Backyard Tourist

This Labor Day weekend, to take a break from routine, we played tourist in our own backyard. We went to Zoo Miami for the first time with our super energetic little toddler. We got a Livingsocial deal of $5 for entrance – a deal not worth passing up on!!

Backyard Tourist

It’s a sizeable Zoo and they have a vast range of animals. They also have family bikes that you can rent to cruise through the zoo,an elevated choo choo train (that was closed due to construction),a small kiddie water splash zone,a petting area with Goats and Ponies,a camel ride for $3 and a carousel for $2

We enjoyed an absolutely beautiful day by walking for hours throughout the zoo. It rained heavily for 10 minutes and that was what made our visit cool and breezy!!

The best attraction for my kid was "Meeting Diego". His joy knew no bounds when he held Diego's hands. Even after Diego politely and relentlessly waved bye, Rishi stood there looking with awe and admiration at Diego till I had to intervene and pull him away for the sake of other Diego fans standing in line waiting for their rendezvous with Diego!!

We left the Zoo and drove down to our friends place who lives in the heart of Miami (Brickell) on the 15th floor overlooking the beautiful Miami buildings. After a scrumptious dinner, we walked to some cool hangouts and ended the day having yummy Italian gelato.

The next day when I asked Rishi where we had been yesterday, pop came the reply "To meet Diego" and then when I probed he said "Sat on Jaguar just like Diego" (well that was the carousel), so I prodded him till he said walked on the snake and sat on the hippo :-) 

Backyard touristy stuff is great fun – Who Knew!! :)

El Yunque National Forest

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life".John Muir

...So... we decided to go to a fountain of life!!!

Prior to our visit to the beautiful Caguas Mountain for our hiking and ziplining adventure, we toured and explored the El Yunque National Forest on our first day in Puerto Rico

El Yunque National Forest is the only tropical rain forest in the US National Parks system

We drove from San Juan airport to the most amazing El Yunque Rainforest. The drive is beautiful and it took us about 45 minutes. All the signs are in Spanish, which was not a hindrance at all.

We made a quick stop at Palmer Bakery which is on the road to the rainforest in the city of Palmer. We packed some lunch and were geared up for our rainforest exploration to begin.

El Yunque National Forest

We skipped the visitor’s center since I had a printout of the map and we headed to our first stop

La Coca falls at KM 8.1

We parked our car and walked to La Coca Falls. It’s a fall that can be seen from the road and there is no hiking required to enjoy this beautiful glistening waterfall. We did some rock climbing to get up close and personal with the beautiful falls. 





Little one in training

Yokahu Observation Tower at KM 8.9

Our next stop was KM 8.9 to Yokahu Observation Tower. The tower is a must climb (about 100 steps) for all to enjoy the Rainforest views.  As soon as we were ready to head down from the tower it started raining and it was extremely beautiful. Rainfall in the Rainforest and views from the tower - perfect timing, so we stayed a little longer in the tower enjoying the wonderful views

We had our lunch in the serene and beautiful rainforest watching the pitter patter rainfall.. and then we headed to our next spot ...

La Mina Falls at KM 12.2

This is the most popular trail in El Yunque. It has a drop in elevation from 2100ft to 1640ft. The trail is rated ‘challenging’ in difficulty by the US Forest Services, with a narrow path and a series of steps along the trail. As soon as we started the trail, we were immersed in the beauty of the rainforest

The trail is paved and well-maintained making the footing much easier.

The rainforest scenery is beautiful and we passed through a lot of small waterfalls that was so picturesque.

To be so up and close to La Mina waterfall is a wonderful experience.. We loved it !!!

Juan Diego at KM 9.8 

This is a hidden treasure. Its not touristy and popular. We were the only one's here and it was magnificent. To reach this secluded spot, we had to do some rock climbing for about 10 minutes. Its not paved and the climb into the wilderness is a quintessential rainforest hike. We could hear the coqui frogs as we hiked to the falls and my toddler totally loved it. 

The crescendo of joy the beautiful El Yunque rainforest immersed us in is unexplicable. We then drove to our resort in Fajardo and, at night we all slept peacefully with a smile on our face and with an unforgettable memory in our life.

A break in the rainforest is SO worth it!!!!

BioBay kayak at night - Fajardo

.....Continued after Culebra.... 

We reached back Fajardo at night from Culebra and we were worn out, however our excitement of our adventurous trip to Culebra gave us the energy for our next feat. We set out to complete the wonderful day by experiencing the "MUST-DO" at night when in Puerto Rico.

Bioluminescent Bay

Image source: Pandora on Earth

If you were mesmerized by the movie Avatar’s sparkling water organisms, then you will be amazed to know that, the concept exists in the real world and can be seen, touched and experienced in Puerto Rico. Like the movies, we imagined a romantic night with sea stars twinkling inside the water and lighting up the paddles as we flowed through the water and to cut the story short it felt like that except that the journey to this blissful Bioluminescent Bay – well not a smooth sailing one!! 

BioBay is a body of water that contains millions of micro-organisms, called “dinoflagellates”, that glows when agitated producing a magical and alluring experience. There are 3 biobay parks in Puerto Rico and we went to the one in Fajardo. To experience this we could either take a motor boat or kayak our way to the bay. And yes, like you must have guessed, we kayaked!!! 

The kayaking tour to experience this starts from Las Croabas in Fajardo. While driving to this place, we drove past a very secluded and narrow road; however there was light at the end of the road. Once we reached Las Croabas, we saw masses of people, ample kayaks, lots of instructors, and people in life-jackets. The place was buzzing with people and their excitement. We reached at 0900PM and luckily our hotel concierge got us a spot with an adventure kayak tour. Its $45 per person and it takes 2.5 hours for the complete trip. They advice not to take camera and phones if it is not waterproof, however I regret not taking mine and wish I had a zip-lock or a waterproof camera.

