Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited

4-18
Cale and I woke up and debated for 30 min whether we should stay one more day or go to main land Puerto Rico, which is about an 8 hour sail. We eventually decided to go. The kids weren’t super happy at first, but dealt okay. Long passages can get boring. This one was really calm so we were able to eat sandwiches for lunch and be up and about more. We even did a marine biology lesson. The boys tried to catch fish. They had a few bites. I talked to Holly. We are really hoping to be able to meet up with her in DR. We arrived around 5pm and found Anchorage in Salinas Bay. There are manatees in the bay so you maneuver very slowly around the bay.
We went to shore and spoke to a man who told us where to drop trash. He gave us the name of a marina who might have space for us. He also said the road our from the marina is quiet Monday- Thursday but on the weekends there are lots of people. We did find it to be mostly closed down, but there were a few restaurants to choose from. We had some delicious empanadillas for dinner at La Barkita.

4-19 Cale went on a 3 hour journey to get a rental van. We were doing a lot of driving, so we really wanted a van. A local guy, Miguel, had one with no A/C, he kept trying to help us out but eventually we decided to go to another town to get it. Cale had trouble getting a ride to pick up the car. He finally got the rental company?? about 20 min away to send someone to pick him up.
In the meantime, we were struggling through a bit of a rough morning. We had heavy rain in the middle of the night so I started out by wiping everything down and putting the cushions back together. One of the freezers isn’t holding temp so we shuffled stuff around and are making one of the fridges a freezer, so that took some time. I made banana bread and a smoothie for breakfast. The smoothie took a while because we had to wait for the ice machine to make the ice. All that alone was just normal stuff but the rough part was the boys getting their school done. Sometimes there is just no level of focus and today was one of those days.
We limped through and got our stuff together and went and met Cale to head out around 12. Our first stop was San Juan. We parked in old town and walked some of the sites. We got a map and some helpful info at the tourists office. It’s a very cool downtown. The houses are colorful and the architecture is rich. The streets are almost all cobblestone. We went to the city gate, walked the wall, umbrella street, the chapel. These were all places Cale and I came on our honeymoon and a 1 year ago when we were on our way to buy the boat. It was pretty surreal for me. I remember having so many thoughts and feelings knowing that if all went well we’d be back here with our kids I’m the middle of our trip. It seemed so obscure at the time. To have it come to fruition is pretty unbelievable and amazing.
I thought for sure the chickens, cats and iguanas would be on the grass before the fort (they have been there both other times we came here), but they weren’t. We spent about an hour or so at Fort Morro, Castillo San Felipe del Morro. It was fun to show the kids. Of all the forts I’d rank this 2nd. It’s very cool, but it was weird to be at one with so many tourists. It’s also been weird to be somewhere so American. The fort is a national park so it feels very American. But also just all the American food options and shopping.
As we left we saw big iguanas. They were just hanging out on the fort. At this point it was almost 5 and we were all so hungry. We looked for food as we walked back to the car but didn’t find anything. We decided to drive and see what we found. We ended up in a very cool, modern shopping area. We found a Metropol. Cale and I had it when we came last year to look at the boat. We have been talking about the rice and beans from there ever since. It’s was super yummy. It was in a Marriott hotel near a very fancy new convention center. We walked after to the outdoor mall area. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. So many giant screens, loud music, seating and yard games.

4-20 We tried to get a somewhat early start but everyone was dragging. It’s hard to do 2 big land days back to back. We got going around 9 and then realized it was a hour and a half drive to the Yunque national park. By the time we grabbed breakfast and got there is was 10:40. Our reservation was 8-11 so we made it just in time. The park is very beautiful and very jungly. We hiked to the waterfall pools. It was great! It was so refreshing, even though the water was cold. Everyone ended up getting in except Cale. There was quite a few people there, but it’s a very beautiful place. There were 3 or 4 different water pools made from the waterfalls. Cade was in heaven. Next, we checked out the Colorado swimming pools. Its a man made pool but no longer in use. It was cool but also kind of weird. The kids thought it was weird you couldn’t swim in it.
We hiked to the top of the tower. It felt higher then it looked. The views were amazing. It’s not the same feeling as exploring a less populated island but it was still very beautiful. We left the park around 12 and went to Costco. It was so weird being at Costco. It felt like we were home for a bit. I also had that feeling driving around or seeing lights in the mountains here at night. It also feels quite American with how the traffic lights are and such. We got a lot of food, mostly snacks and junk we haven’t had access to. Sadly, I can’t buy meat here because I don’t have the freezer space. We stopped by the Puerto Rico temple, which was just dedicated this year. My biggest regret is not being able to go inside this trip. It was still fun to walk around and see it. We heard it is the exact same temple as Guam. Last, we stopped at Walmart. Another very weird and surreal experience. It feels so familiar and foreign at the same time. We stocked up on some needed items.
Yesterday driving around we saw a cockroach in the car. Today, at one of the stops Cale saw it and brushed it out of the car. We had hoped we escaped disaster then later in the day we saw babies. We killed a couple but knew there were still more. Unfortunately we had all our groceries in the car. It took us linger then expected do to traffic and some navigation mistakes to get back to the boat. Then, once we finally did we had to unload and clean everything from the car at the dock. We wiped it all down and then when we got back to the boat did some of it again. We have done all we could, hopefully no cockroaches came aboard. It was a very late night for us.

