Storm...Beach...Old San Juan

Alyssa & Me

View about 20 min. from me
Old San Juan
Obama Baby!
The Girls
Bacardi Factory


Fort in Old San Juan
street in Old San Juan

Where we got on the ferry to Guilligan's Island

View from the restuarant
Mandi, Me, and Barbara
Mandi & Barb

That's the island in the back
Cristinia, Evan, Me, Mandi

So I do not know if any of you heard or not, but PR had a Tropical Storm hit us last weekend on Sept. 20. It rained and rained for about three days. I believe the total amount of rain we got was close to 30 inches. Our house was fine, but many others around us were not so lucky. On Sunday night I was taking Andy back to his house down the street from us, and the road was closed to get to his house. He had to go home because another teacher had called saying that he needed to come home because the street in fron of their apartment was really flooded. Andy wanted to get home to his dog, so he had to get out of my car and walk or should I say swim. The water was up to his neck and he saw two cars get swept away. He said there was a three for wave and category four white water rapids going down his street. Scary because it is very easy to get swept away in those waters. Anyways he was fine, but it did a lot of damage to homes. I know I heard that a couple people on the island were killed in the storm. We also did not have school for two days because our school flooded. Thankfully my classroom is on the second floor and did not get any water. Now everything is back to normal. I just hope we do not get a hurricane because the storm was bad enough.

The day before the storm came was a beautiful day here. Barbara, Mandi, and I went to Guilligan's Island in Guanica. I had heard about it and so I decided we should check it out. To get to the small island you take a ferry boat from this restaurant in Guanica, and it is only about an eight minute boat ride. The water there was so clear and nice. Barbara loves hiking so we tried to hike through the island, but there were not really any trails. We kind of walked through the trees on the outside of the island and then we snorkelled around. It was an awesome day and it would be a great place to go back to,especially for any visitors who come and see me.

Now to this weekend...We (Me, Mandi, the Mudds, Barb, Tom) went to Old San Juan. Old San Juan is a really cute old little town next to San Juan. It is the oldest settlement withing the U.S. Territory. There are old forts and castles there that you can go in, but we did not do that this time. I will go back for sure. We went to the Bacardi Factory. Here you get a tour of the factory and the tour guides explain the whole process of making it. They also give you the history behind the company. The best part was the bar outside where you get two free Bacardi drinks of your choice. After we went there, we went back into Old San Juan to do some sightseeing. We walked around the town, ate at a Persian restuarant, and then went to out Guesthouse to get ready for the night. Mandi, the Mudd's, and I had decided to stay in Old San Juan so that we could go to the bars at night. The place where we stayed was this old building with a bunch of rooms. It was not very nice, probably like a hostel. It was super cheap though, so we did not care. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, which was okay but expensive. Then we went bar hopping. We started at this place, I wouldn't exactly call it a bar, and drank outside for a while. We ended up meeting some really nice people there. These two guys were both pilots. One was in the Air Force and the other flew for private jets for rich people. There was a girl too she was a nurse in the Air Force. We ended up hanging out with them all night. On the street right outside of out guesthouse were a ton of bars so that was basically were we hung out. We stayed out until 3 and had a great time. Again, another place I would definately go back to. In the morning we went to a beach in San Juan, Condado Beach. Nice place, but I have seen better:)

I am also excited that the Cubs are in the playoffs. Mandi, Tom, and I are all from Illinois so we will definately be watching the games. One of the teachers is from Milwaukee so we like talking trash to him. I hope we get all the games here though. We might be spening a lot of time at this sports bar down the street if not.

Me and Mandi

Performer at the reggae fest
Port in Fajardo
Beautiful night with a full moon















Back to my favorite place again...Luquillo. Luquillo is about an hour and a half drive from where I live. The drive is long because you cannot really drive that fast to get anywhere here. You are driving through mountains and around curves so it takes some time. However, I love the drive because the view is always amazing. Today the water was so clear blue too. I went with my roommate Mandi and Andy. Mandi and I wanted to go to Fajardo first, which is only a few miles from Luquillo, to find out about these fisherman who take you to these small islands close by. There are three different islands off of Fajardo, Icacoas, Palamino, and Palaminitos. It is only about an eight minute trip to the islands by boat. We heard that there were fisherman who would take us for cheap so we wanted to check it out. We ended up finding a guy who owned a restaurant on the beach, and right away he saw us coming and said, "You looking for a boat?" He must have saw the two American girls and knew what we wanted. We did not go to the islands because we had other plans, but now we know where to go and how much it is. He told us $20 a person if we have 5 people. We will definately be going back. I hear there is great snorkeling on the islands as well.



