The Peabody

So, I still have a lot of catching up to do with blogging, but here is what we did today! With a month or so until we move, and since it was rainy, I decided to take the girls to the Peabody Museum.


Alyssa of course found the fossil of the large turtle right away.

I was proud of my girl for correctly identifying the stegasaurus and triceratops fossils in the dinosaur room. By the way, if you ever get a chance to go to this museum, they have an awesome mural of different eras of dinosaur rule that goes the whole length of the room.

One of my favorite parts of the museum is the discovery room. Abigail really liked feeling all the different things, feathers, rocks, etc. Of course, they ultimately started on a course for her mouth, and then she was very sad when I took them away.

This is the only one she didn't try to put in her mouth.

Alyssa reached inside this box, and immediately declared it to be a dog. She was close, it was rabbit fur. She didn't believe me though. She kept insisting it was a dog. I think I'll have to take them back a few more times before we move. It's a great way to spend an afternoon. We always have so much fun.

Vieques and home

While on Culebra, we decided to visit the other "Spanish virgin island," Vieques. There are no scheduled boats between the two islands and going back to Puerto Rico to catch a ferry would have wasted most of a day. So we found someone to give us a lift. Our babysitter was excited about the small plane. Marie was a bit nervous, especially when they told us all, including little Abigail, where to sit to balance the plane.There are two small towns on Vieques. We stayed in Esperanza, a town on the south that is filled with ex-pats, societal dropouts and sea side bars. The first bar-retaurant-hotel was Banana's, we stayed next door at its similar, and lizard infested, rival.Unfortunately, we have no photos of Marie's favorite part of the trip. We went to Vieques to see the bio-bay. After a few calls we found a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy (that was how business on this part of the trip went) who would meet us at a bar to take us to the bay. After dark he drove us and a few other people out through a dirt road to the bay. We kayaked out to the middle and tied up the boats and took a swim. The bay is filled with little microorganisms that glow when disturbed. The kayaks and the paddles caused the water to glow once we got a third of the way out. Swimming was crazy since every movement turned the water electric blue and every drop glowed. Marie turned into a little girl, she loved it.
Then we got back to the kids and sent our babysitter out with the second group.



The next day it was a ferry to Puerto Rico to pick up the car and drive back to San Juan. We walked around old town a bit but were too tired, grimy and burnt to do much else. Our main regret was that we did not get to see the inside of the Fortress. The place we stayed was the Beach and Water club, which turned out to be an ultra-modern style place with neon lights and waterfalls everywhere. Alyssa loved the water theme. There was even a waterfall in the elevator. Then it was time to head home.

Flamenco Beach

Flamenco beach is said to be one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. I'll admit that overall, it is the best beach I have ever been swimming at. Part of the appeal is its isolation. This is what it looks like in the middle of the day during Spring Break.









We had a great day at the beach. Part of the reason it is so isolated is because the U.S. Military used to do maneuvers in this area, complete with heave artillery. This tank is just one remnant. One of the locals we spoke to said there are unexploded elements still around. A person walking over one would not set it off, but heavy machinery would. So, this beach will probably remain undeveloped.



I just love this video of Alyssa. She loves the beach.

Culebra

The third day of our trip we drove from the rainforest to the port city of Fajardo, where we took a ferry to the island of Culebra. This is a very small island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico. Something like 2,000 people actually live there. The main town is called Dewey. This is where the ferry stops. We wanted to stay at some villas on the beach, so when we arrived we caught a taxi to take us to the villas. When the driver realized we didn't have reservations yet, he stopped the taxi and ordered us out. It's one of the more bizarre things that has happened to us on our trips. We reassured him that we would pay him for both ways travel if they didn't have any openings, but he kicked us out of his taxi. Note: when looking for a taxi in Culebra, DO NOT accept a ride from Willy.

It turns out that the villas didn't have any openings for that night, but they did for the next. So, we stayed at a place in town for the first night on Culebra.

Mamacitas just happens to be the most happening restaurant and bar in Dewey. Since it was spring break for a lot of colleges, we happened to stay in a room next to three very nice girls from colleges in the D.C. area. They were very taken with Alyssa, and volunteered to watch her for us if we needed it. We didn't take them up on it, but we enjoyed their company out on our shared patio.

We were a little worried that noise from the bar would keep us awake at night. It turns out that roosters were the true menace to our slumber. Two am, three am, they just kept crowing. Oh well. It's all a part of the adventure.

Puerto Rico and the Rain Forest

In March we finally went on a trip that was just for exploring and having fun. Our destination: Puerto Rico. We thought that we would just spend a relaxing week on the beach and not follow our usual every night in a new place traveling style. Then we realized there was just too much we wanted to see. So, even with a toddler and a baby, we spent every night in a different place. The first day/night we spent in San Juan recovering from our middle of the night flight. The next night we spent at an eco-lodge on the south (and undeveloped) side of the El Yuenque rain forest.
Alyssa loved it! She is really into Diego right now, and to stay in a rain forest was awesome. Plus there is the whole water obsession. A 10 minute walk brought us to this gorgeous waterfall. It was really soothing at night to hear it from our room.

Alyssa was fascinated by this banana tree. I don't think she realized that bananas actually grow somewhere.

Even Abigail made it down to the waterfall. She was more interested in sleeping. Eating and sleeping....she did a lot of that on this trip.

This is the view from the road up to the eco-lodge. You can see the ocean off in the distance.


Our room had a hammock in it. Dan was so excited to show Alyssa what it was for.

She got the hang of it pretty fast. She kept opening and closing it, calling it her cocoon. Our little butterfly is emerging.

One of the really cool things about the eco-lodge is the people. We often travel to kind of out of the way places, where we meet like-minded travelers. There was only one restaurant about a half a mile down the road, so of course everyone went there for dinner. The eco-lodge served a big breakfast in the morning that we all ate around a long table. It was a lot of fun talking to people about where they had been, and what their plans were in Puerto Rico.

I think this was Dan's favorite part of our trip.