The instructors start with providing instruction on how to kayak. After the instruction, they helped us into our Kayaks and off we went. We paddled ourselves into the ocean waters (a rough sea that night) and headed inside a mangrove that lead us to the biobay lagoon.  It was a good start for us since we have kayaked in the ocean before. After about 10 minutes we all started going inside the mangrove area. It was pitch dark inside and we could only see the glow bangles on the kayak in front of us. 

Now started the real challenge... I was so exhausted with our full day adventure at Culebra, that when the tour guide said left, I paddled right and vice-versa and we banged into all the trees in the mangrove. We have this as a standing joke in our family now and my goofiness is a story that my hubby loves to share with all his friends. (Arrrggghhhhhhh!! I was just tired.. I know my left and rights.. or so i think :)!!)

We finally reached the secluded biobay/bio lagoon. The guide told us to look into the water and I was amazed to see the stars twinkling inside the water. Imagine little diamonds in the water that sparkle and glitter, a glowing trail as you Kayak through the water. 

It was just amazing. We paddled, scooped some water in our palms to see the shining diamonds in our hands cascading as the water flowed out of our hands. Our tour guides let us explore and enjoy the magical sight.

We headed back excited with the quest and with a story to tell!!!

Culebra - Isla fantástica

Every day we all rise and shine and go about our daily routine, but how many times do we wake up thinking “Today I will go to one of the top 10 most exotic beaches of the world?”

That is exactly what we got up thinking. We aspired to go to Culebra. 

Culebra is an island 20 miles off the north-east coast of Puerto Rico and has been ranked as one of the Top Ten Beach and Sun Destinations in the World by TripAdvisor.

The ferry to Culebra leaves from Fajardo (Terminal De Lanchas) and since we were staying in Fajardo (north-east of San Juan, Puerto Rico), we simply had to go!!! Our hotel concierge presaged that travelers to this desired location would be camping out to buy the tickets from 0400AM. Likelihood of securing the tickets seemed bleak since it was July’s long weekend; however we were going to try our best.

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

0600AM – Although, it is not a journey of a thousand miles, getting to Culebra is an adventure in itself. My hero hubby got up at 0600AM, drove to the terminal and stood in line for the tickets from 0630AM. (Gosh!! how sweet is that). The tip off was true, and there were tourists in line from 0400AM.

Fajardo Terminal

Tickets to Vieques and Culebra Island

 

0815AM - My toddler, mom-in-law and I got ready, packed all the required stuff for the day and took a taxi to the terminal. I then, stood in line and gave some well deserved time off to my hubby.

The line moved at the pace of a tortoise and I was just hoping that we could win the race!! Whenever someone bought their tickets they would yell "YES” and jump up and down and it would just spark a little bit of hope and excitement in other tourists waiting in line.

My boyz waiting in line to get the tickets

0930AM - Just one more traveler ahead of us at 0930AM and the ticket counter closed. No Culebra after all this effort??!!! I still stood there dazed and talking to all the disappointed tourists behind me and just then like a movie scene, the captain of the ferry made an appearance and said something in Spanish. All I understood was CULEBRA and I wiggled back to the counter and got 4 tickets. Of course I yelled "YES" and jumped up and down!!! They gave out a total of 6-10 more tickets...

We literally had to run to the ferry and went up to the upper deck. We stood outside the whole time. The sea breeze and water on our face felt so gratifying. The ferry ride takes about 1 to 1.5 hours. Initial excitement stalled (for me) as the sea got rough after about 45 minutes and I felt a little woozy. The guy who was in front of me, who later became our friend, advised me to stand in the direction we were headed and to look at the horizon (the mountain that we could see up ahead) and that REALLY helped and I didn’t get seasick (WHEW)!! My baby was not troubled at all and stood out the whole time. 

  

Upon reaching Culebra port, we saw a lot of taxis waiting outside with placards that said “Flamenco Beach - $3”, however the first thing we did was buy the famous and delicious passion fruit ice-cream “Parcha”. I think we all had about 3 of those per day. We then sat in the taxi and off we went...

The middle one - Parcha the best ice-cream ever!!!!

On our way to Flamenco, we stopped at the airport to see if we can catch a flight back to Ceiba (South of Fajardo); for the sake of thrill, however they had only 2 tickets for the 5.30PM flight which they eventually cancelled due to rains in the evening.

Our Destination - Flamenco beach

Flamenco Beach Ranked # 2 in the top 10 most exotic beaches in the world. The beach is also protected by the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources as a Marine Wildlife Reserve ~ Wikipedia

Once you enter the beach, there are a lot of food stalls where you can grab tasty food to eat. After a refreshing coconut juice and tasty and fresh Mexican food we headed straight to the beach

 My camera does no justice to the beauty we saw!!It is like one of the magazine’s cover page – pristine, crystal clear, blue and picturesque. The green mountain in the background simply adds to the alluring beauty of the beach.

We had a great family time at this place and we wish and hope to come again ... The trip was so worth it.

We took the 0500PM ferry back and our return trip was very smooth and relaxing. We reached Fajardo, got our car from the parking lot and after getting some dinner, we reached home by 08PM!!! 

We travelled back in Fajardo II

After we settled our exhausted beach baby and mom in our hotel room, hubby and I got our second wing and went for our night adventure at 0900PM ... I have no clue where we got the energy for that one... and it was a MUST- DO. A brief write up on that coming up next...!! :)

Send me a note or feel free to ask any questions about Culebra or our Puerto Rico itinerary!!! Let me know of your experience when you go there, or if anyone has been there - done that!!