I took a spontaneous trip to Puerto Rico a few weeks ago.
When I tell you I understand how people fall in love on shows like ‘The Bachelor’, exploring beautiful and exotic places, doing really awesome things together, it makes perfect sense. How can you NOT fall in love?!!
We got into Aquadilla, PR at midnight. (Yawn. I need my sleep.) Waking up the next morning, I felt like an entirely new woman, happily chowing down on the yummy food by the bakery down the road from the house. HELLO PR!!!! That first day was intense, filled with yummy food, a rental car that died on us in basically almost the middle of no where (I kept my cool though), a nice gentleman jumped the car and when we took the car back, we got upgraded to a Nissan Kicks, Woooo!!!! (we love the kicks!!!!) From there, it was only good vibes and we were ready to go!!!
We first got to Surfer’s Beach, a beach filled with…. you got it, surfers!! As I evetually learned, all of the beaches in PR are named for a reason…More on that later. The waves were incredible, the aftermath of Hurricane Larry that pushed through a few days prior. After a small snack, we launched our uphill hike to Survior’s Beach, which I get why it was called that because the hike was no small trek, filled with twists and turns and ridiculously stunning views of the ocean. So, dressed in my very small string thong and tennis shoes, I became an ultimate hiker.
Finally… Survior beach. It was us, the gorgeous mountain side that looked straight out of a Jurassic park movie and the ocean. It was… stunning. So, there we stayed, swimming, relaxing in the sun, enjoying the beauty and the fact that not even 12 hours prior, we were uncomfortable in an airplane, just waiting for the moment till we were toes in the water, ass in the sand living.
As the tide came through, the hike back led to a quick drive to the next beach front, Wilderness. The reason it was named this was that the windy path that led to the quiet beach was the fact that no low car would ever be able to get through the deep holes and hills created by the cars in the sand. To say I didn’t get slightly dizzy and nauseous from the up and down, back and forth of the car driving on the road would be a lie. After finally finding a spot in which I felt like I didn’t want to throw up, I was pleasently surprised at the fact that the ocean was right freaking there, so a quick little back up of the Kicks, opened the back and I snoozed happily.
After another heafty drive back through the ‘wilderness’, and of course, stopping on the side of the road for a pina colada, which we figured out after we drank it, did not have alcohol in it (still so good!) it was time to head to dinner, in beautiful Rincon, where a ridiculously amazing meal waited for us at Calypso Bar on the water. The sunset was stunning and there was live music as we ate and drank and just enjoyed being on vacation.
The next morning was spent back at Wilderness catching the last of Hurricane Larry waves and brunch at this cute little stop and then a zip up the mountain to chase some waterfalls. Mama didn’t raise a quitter, so even when it started to rain a bit and everyone cleared out, we got lucky and had the whole area to ourselves. Again, I was literally living my Tarzan meets Jane life!! I also haven’t been around too many waterfalls in my life and honestly, they were stunning. There was one area by the smaller waterfall, I was in the water after jumping off one of the smaller ledges (soooo adventurous, #outdoorsybabe) that I kinda had to choke back a little lump in my throat because HOLY SHIT, I was here!!!!!!! And it was insane and stunning and everything just felt, right.
After jumping off waterfalls and swimming around, it was time for the next beach, Crash Boat Beach, where I ate chicken from a street vendor and witnessed probably the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. Like, I can perfectly see it in my mind right now, didn’t have my phone in hand because I was happily in the water, but think of the most perfect sunset and just triple that, because it was insane and I can’t even describe how amazing it was, other than it painted the whole sky and the water reflected it, making it look like the whole world was just on fire with the most beautiful colors.
Cue the next morning at 4am, and we were off to El Yunque, the only rainforest National Forest in US territory, which was insane, except for the fact that because of Covid, they are limiting the amount of people who go through the park to 300 and place tickets to be reserved the night before. So, when we got there before the gates opened and realized that it would require a ticket to enter… Well… the gates of El Yunque, the only rainforest National Forest in the US territories, looked really nice from the outside. Anyways, what we ended up doing instead may have been actually way cooler, because after a short little hike (in 3 directions because I am obviously not a natural navigator) we wound up at this small beach with beautiful cliffs and amazing views. Score. Yet again, it felt like we were in our own little paradise.
On our way over to San Juan, we lost cell service. Losing cell service is hard anywhere, but especially when you’re in a place that doesn’t have signs in English, so what should have been a 20 minute drive took an hour of going back and forth on the highway. Finally, Old historical San Juan!! Food food and more food, as well as plenty of photos and exploring old forts. I was a happy camper, but definitely missed the other side of the island, our sweet little surfer town that wasn’t crazy hustling and bustling. All in all, Old San Juan was a day trip and by the time we got home that night, we were exhausted from the driving and the sheer ridiculousness of being lost.
The next day, our second to last day was bittersweet, enjoying time and also not wanting to leave. We sat at lunch by the water, this really cool resturant for probably 3 hours just eating and drinking and laughing and watching huge ass iguanas and the tiniest puppy ever that I almost stole ( I would have if I could have). After filling our bellies with good food and good drinks, it was time to explore. We went to visit this historical lighthouse but it ended up being closed, but what we did find was even better. All of the areas that we went to had no one there, which I prefer. The cliffs looked something out of a movie and it wasn’t until we got to the little cove, that I seriously was stunned by how gorgeous the little island really was.
Finally, it was time to go back to the beach, as we were not able to be away from the ocean for too long, like mer-people. “Steps” beach, and you guessed it, named because of a random plot of steps on the rocks, where we caught a stupid pretty sunset by the cows in the field next to the beach. What even is this life??
That night we feasted on tacos and quasadillas and some gooddddd drinks. I probably gained like, 10 lbs on this trip because of how good the food was and how hungry I was because of how much we were running around! This trip was not a lay down on the beach or by the pool and do nothing kind of trip but it was so much fun and so needed. The following day was running around and trying to dodge the rain, in which I fall asleep in the back of the car listening to the rain, ate Açaí bowls, and ended our trip by going to this really romantic little resturant on the top of the mountain overlooking the ocean. Our flight from PR to Orlando left at 1am, so our sleep schedule was really screwed up when we got back to Orlando at 5am to begin the 6 hour drive home to Charleston….
SO. Let’s just say that this may have been my favorite trip ever and honestly, I am really excited to go back in the future. I tell absolutely everyone to go visit, but also, I want to keep it my little secret because of how much it meant to me, but that’s a different story for later. Cheers and see you next time! x
blessings, a
Little Alexx Blog 
Such a fun time. Love you baby❤️
LikeLike