Final Christmas Post, Puerto Rico, Christmas on Moon, 2019
Hello again. Finally here is our last post of all of the Christmas fun that we had. I tell you what it was quite a chore to go through all of the pics that we took! Again I want to thank Rachel and Drew for taking the majority of them. It is always cool to see the world through someone else’s eyes and this is a perfect way to do so. There were so many good pics that I had a hard time leaving some out. I don’t think that you will notice though because we have lots to share! So I better get started….
Last we posted we were in Culebra. Next stop for us was mainland Puerto Rico. There are few ways to leave the island. You can either take the ferry, a private boat or small plane. We had planned on taking the ferry but Rachel was looking on-line and saw that the ferry was sold out! Brian and I had thought that we planned out this trip to a tee, made all of our reservations ahead of time so that everything would go smoothly. This moved us to plan B. We had to buy plane tickets to fly to the mainland.






After our 15 minute flight we arrived in Puerto Rico. We stayed in Fajardo on the northeast coast for our first couple of days. We picked Fajardo for a couple of reasons, for one we thought that the malecon (waterfront) would be a hopping place for New Years Eve and the location is a good jumping off point to visit the nearby waterfalls.

Turns out this was not where the party was. We had fireworks at midnight, but all of the nearby restaurants were closed and nothing was going on at the malecon. Once again we had to make our own party…don’t worry or feel bad for us though, we were becoming pros at that!







The next day we visited the El Yunque Rain Forest. It is such a amazing and magical place! As we drove around the mountains like a race car hugging the hair pin turns my fingers turned white as I gripped the door handle to keep my balance. We stopped at the Coco and Juan Diego Falls. It was raining. Imagine that raining in a rain forest! The paths were slippery but we were determined to enjoy the waterfalls views. As we were leaving we came across a dog that had appeared to had been left behind. Strangely, the last time that we were here there was a cat in this very same place wondering from car to car in the same way. I was heart broken but there was something strange about this. There were lots of people around but no one was paying attention to the dog not even the park rangers. This is where it gets weird. Drew was on-line researching El Yunque. Seems that many believe that the fabled shape shifting chupacabra, lives in Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest! Could this wondering dog be the mythical chupacabra, we were not about to find out. We diverted our eyes and skedaddled out of there lucky to be alive to tell the story!






Next was an adventure that was new for all of us. We booked a cabin at Hacienda El Jibarito in San Sebastián. San Sebastián is on the northwest side of Puerto Rico where the geography is completely different than we had seen before on the island. From here we were able to drive to Rincon beach famous for surfing when the waves are big and also visit Gozalandia waterfalls that were busy but amazing!






One night for us in San Sebastián and then it was off to Old San Juan for us. Along the drive there we stopped at Tunel de Guajataca. A former train tunnel for sugarcane transport.












We also made a stop at Playa Puerto Hermina. Supposedly, this is where the remains of the pirate Roberto Cofresi’s hideout is. He was a pirate that was from Puerto Rico.



You can read more about the pirate Roberto Cofresi here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Cofres%C3%AD_in_popular_culture
Finally, after site seeing along the way we arrived in Old San Juan. If we hadn’t said it before, we love Old San Juan…wait, who am I kidding of course we have said that before!











We had fun exploring all that we could of old town. We toured the big fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, or El Morro for short. We walked up and down so many streets in awe of the amazing architecture and blue cobble stone roads. Rachel had fun petting as many cats as she could. Sadly so many strays. I shared my favorite beach to find chaney and sea glass on and Rachel and Drew went home with some treasures.










We had a blast, but our time had come to say good bye before we knew it. What amazing adventures that we all shared while Rachel and Drew were here! Hope that you have enjoyed them too! We had such a great time and it was awesome to look through all of these pictures and share our fun with you.
Take care all.
Jennifer and Brian, Crew Rachel and Drew
SV/Moon