guest House. We booked a room with a balcony and a view of the city and it was absolutely perfect. I'd wake up in the morning and sit on the balcony with my book and watched the people walking through town bright and early. The unit had a small kitchenette, a queen sized bed, and a private bathroom. The flight up to our room was gorgeous- beautiful blue and white tiles - and with only 4 units, it didn't feel like a huge hotel, but since it was through Booking.com, we didn't pay any crazy AirBNB cleaning fees either. Being right in the center of the city meant every morning, we could wake up and just walk to wherever we wanted to explore.

I booked us a few excursions through TripAdvisor - a night time kayak tour, a snorkeling trip, and for my birthday, a walk through El Yunque Rainforest that included natural waterslides and cliff jumping and ended with a visit to a beach and restaurant/shop strip. It seemed like a great way to see a whole bunch in a little bit of time.

We arrived late on Sunday night - put our bags in the room and found a bar on our road that was open until 2 am. Kicked off late night exploring with some rum and pineapple juice and then we walked the outline of the city and took in how gorgeous it looked all light up.

We spent our first full day exploring the city - we walked to Castillo San Felipe del Morro and explored the fortress that originally protected the walled city. From there we walked across most of the city to Castillo San Cristobal. We realized we hadn't had breakfast and went back to the most perfectly pink restaurant I had seen the night before, La Casita. We had drinks and dish bites and then kept exploring on foot. We found street vendors and gorgeous architecture. I had booked a night kayaking trip in Candado, about a 10 minute drive from where we were so we grabbed an Uber and made our way to Candado. We explored Candado before and after our kayaking. We checked out the Vanderbilt Hotel and then kayaking was great - they even covered us in black light paint! We kayaked out into open water and got near the coral reef barrier but stayed safe enough away. We made our way down the street and found ice cream and mofongo (a dish made with smashed plantains). After 30k steps, we called it a day!

Tuesday was my actual birthday and we were picked up by our tour guide to head to the rainforest. We stopped at a streetside market and grabbed some fresh fruit for our trip. Our group headed to El Yunque, the National Rainforest in Puerto Rico. Our group was about 12 people and we met up with two other groups when we walked to the cliff jump and rope swing area and to the natural waterslides. I expected a hike but it was more of a casual walk and it was gorgeous. I'm too chicken to cliff jump and go down the slide (it looked so painful!) but Nick had a blast. When we were done, the tour guide brought us to Playa Fortuna which had 60 different food and souvenir shops lining it. It was amazing sitting on the sand and relaxing. Nick brought me drinks to celebrate my birthday and explored the water. When the tour was over, we went back to our place and changed for dinner and more exploring. We found more gorgeous architecture and I just loved seeing the place lit up at night.

Wednesday started with our snorkel trip through Try Snorkeling. The guy asked if we could swim and we said yes and were put into a more independent group - however, I never put my head under water so having the mask and not having experience snorkeling (since doing it in Belize), I was not ready for that independence. I ended up hanging back with a couple others who were struggling while Nick went off with the group and saw turtles and squid. I got to see a sting ray, but wish I had taken some time to get used go the mask before it started. From there we walked to Escambron Beach and relaxed for hours. We needed more sunscreen and both ended up sunburnt but the beach was gorgeous. Nick picked us up some helado and we made our way back to Old San Juan. We spent more time exploring - we found a rum distillery, a gorgeous old church, and happy hour drinks.