The anxiety crept in late Thursday night on Oct. 7th when I received Jie’s text that her Megabus from DC was 2 hours delayed. Considering we had given ourselves (what we thought would be) a generous 2-hour time window to get to the airport, this unexpected delay threw a wrench in our plans. Suddenly, the possibility of missing our flight loomed ominously over us like a dark rain cloud. Luckily, in JieMei travel style, Jie showed up a few minutes past 10 p.m., and we quickly hailed a cab, arriving at JFK a close 40 minutes before our 11 p.m. departure. However, our relief was short-lived when we arrived at the security check line, as 2 novice TSA agents proceeded to inspect our bags in slow-motion, blissfully unconcerned that we had a flight to catch. After an excruciating bag inspection process, we fled to the gate and made it onto the plane with a few minutes to spare. Another JieMei catastrophe averted!
The flight was relatively uneventful except for a massive spout of turbulence, and we arrived on-time to warm and humid San Juan at approx. 2 a.m. in the morning. Jie and I found a cab waiting in front of the terminal, but realized too late, that the woman with a cast on her arm was in fact, not the helper in charge of directing passengers to cabs, but was actually our cab driver! After sharing nervous glances with each other, Jie and I took a deep breath and presented our address to her. As luck would have it, she could not understand our English, nor did she know where our hotel was. Throughout the ride, she muttered incessantly under her breath, and we would be confused as to whether she was talking to herself or addressing us. After making several wrong turns, a few phone calls and an extra half-hour later, we finally arrived in Coqui Del Mar, a B&B that I had booked a few weeks ago. Our one-handed lady driver insisted on charging us for the extra time she spent getting lost, but since it was so late, we felt it was futile to argue. We unhappily parted with a few more dollar bills than we would have liked to give.
Thankfully, our B&B was very cute, and we had no issues entering our combination-locked room. Although the room was cozy, the highlight was a most entertaining high-tech shower. There was a button on the wall to blast the radio, multiple nozzles to spray water from every which angle, and even a steaming function, which if you were not careful, could seriously send steam up and burn your behind. The shower provided far more entertainment than either Tien and I would care to admit and we likely spent more time fiddling with the buttons than actually taking a shower.
Space-age shower
After passing out at 3:30 a.m., we woke up to late-morning sunshine streaming through the blinds. We decided that brunch would be the best option before heading over to the beach. Five steps into our journey, the rain started to pour, so we back-tracked to pick up an umbrella for Jie. Thank goodness we went back, because we had been walking in the wrong direction! After getting back on the trail, we sat inside a cute little café and each had classic toast and scrambled egg platters.
Brunch while waiting for the rain to subside
Random procession of horses that passed by as we were walking back
Following our meal, we decided to check out Old San Juan on the other side of the neighborhood. Unfortunately for us, the buses were on strike, so we ended up taking a cab. In the process, we discovered the colloquial term for bus is 'gua gua' - what a fantastic sounding term! Old San Juan was cute and filled with cobblestoned roads. We started exploring at the Paseo de la Princesa, and then stopped to take a picture in front of the iconic Raíces Fountain.
However, after walking around for a few minutes, it started to rain again, so we ducked under some trees for shelter until the storm swept past us. Once the rain subsided, we headed to another cute area of San Juan, and found a bar that was selling coconut juice mixed with vodka in a fresh coconut. We were surprised at how appealing of a combination the coconut juice and vodka made!
After our drink, we decided that it was time to go home, and we ended up getting dinner at Inca chicken, where we were served the most gastronomically satisfying chicken with green rice and mofongo (mixture of plaintains and mashed yam stuffed with skirt steak).
Mofongo (another fantastic sounding name - I may need to name my future dog this)
Delicious juicy rotisserie style chicken with green rice
The next morning, we woke up bright and early to make our Aventuras tour to go caving at the Rio Camuy Cave system. A cab picked us up at approx. 5:15 a.m. from our B&B to head over to our meeting point in Condado. Once we arrived and found the rest of our group, we were greeted with a decked-out bus blaring Indiana Jones music, as a red carpet was rolled out in front of us in dramatic fashion. Our guide was Rossano, a delightfully cheerful and bouncy outdoorsman bursting with energy, outfitted in professional waterproof spandex gear - a sharp contrast to Jie and I in our ratty gym shirt and shorts. On the way to the caves, we were told to introduce ourselves to the rest of the group, and Rossano had a kick out of my name and would burst into Frank Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’ song whenever I mentioned that I lived in Manhattan. After going through safety precautions and providing an overview of what we were to expect, we arrived at a bakery / cafe, where we had breakfast and bought sandwiches to bring along for lunch. The breakfast place was also where we signed our waiver forms and were given our safety packs. The safety packs were ingenious, because they combined a small pack with a lifejacket that would prove to be invaluable in the cave. And then we were off!! There were so many things we experienced, that I decided to provide the biggest highlights below:
- The tour was very professional and briefed us extensively on safety measures. We were reminded of 3 principles: Safety, conservation, equipment
- We practiced how to clip the ropes on our own and had a small test on whether we were paying attention to zipling practices in a clearing near the entrance to the cave.. then we were off!
- We did 3 ziplines and then rappelled into a mouth of a cave! While rappelling down, we had no idea that the 'wall' or the side of the mountain would suddenly end into nothingness. It was quite hilarious to see people stranded once the wall ended, bewildered at how to get down
- After climbing into the cave, we reached the water and dove in.This was followed by climbing, swimming and walking through quick-sand like mud where our shoes almost would get stuck inside if we didn't tie them tight enough. Walking through mud this thick was pretty intense. I felt like I was in a video game, where I'd sink if I didn't run fast enough. Needless to say, my shoes were not salvageable after this experience
- The major highlight was when we walked up to a spot that was pitch black and we had to plunge into a pool of darkness, which turned out to be a river of the cave about 10 feet below (this is where unfortunately, I was a victim of the 'when you say jump, i jump' syndrome)
- We saw a nest of baby bats in a little nook of the cave
- There were beautiful stalactite and stalagmite formations that would seemingly appear out of nowhere and we'd only notice them by shining the lights from our helmet onto them. I have never seen such breathtaking formations in such a natural state
- We were fully decked out in knee pads (invaluable), gloves, helmets with lights, etc. We really looked like miners!
- When people wanted to take a picture, we had to help by shining our helmet lights toward the people getting their picture taken (we were in fact, a human studio!) since it was so dark inside the cave
- We had lunch in a place named 'Pandora's box', where there was an open area and the guides put candles on rocks for us to eat our food. It kind of resembled and upscale lounge!
- We had never been so wet, dirty and muddy and sore/bruised but were super satisfied at the same time!
- After coming out of the cave system, we ended our journey with another zipline back and climbed almost vertically up the mountain with our harnesses to get back to our starting point
Jie and I in our gear
Getting ready for the zipline
Where'd the wall go? Rappelling into mouth of the cave
Pic taken thanks to our 'human studio' crew providing the lighting on the side
At the end, near the mouth of the cave again!
The rest of the day was spent mending our wounds, and we ate a meal of leftover Inca Chicken.