After we found that, we took off for the beach in Luquillo. Andy went surfing at La Pared and Mandi and I went to the swimming beach. The water was crystal clear and it was perfect outside. I went snorkeling and that was awesome too. There are so many things to look at underwater.I feel like I am in a giant fish tank. It gets scary when the water starts to get s

uper deep though. I always get paranoid like something big is going to pop up around the reef. We stayed at the beach until around 6 then started getting ready for the music festival. The festival was at the arts and cultural center in Luquillo. It was a world reggae music fest. We all had to get ready on the beach since we were not staying the night. I decided to walk down to the hotel we had stayed at last weekend and use their outdoor beach shower to clean off. I am glad I did though because the salt water makes you feel nasty. After we got ready we drove over to it. There were lots of rasta people there with really long dreadlocks. The music was really good and it was in an outdoor stadium and the night was beautiful. We had a great time and I am glad we went. We did not return to Guayama until 2 a.m. On the way home we were stopped by an enormous boulder in the middle of the road that had fallen from the mountain. It was bigger than a horse. Scary to think that could land on your car...good times though.

September

Deric, Me, and Gercito
Deric, Andy, and Me
Waiting for the locksmith to come

Out with some friends at Doble Seis

Cool building in Boqueron
I think this pic looks like a postcard
La Pared (surfing beach) in Luquillo
Early morning in Luqillo (View from hotel)

Boating on Labor Day weekend near my house

On the boat with some friends
" Faculty meeting" People salsa dancing & drinking
Picture of the mountains with a cross on top
Street in Boqueron

In the past few weeks things have been settling down a bit more. I felt like the first month was very busy and crazy. I feel like I have been here for so long now. Time is going by pretty fast. I won't be seeing some of you for a very long time because I am not coming home for Christmas. I would like to, but tickets are expensive and it is going to be warm here. It will also be a great opportunity to travel around the island. We have also been thinking about going to Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic. There is a boat that will take us there from Puerto Rico.

On Labor Day weekend we had a Faculty meeting at school on Friday. It was a great faculty meeting, which end with Puerto Rican food and wine and beer. I think that U.S. should have faculty meetings like this and maybe the teachers would be happier. We even had salsa music and the PR teachers danced for us. I want to learn how to salsa. Mr. Mendez is going to teach us whenever we want him to.

On Saturday I went boating with some friends from Puerto Rico in Pozuelo, a town near my house. We got on their boat and rode out to these mangrove islands. There were tons of other boats and Yachts parked out their too. It was kind of like being at the sanddunes in Kankakee, but way nicer. I brought my snorkel with me so I snorkeled around the islands. I saw a lot of beautiful fish. My most favorite so far is this small fish that is turquoise, blue, and black. The turquoise color on it is so pretty! I love it. It started raining later in the day, but it was fine because it was still warm and we were having a great time. We all planned on going out later that night, but we were all exhausted when we got home. I swear the beach wears me out and I don't even do anything there.

Sunday we decided to take a trip to the Northwest. Andy wanted to go surfing in Isabella, but I really did not want to go that far. I had my PR travel book with me, so I found a place while we were driving. It was in Cabo Rojo. In the book it said that the beach there was one of the nicest, however I did not think so. The beaches in Luquillo were way better. It was actually a cool place. The beach is called Boqueron. On the main street by the beach there was all kinds of outdoor shops and places to eat. It seemed like a good place to go to at night. I even tried a tiburon pincho (shark shishkabob), and it was so good. It tasted like chicken actually. The pinchos in PR are my favorite thing to eat besides the rice and beans. There is a man who has a pincho stand and bar on the way to a beach we go to. They are so good! His are made from chicken and he puts bbq sauce on them. HMMMM...He also makes really good pina colodas. Those are also one of my favorite things about PR. I now keep the ingredients in my house at all times. Plus the rum is cheap so it gives me an excuse to buy it.

Monday was Labor Day and I decided to stay home and relax. I went to Wal-Mart and bought paint for my bedroom. I got like a turquoise blue color. It was fun painting my boring white bedroom. I love the way it turned out. Looks like the ocean. I was definately not looking forward to school on Tuesday. I love being off from work. Although work is not too difficult here and the days go by super fast.

Okay so I am still catching you all up. Now to the next weekend...I took another trip to Luquillo. One of my favorite places so far. The beach is beautiful and the water is so clear. We went to a surfing beach on Saturday called La Pared. There is a surf shop close by called La Selva and I rented a surf board there. There were really good waves so that is why we decided to go. There were a lot of surfers out there. Some were really good and fun to watch. In the winter they have surf competitions on the West side of the island. I think it will be fun to watch the professionals surf the really big waves. I actually had so much fun doing it. I was able to get up on the board and stay up. There were a few surfers out there who helped me a little bit. They gave me some pointers, which was nice. I was wore out by the end of the day though. My arms, legs, and stomach was sore the next day. That night we stayed in a nice hotel on the beach. It was beautiful. The next day we went to the beach again, but I did not surf. We had to return the boards in the morning. The day was going great until about 2. I was talking with this guy on the beach who was with his dog. He wanted to take all of us to some place in the town. I went to go find my friend Andy, and thats when it went downhill. I found him and he was looking for his car keys. He had gone out to surf, and placed his keys in this pipe thing that was hollow inside. He thought they were safe there, but apparently not. When he went to get them, they were gone. So to make a long story short, we had to wait until 8 p.m. for a locksmith to come and make a key from his door lock. We did not get home until 11 p.m. and had school the next day. I was so tired on Monday. I came home and took a nap from 5-10. Plus being stranded on a beach in PR on a beautiful day is not so bad.