Sunday we had an early start out again with our boat excursion out of Fajardo. Fajardo is 15 minutes from Luquillo and we had to be at the marina at 8:15am. The catamaran had about 70 passengers and a crew of 5. AJ woke up with a fever and wasn't feeling great, but she persevered and took some motrin to be able to go. We all took Dramamine to be preventative since the company warned us that it might be choppy. Turns out, it wasn't bad at all! And it calmed down while we were at our first stop, Icacos Island (about 45 minutes away in the boat). We got there just before 10am and had until 12:30pm to swim to shore, enjoy the beach, and eat lunch on the boat. They served cold cuts, sub buns, pasta salad, coleslaw, chips, and more. It was delicious and they had an open bar pretty much all day! Evan did the waterslide with Mindy, the boys played football and found some amazing shells, and we all enjoyed the sun and sand.
The captain had originally told us we would be at this Island most of our time as the water was too rough to snorkel, but the water calmed down and we all got back on at 12:30pm to head a little bit away to a reef to snorkel. Half of us got in the water to snorkel and it was fun! Not as great as what we saw in Hawaii, but it was still good. And then it was time to head back to the marina. We got back around 3pm.
We went back to the house and everyone got washed up. No one felt like going back out again so we made food at the house and Scott grilled hamburgers and hot dogs again. The guys put football on the TV in the game room and some of walked down to the beach to see the sunset. It was a relaxing evening at the house.
On our last full day, Tuesday, we got up and out of the house by 8:30am to head to the rainforest. The power had gone out sometime in the middle of the night, but the house had a generator. Turns out about 90% of the island lost power - it was wild. But, it didn't impact our day at all. We went to the visitor's center, the boys did their Junior Ranger books to get their badge, we did a short hike and then got back in the van to do some sightseeing in the park. I'm glad we went early, because the roads are switchback in the park and very narrow. We saw some waterfalls, did some climbing, and saw a tower with great views! Scott and I had been there on our honeymoon so it was like a blast from the past.
We left the park and went back into downtown Luquillo and split up to find a restaurant running on a generator for lunch. Most of us ended up at this cute spot that had pretty darn good food! And then it was back to the house to relax. Jackie and Josh made tacos for dinner and we had brownies and ice cream for dessert since it was New Years Eve. The little boys made it until around 8ish and then we did a pretend countdown with them. The rest of us, minus Jackie, made it up until midnight. Man, Puerto Rico sure loves their fireworks. Everyone around us was setting them off and it was so loud. It was a really fun way to ring in the New Year!
