(I asked Zae what I should title this post. This was his* suggestion, because "it's a hook, and people will want to know WHAT was fun."
* Zae is using he/him pronouns these days. So now we're getting used to that.)
When Zae was one year old, we took a trip to Akumal with Ahya and Logan. Sometime during this trip, we decided that when each of our kids turned 10, I would take them on a trip somewhere, and when they were 15, Caleb would take get a turn. We've followed through: I took Mazie to Ghana and Sweden in 2018, and Athena and I went to Athens (and elsewhere in Greece) in 2022 (technically just after her 11th birthday). Caleb and Mazie went to New Zealand in 2023, and now Zae and I are in Puerto Rico!
Why Puerto Rico? Zae's main takeaway from my last kid trip with Athena to Athens was that Greece has a lot of cats. As a big animal fan, and cat person in particular, Zae also want to go somewhere with cats. He initially made a pitch for a place called Cat Island, rumored to be near Japan with a population of something like 200 cats and 5 humans. Then someone told me that Viejo San Juan, in Puerto Rico, had lots of cats, and I successfully pitched Zae on coming here.
We arrived on Saturday evening and spent our first 3 nights in San Juan. On Sunday we took a scooter about 30 min from our place, the Dream Inn in Ocean Park, to Old San Juan, had breakfast (during which the neighboring table declared Zae to be "a whole vibe," rocking his Eminem blond buzz cut, gold chain necklace, sunglasses, and hat), and then explored the old city and found THE CATS. There were a lot of them in a specific area and it's a whole thing... the National Park Service was proposing to get rid of them all, people protested, they're still there. Definitely not as well cared for as the ones in Greece. Another tourist, from Florida, showed up when we were there with treats for the cats... Zae got to feed them, and came away with a small scratch on one finger. So then there was a trip to Walgreens... we're now a few days out and they seem to be fine. All in all, probably not the best public health decision, but the kid got to see his cats and we made it out ok.
A whole vibe
Zae y los gatos de San Juan
Later that afternoon, we went to the Distrito T-Mobile area and the Toro Verde Urban Park to zipline, and then headed back to Old San Juan for dinner (at the proclaimed birthplace of the Pina Colada, kind of underwhelming). There was a lively outdoor party in the streets and Zae got a henna tattoo. Day 1 accomplished.
Monday was a little rainy. We had planned to go to the beach, just a couple of blocks from where we were staying, but the rain kept coming and going in the morning. So we hopped on a scooter again and went to get pedicures and then had lunch at a vegetarian restaurant (Berlingeri), which was a very yummy avocado stuffed with a homemade veggie "meat." By then it had cleared up so we went to the beach in the afternoon. The water was beautiful and warm. Zae played in the waves and we watched parasailer/surfer guys do cool tricks.
Scooting
Yummy stuffed avocado
Beach!
On Tuesday I got up and went to a lovely yoga class about a block from our hotel, and then came back and we checked out to pick up a rental car and head east for the second chapter of our trip. We drove about 45 min to Luquillo, a beach with a big strip of food and drink kiosks. Zae immediately made friends with two boys, King and Messiah, visiting from New Jersey. Their mom is originally from PR and they've been here to visit many times. We all hung out and chatted in the water for a while. I bought a paddleball set from one of the kiosks and we all threw the ball around in the water.
More beach! Luquillo
In the afternoon we drove another 45 min to our apartment in Fajardo. We settled in for a bit and then walked to dinner. Zae helpfully decided to add fish & shellfish to his normal vegetarian diet for this trip, and requested that we get the WHOLE LOBSTER for dinner, which was delicious. After dinner we headed out on a nighttime kayaking adventure! This was one of the things both of us were most excited about: Puerto Rico is one of a five places in the world with year-round bioluminescent plankton! It turns out that due to a big wave of sargassum seaweed earlier this year, the plankton population was pretty wiped out and is slowly recovering, AND it was a full moon, so the glow wasn't as impressive as it can be. But it was still cool - sparkly starlight in the water when we moved our hands around.
View from our balcony in Fajardo
Yes, we have
Langosta!
