Puerto Rico Journal Day 8

March 16:

The game plan for today was simple: snorkel. We stopped for breakfast at Erik’s gyro and deli. The food was pretty decent, but it took nearly 30 minutes to get our very simple breakfast. We drove to the Fajardo marina for a snorkeling tour with Spread Eagle Catamaran tours. We were the first to get there, and we started drinking pina coladas right away. (They had such little rum in them it was pitiful, no chance of getting tipsy here).

We took off our sandals, sunscreened our backs and set sail for a 45 minute ride to Icacos Island. Here we anchored with dozens of other boats and with snorkels and flippers explored the beautiful reefs down below. We were very impressed, as we swam with perimeter of the reef, with how abundant and plentiful the life was. We swam for at least an hour in the warm waters before returning to the boat for lunch.

Lunch was a standard affair. We laid on the nets in the scorching hot midday sun, drying our wet suits in a moment. Soon we were on our way to the second island of the day. Palomino Island is a privately owned and rented out to one of the hotels in the area. We didn’t actually go onto the island, just jumped into the water and started swimming.

It took a while for us to find the reef. We swam very far out looking for it, before making our way back and finally seeing the fish. This reef was very different than the first. It was about 15-20 feet below us, and we just floated on top of it, but with our crappy masks it was harder to see anything deeper than 10 feet. There were more fish though, and they swam around us in small schools, which was magnificent!

We ate another dinner at the kiosks. Apparently Saturdays are the happening day in Puerto Rico, because the place was jammed packed with families out for a nice dinner. Which only added to the ambiance for us! For our last night in Luquillo we went back for our favourite meal, fried pork and mofongo at Terruno. Our $9 bill made us feel guilty, so Shane ordered a rum and coke, $13 total! For dessert we went to Veigiante and had coffee and flan, which is creme caramel, except in Puerto Rico they love it with huge air bubble and a firm texture, which is odd to my palate, but still nice. Delicious but intriguing.