Mar Chiquita Cave

Right across the street from the entrance to our Puerto Rican apartment, S noticed a cave. It was just an overhang cave, but it was still pretty big,

and it had some cool formations.

Despite the lack of tunnels and dark passages, S really wanted to spend some time exploring it. One interesting discovery we made had to do with the white blotches all over the walls... 

They were spider webs / egg sacks and  they were everywhere!

Mar Chiquita Beach

As I'm sure you figured out from my last post, we loved Mar Chiquita beach. It was gorgeous, warm, and perfect for my beginning snorkelers. The beach is like a little cove or inlet, with only a small opening to the Atlantic Ocean, so it's much calmer than the areas around it. (Mar Chiquita means little sea in Spanish.)

I'm still not quite sure how that my daughter used a snorkel without a mask, but she was adamant that she preferred the goggles.

My daughter was all about getting as close to that opening as she could, with an escort from her father of course, but my son was more interested  in looking for critters.

He loved the fish, 

 the sea urchins,

and he even spotted a small octopus. Sadly it did not want to have its picture taken. (Possibly due to the fact that his sister accidentally stepped on its head.) However, once he discovered beach glass, S opted to stay closer to shore and started collecting.

I have to admit it, he and I had a blast hugging the shore and searching for it, too. And despite seeing it all over, we never saw a sharp piece in the water or on the beach. Just to be safe though, we never went out without our water shoes.

We swam every day - usually twice; once in the morning and again before dinner. 

We would've gone after dinner, but in Puerto Rico, the sun sets at about 7:00 pm. It was a good experience for two kids who have spent most of their lives in Michigan, where during the summer, it's still twilight at 10:00 pm.

Mar Chiquita is in the city of Manati, on Puerto Rico's northern shore. It's about a 45 drive from San Juan - most of that on the highway. If you happen to find yourself in Puerto Rico and you're looking to spend a glorious day at the beach,  Mar Chiquita is totally worth the drive!

Buenos Dias Mi Amigos!

Greetings from beautiful Manati, Puerto Rico! OK, to be honest, we've been home for a couple of weeks now. I didn't blog about it while we were there since Allen requested that I not advertise to the entire world  that we were hundreds of miles away from home. So now that we're safely back on Mackinac,  I can write all about it... 

Allen, my parents, the kids and I stayed at an amazing apartment right on the beach. We found the apartment on airbnb, but we found the location due to a small hitch in a school trip I chaperoned back in 2008. When we decided to take a family vacation to Puerto Rico and Allen requested  we stay as far away from San Juan as possible, I knew right where I wanted to be - Mar Chiquita beach. 

Neither of my children like that photo -  "Don't use that picture mom, it makes the house look so far away. It was only, like, a minute to the beach." (Photo by Clary Lopez.) It was really more like a three or four minute walk, but we were probably as close to Mar Chiquita as we could get.

The apartment was lovely, big enough to accommodate all six of us quite comfortably, and cost a lot less than a hotel. My daughter especially, loved the apartment's beach themed decorations.

Right out the front door was a neat little garden area between the building and the beach. It was perfect hermit crab habitat. You can imagine how much time the kids spent over there. (Don't worry, they let all the crabs go.)

(Don't they look like tourists?)

It was such an amazing place; In the morning we'd enjoy this view from the balcony while we listened to the waves and sipped our coffee. 

(The view from our balcony)

Then, after a busy day, we'd sit on the balcony and listen to the coqui frogs sing; we heard them every night. For as tiny as they are (if one sat on a quarter, you could still see the coin) they were loud. We just loved listening to them - it was such a pleasant way to end a long day...

If you happen to want to stay in the same apartment, you can, (and I highly recommend it!) It's now listed here on Evolve. I really can't say enough about how much we loved staying there.

Senior Trip - Day Four: Old San Juan

Fort El Morrow

I'm a big history buff, so I would have been content walking around the 425 year-old forts and a 400+ year-old city all day... but alas, the seniors were not interested, so we spent very little time in Fort El Morrow and didn't get to Fort San Cristobal at all. (We also wandered around the old city for a couple of hours to shop and eat dinner.) I guess I am just going to have to get back to San Juan again. The weather was kind of overcast the day we spent there, so the pictures really won't do the place justice.

plants growing out of a bastion wall

doorway within El Morrow

cannon touch holeOld San Juan at night

I just loved the city's street lights!