On Wednesday we had an all-day adventure to the island of Culebra! We got up early and drove south about 30 min to Ceiba, stopping at a coffee shop called Suenos de Azucar (Dreams of Sugar) for breakfast sandwiches and a pastry. In Ceiba we met up with the tour group and caught a ferry to Culebra. Once we arrive, our first stop was Tamarindo Beach for snorkeling. Back in March when we went to Hawaii, we went to Hanauma Bay, the first place I ever snorkeled on a trip with Mom and Ty and Logan when we were kids - it's beautiful and calm and filled with colorful fish. Nonetheless, Zae had a terrible time - their mask and fins weren't fitting right and they were nervous about touching the reef in the shallow water (which the park staff strongly warn you not to do, to protect the reef). It wasn't quite as bad as Caleb's worst snorkeling experience (many of you have probably heard him tell the story about being peed on by his brother Michael after getting stung by a jellyfish), but in both cases, I was determined to convince them that snorkeling is wonderful. Caleb and I went to Grand Cayman when I was pregnant with Mazie and we've had several other amazing snorkeling adventures since then, and Zae's Culebra experience was also a snorkeling success! The water was pretty deep so no worries about hitting the coral, we borrowed good equipment that fit Zae well, and they gave us floaties to wear around our bellies, which made the swimming part easy. And we saw turtles and giant stingrays! I followed this one big turtle around for a while, watching her graze and come up to the surface, and when I looked around the group had disappeared. I thought I saw them farther out, so I swam towards them, only to realize that that was another group, and ours had gone back to the shore. I made it back expecting Zae to be worried but they were fine.
Ferry to Culebra
Cool dude, still a vibe
After snorkeling, we went to Flamenco Beach, apparently ranked as one of the top five beaches in the world? I'm unclear on the ranking system, but it certainly was a gorgeous white sand beach with crystal clear turquoise water. It turns out our friends from New Jersey who we met on Tuesday had also booked a ferry to Culebra for Wednesday, and we ran into them as we were heading out snorkeling at the first beach, and then saw them again and Zae got to play with King and Messiah at Flamenco Beach. We had some yummy food (shrimp kebabs and a veggie burger) and even yummier piña coladas, and then it was time to go. Napped on the ferry ride back to Ceiba, drove back to our place to shower, and then went to a nice dinner at a restaurant called Sabalos and had mahi mahi and a very delicious bread pudding for dessert.
Flamenco Beach
Zae with King & Messiah
The kid & me at dinner
Next up: Thursday! The adventure for the day was a trip to El Yunque rainforest. Meetup time was 10:45am in Luquillo, 20 min or so from our place, so a slower morning. Zae wasn't feeling great in the AM (he's convinced he's developed an egg intolerance and blamed the bread pudding from the night before), so I went over to the place I'd scouted out for breakfast (Las Vistas Cafe) planning to get takeout. When I got there, the owner told me she doesn't do takeout orders - she takes pride in her food and it just isn't good packaged up and reheated. When I told her I had a kid at home who wasn't feeling well, she said she could do the pancakes to go, but if I wanted anything, I'd have to eat it there while they made the pancakes. So she installed me at a table (with a beautiful view) and I had tea and fruit and eggs there, and then they gave me Zae's coconut banana pancakes and sent me on my way. The pancakes met with Zae's approval, and then we headed over to the meetup spot for our rainforest tour.
Las Vistas Cafe, with 2 grackles trying to steal food
I didn't fully understand when I booked the tour that they had one tour vehicle that was apparently already full, so our car and a couple of others met the tour bus at a fruit stand in Luquillo and then we caravanned up to the rainforest. The roads were very narrow and windy - hardly room for two cars to pass each other - so it was helpful to have a car to follow. We made it up just fine and then hiked with our group up into the forest, stopping along the way to learn about some of the local plants. One of the coolest ones is a little ground cover plant called morivivi, which closes up and "dies" when you touch it, and then comes back to life.
Morivivi!
