Finding the Next Chapter: Day 2

Nathan learned this day what a blog was and how our entire trip was going to be on it.

We stayed at the Luquillo Sunrise Beach Inn. Naturally, I wanted to see the sunrise. I never quite figured out what time that happened but I took this picture at 6:15.

I went back to sleep after this and woke up around 8. Our hotel had a free breakfast each morning with the usual items and a different 'hot item' each day. We had Breakfast Burritos with Guava juice. We then took a walk on the beach to see what we could see and look for snorkel spots. There was one on the map from the hotel so decided to change and check it out. Now, I'm very pale and require a lot of sunscreen. Nathan put more sunscreen on my back over the course of this week than any person should have to. We used about 3/4 of the bottle and I'm sure most of that. Anyway, the snorkeling was lame because of the rain from the night before and wind. We had issues with this the entire trip but this would have been lame no matter what. We decided to get some lunch and head for the rainforest, El Yunque. Nathan has been in a rainforest before and wasn't overly excited but placated me anyway since I've never been to one. We hit up the kiosks for lunch. In Luquillo, about 2 miles from the hotel, there are 60 food stands that serve all kinds of goodies. I'd done some research on Trip Advisor (I used it a lot) and found that #12, El Jefe, was rumored to have amazing burgers. Nathan got the Firecracker Burger and I had a salad with avocado. This was dumb on my part since we'd be hiking, but whatever. Nathan also had his first Medalla, a Puerto Rican beer the is very light and is watery. It would be good to the river or if you're going to be outside in the heat all day.

We drove to the rainforest, El Yunque, after lunch. We decided to pay the $3 and hit up the visitor's center for trail info. and to watch the video and look around. It was worth it and the little guy at the info. desk was very helpful when it came to which trails to take in order to reach the summit in the shortest amount of time. (That wasn't what happened but we'll get to that story eventually.) We started off fine and hiked about 45 minutes to reach Mt. Britton. It was the lowest of the three points we wanted to reach and it was already getting VERY cloudy.

We headed for the summit which should have been another hour hike. Well, I got distracted by this guy wearing Crocs to hike a mountain and took a wrong turn. I knew something was wrong since we were going downhill and not up but thought that it must me a temporary valley thing before we headed up again. We walked 30 minutes before hitting the next trail head and having to turn around. We wasted an hour. Oops. (Good thing Nathan and I had already decided that we weren't allowed to get upset about weather or things that have already happened. This went into the second category and Nathan was very nice about it. It was my mistake and I was the one throwing a fit because I was hungry. Darn salad.) Once we made it back to the screw up point we headed the right way and made it to stop number two on our hike, Los Picachos. We'd hiked for two hours for a sucky view, clouds, and it began to pour down rain. I know it rains in the rainforest but this was insane. I was glad I had my camera in a waterproof case and my semi-waterproof backpack. It was getting dark quickly and I was envisioning spending the night outside, Man Vs. Wild style. If you know me, you'll know that I get very cranky when I'm hungry or in an extremely unpleasant situation. I started complaining at this point and Nathan thought it was hilarious.

Me: This is like working out on the stairmaster in the rain!

Nathan: (Laughing)

Me: This is like every other CCC trail but with rain!

Nathan: (More laughing) Is this going on your blog?

We booked it down the mountain to the car as fast as we could and missed the summit. Nathan was bummed but knew that it would have just been clouds anyway.

This is what I found in the hotel upon our wet return. I found it very amusing. It was the second time people though we were married.

We cleaned up and headed out for dinner at Guavas. When we booked three nights at the hotel we got to choose a $50 bonus. We didn't have time for the kayak trip so I picked the most expensive/best restaurant (according to Trip Advisor) on the list. It was two blocks from the hotel and had great food. This is where Nathan really got the idea that he'd better not eat anything before I took a picture of it. "Is this going on your blog?" "Yes."