That brings me to the end of my Puerto Rican adventure... The next day we turned in the rental car, hopped on the shuttle to the airport and flew back to Michigan. Despite my worries about the trip, (have I ever mentioned that I am a rather anxious person?) it turned out to be wonderful; the kids were great, the activities were a blast, the other chaperone was super, the weather was fantastic (the kids slept through the only rain we had,) and all the hitches worked out in our favor. Though I must admit, it is good to be home with my family again...

Senior Trip - Day Three: Rainforest

Are you ready for an adventure?

Get your helmet...

don't forget your harness...and lace up your hiking boots, too.Remember to check out the orchids as you hike through the rain forest...the bromeliads are worth noticing, too.

Turn on your light for the first of three caves...

watch your footing...

and climb out carefully.Phew, that was a long morning.
Stop at Jorge's self-sufficient farm for some Puerto Rican home cooking.Be careful at the compost toilet.
You better use it too, because...soon you'll do five zip lines to get back down the mountain.Remember to open your eyes as you zip over the Tanama River...

don't worry if you forgot, we'll cross it again later...

Remember that high school Spanish class? It was useful after all...cross one at a time...Of all of our days in Puerto Rico, this one was, by far, my favorite -
thanks to Raymond and Roqui, our Acampa guides.
Thanks guys! We had an amazing day.

Senior Trip - Day Two: Snorkeling

Off to snorkel on a catamaran in the city of Fajardo, which is about an hour east of San Juan... We discovered that some of the roads - even the major ones - are not very well marked in Puerto Rico, so we were glad we had budgeted an extra 30 minutes or so to get there. We went out with East Island Excursions on their power cat The Island Flier. I was so glad the sailing cat had been booked that day, since there was no shaded spots aboard. The Island Flier had a shaded cabin - which was a very good thing after the sunburns from the day before. (For some reason the kids wanted nothing to do with my SPF 50 sunblock, choosing to fry instead.)

We were suppose to go to Culebra, but the winds weren't favorable, so they took $20.00 off each ticket and we snorkeled / swam at three different spots instead: Icacos Key, Palominos Key, and Palominitos Key, though some maps refer to them as Isla Icacos, etc. The $20.00 off really added up since there were seven of us. Best of all, the kids were thrilled to go swimming at different spots.

It was a spectacular day, despite the second layer of sunburn. If you are headed to Puerto Rico and you want to snorkel, I would recommend East Island Excursions. We were very pleased with them.

Hitch #2

If you are traveling in the near future and happen to need a rental car, I'd like to suggest that you choose any rental company other than Hertz. As you can see, we ended up with a flat tire. I called Hertz and after 15 minutes on hold and then another 10 minutes arguing with the lady on the other end, Hertz agreed to send us some road side assistance... which never arrived. Luckily, these guys did...

They were the most amazing guys. They helped us take off the tire and put on the spare. Then they took the tire over to their shop, on the construction site, where they "plugged" the hole with a rubber plug. (I had never heard of plugging a hole in a tire. I thought people usually patched the hole in the tube.) This repair method was so fast. They also found two other plugs in the tire, but I suppose that is beside the point... Anyway, Maxi (on the left in the photo above) used soapy water and an air compresser to locate the hole. Then he used a tool that looked a little like a latch hook to push a pencil-sized rubber thingie into the hole. A quick slice with a razor blade to cut off the excess and the tire was done. They finished inflating it and put it back on the car as the seven of us just watched; our mouths open in amazement at how nice these perfect strangers were being to us.

After we thanked them profusely and tried to give them some money, Maxi asked us where we were headed. We explained that we were just out looking for a beach since our snorkeling trip had been canceled due to poor weather in Fajardo. (Yet another hitch.) Maxi told us that there were great beaches over by his house, which was about an hour away. "I'm heading home in about 10 minutes," he said, "Why don't you follow me. I can show you the beach." Crazy as it sounds, we did. And it was so worth it, too. Maxi took us to the most amazing beach in Manati, which is on the northern coast of Puerto Rico. Before he left us, he gave us his phone number and told us that if we had any trouble all we needed to do was give him a call and he could be back in 20 minutes. What a stroke of luck to have that flat. We met Maxi and he (and his buddies) took our misfortune and turned it into an wonderful day.