After hiking up through the forest for about 30 min, we hiked down to a river, and then climbed up along the bank to a natural water slide! It was kind of an ordeal to get our big group of about 20 people (many from PR originally but living in the US, and a couple of other families from North Carolina, New Jersey again, and Kansas City), with varying fitness levels, all the way up to the slide. Zae was a little nervous about going down it - he did fine in the end but said he didn't like it. I thought it was fun. Then we made our way back down, jumped off a not-too-high cliff into a swimming hole, and had a yummy feast of mangos, pineapple, papaya, and avocado by the river before heading back.
Bamboo!
Fruit!
The fruit stand where we met up in the morning had açai bowls and I told Zae I'd get them one after the tour. As we were driving back I realized it was pretty far out of our way to head back there instead of just driving back to our place, so I looked up another spot that had açai bowls and navigated to that. I was very confused when the navigation took us all the way back to our apartment, showing that the juice bar we were trying to go to was right behind our building. However, it was up a very steep hill with no way to get to it... when I looked at the map more closely, I saw that it was in a resort that was indeed right behind our place but only accessible via a 12 min drive back out and around. But I had promised Zae the açai bowl, so we got back in the car and drove around to the resort entrance, only to be told that only resort guests were allowed inside! By this time it was about 4 pm and I couldn't find any other açai bowl options nearby... the fruit stand would have been another 45 min round trip, and I wasn't up for that anymore. Zae was disappointed, but I looked up another place that was supposed to be open Friday AM at 9 and promised we'd make that happen. We headed back toward our place and settled for an early dinner of mofongo, a Puerto Rican specialty we hadn't tried yet: mashed green plantains shaped into a cylinder with garlicky, buttery shrimp on top. Plus more piña coladas. All very yummy. We had a lazy evening, watched the last Harry Potter movie and a little bit of the Broncos-Raiders game, and went to bed.
Mofongo con camarones al ajillo (y piña coladas)
Which brings us to today, Friday, our last day! I got up around 7 and went for a little walk, and then got somewhat packed and got Zae up. We drove over to the juice bar and got there at 8:45 - luckily, it was actually open and we both got delicious açai bowls, which we took over to Seven Seas Beach and ate while we watched the waves. Then we headed back to our place and swam in the pool for a little bit before heading back up to pack up.
View from my morning walk
Açai bowls on the beach
Right as we were about to walk out the door I got the message that Aunt Missy passed away last night. She had been battling lung cancer for a while and Dad and Karen came out last week to visit. On Saturday when Zae and I were headed to PR, the Hansen-Bandy crew had a wood piling gathering at her house - I was sad to miss it and had Mazie and Athena go, and Ahya went too. I hadn't seen her since she had gotten sick... I got the sense that she didn't want a big deal made of it and there weren't any other gatherings I was aware of. But I wish I'd made a point to go and visit at some point. When I got the news, I sat down on the bed in our apartment and Zae came and hugged me. We stayed like that for a bit and then had to get moving. Goodbye, Missy. I love you and have lots of great memories of laughing together. Your mac & cheese was the highlight of many a Thanksgiving for my kids, and I'm grateful to you for watching our chickens while we were in Rwanda. Hoping we'll be able to gather as a family and share more Missy memories in the near future.
I'm finishing up this post from the plane home, somewhere over Texas, actually. Reflecting a little on our trip... Puerto Rico was awesome and I'd love to go back. Our trip was very laid back and focused on just spending time together and doing fun things, which we definitely accomplished. Because we didn't have a ton of time and given Zae's interests, there are a lot of things we didn't really do or explore... the history of PR, music scene, other more foodie foods, other areas of the island. We have neighbors in Louisville whose parents have a coffee plantation I wanted to visit, but it was on the other side of the island and didn't fit easily into our plans. But that's ok. I'm super grateful that Zae and I had this time together. They are He is quite a unique human, still very much a kid (wanting to play on the playground near our beach apartment, body surfing on the beach), but also very mature (comforting me about Aunt Missy, making a point of thanking me for taking him on this trip and also for making him, which I do deserve at least 50% credit for). Constant 6-7 comments aside, he was a joy to have as a travel buddy, and it's hard to believe this youngest kiddo is already so big - no more of these trips for me!? We may need to update our plans... 20 year old trips? Sounds good to me. We'll be there before we know it.
So long, Puerto Rico! That was, indeed, fun.
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