4-21
What a difference 24 hours makes. We were planning to return the car and go to Isle Caja de Muertus, then a day at Boqueron and onto DR to meet Holly. Sadly, they had a passport issue and weren’t able to make it to DR. The good news is they are re-routing and coming to Puerto Rico. We spent the morning doing school. Kira saw a manatee off the side of the boat and we watched it surface a few times. Cale went to return the car. He had a work call and I took the kids to explore a mangrove inlet. It was really cool. We ended up at a big area that had been cleared. There was a road with a bridge that had collapsed that apparently was used at some point. There were tons of crabs that had one big claw they carried around. They were pretty small but all over. Just as we got out of the bay we saw something that looked like a muskrat or otter in the water. We finally realized it was an iguana swimming across the bay.
Once Cale got off his call we picked him up and all set out to explore. Pretty quickly we saw some manatee and jumped in. Sadly, it was so mirky it was hard to see but still pretty awesome how big they were. It was fun. We kept exploring to check out a surf reef, which took us then to the coolest little beach island. We explored that for a bit. The boys looked at the surf. The girls found some of the coolest shells. We saw more manatees on our way back. We also had a huge ray jump pretty close in front of the boat. We came back and worked on some boat organizing and finding a place to store the wing foil gear.

4-22
We woke up and heard from Holly that she got an earlier flight so got to work cleaning and getting ready for guests. We are so excited that it worked out to have them with us. The kids and I spent most of the morning cleaning. Cale went to get a rental car and pick them up. He called and said it was the worst rental car ever. I thought he was just being dramatic, but he was right. All the lights were on, there were cockroaches all over and it was super dirty.
We got the boat clean and were excited to get the Carlson on board around 2. We got changed and took them exploring. We pulled the paddleboard behind us and it gave us more space. We went across the bay to the water inlet. We tried to pull the dinghy up but it was rocky and hurting our feet. The older boys played in the waves and then we all slowly snorkeled and swam back up the inlet. We dinghied over to the next bay and a bunch of locals were there with boats, jet skis, floats and lots of loud music. We pulled in to check it out. Then, we went back and found some manatees. The visibility still wasn’t great but we all got pretty close and it was so fun to see them. We came back and went to dinner on shore. There was live music. It was really good but super loud. The restaurant workers feed all the scraps to the tarpon so the kids had a blast feeding them and even trying to catch them. Cale and I were going to run to Walmart while everyone else went back and got settled but things changed once we got to the car. We opened up the front doors and within 10 seconds there were 6 or 7 cockroaches. They were all over. It was so gross. We decided to wait and we won’t take anything with us to church tomorrow. Hopefully, no cockroaches on the boat.

4-23
We left the boat at 9 to get to church at 10. We had to ride in the nasty, cockroach infested car. All, and I mean all, the warning lights on the dash were on, some flashing. The car was filthy. I didn’t have a lot of confidence that we were going to make it. It was pretty bad. It was a 35 minute ride towards the mountains. We went to the Caya Ward. Classes were first. Holly helped translate in primary. It was just Caleb, Kelsey and one local girl. I went to relief society. The lady was so animated and spoke so fast. I tried to follow but it was hard. It started to pour down rain in sacrament. The meeting was hard to follow. Google translate couldn’t keep up. I really enjoyed the singing. They were all acapella and I liked picking out words and meaning from the songs they choose.
The kids had a fun YM/YW’s class. Bishop Silas taught. They’ll learned a lot and also thought he was so much fun. The kids said they loved it. He also gave them a bunch of food. Rolls (colored but weren’t sweet), hot tomale heart candies (but the kids said he didn’t like it and had to spit them out because they are a little spicy). We had to get back into the nasty car to drive home. We had lunch. Holly and Caleb snorkeled then we left for Isle Caja de Muertes.