Puerto Rico
Week long trip in Puerto Rico!
Days at a Glance
| Date | Day at a Glance |
|---|---|
| 06-10Dec25 | San Juan: exploring, beach, volleyball, El Yunque |
| 11-13Dec25 | Rincon: beach and bioluminescent kayaking |
High-Low-Hero-Chow/Ciao*
| Ben | Maggie | |
|---|---|---|
| High | Volleyball at Ocean Park | Reading on the beach in Rincon |
| Low | Tired day at El Yunque | El Yunque disappointing views |
| Hero | Kaladin and Rocky | Woman in Rincon bakery for making great suggestions! |
| Chow/Ciao | Mofongo | Mofongo with pork |
*A game I learned from Ben, who uses it with friends as a fun way to reflect on an experience
Journal
Ben and I decided we wanted to close out our year with a week-long trip focused on relaxing. To guide our destination search, we looked for Marriotts where we could use Ben's hard-earned points from all his work trips. We settled on Puerto Rico, as I've never been, and Ben had only been to Old San Juan on a cruise many years ago. I gave my Aunt Marie a call, as she's from Puerto Rico. She recommended we check out the West side of the island, if we were looking for relaxing beachy vibes.
Saturday 06Dec25
We were up early for a 7AM flight from MSN, with a short layover in Charlotte. We found enough time to each pound a spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy's at 9:30AM before boarding our flight to San Juan. On our flight to San Juan, I conversed with the woman next to me who was flying back home to San Juan, after having recently moved with her Puerto Rican husband to start living there full time. It was clear that she was stressed and struggling with the transition; it made me reflect how hard the first few months were after moving to the Netherlands.
We caught a short Uber ride to our AC hotel. After checking into the hotel, we headed straight to the beach. The receptionist gave us directions, saying it was 2 blocks away. While it was definitely at least 4 (Ben called it "2 island blocks"), it was still nice to be close to the ocean. We set up our pool towels that we'd borrowed from the hotel and enjoyed the beach. The sand was nice and soft, the beach was clean, and we enjoyed watching the neighborhood dogs play. Ben took a dip and said the water was nice, but I could not be pulled away from my book: Project Hail Mary.
It started to sputter a bit so we headed back and used this as an excuse to check out the rooftop pool. It was honestly a bit underwhelming. The pool was small and shallow, and the mocktail I ordered was kinda gross (the hotel automatically charges us $18/day that we can use at the bar. I ordered a $10 mocktail and tipped $8, feeling like Robin Hood. Later we checked our credit card statement and realized they charged us separately for the tip). It quickly got too dark to read by the pool, so we headed inside to clean up.
Dinner was at Ropa Vieja, a nearby well-reviewed Puerto Rican restaurant in the touristy Condado area that we were staying. The host did a once-over of Ben's outfit (athletic shorts and slides) and seated us in the most distant corner possible, but the food was great! Appetizer of shredded pork and tostones, and main dishes of seafood mofongo and lamb with rice and beans and fried sweet plantains. The lamb was outstanding. They run a well-oiled machine, so we were in and out in an hour.
Tired from our early morning, we headed back to our hotel. We watched the Wizard of Oz on cable, reading our books during the commercials. We started the Timberwolves game, before conking out.
Sunday 07Dec25
We slept in deeply, getting 10.5 hours. Ben loves strong air conditioning in a hotel.
We started our day at a breakfast sandwich place, where we ordered fancy sandwiches with thick brioche bread and iced lattes. Ben raved about how good and flavorful this iced latte was compared to those at home, leading to an epiphany that he probably just loves whole milk (their only dairy milk option, a trend we'd see throughout the island). The breakfast sandwiches were nice, although not what we ordered. There was a mix-up where we accidentally took the food of the people next to us, which worked great for us because they also ordered fries.
Fueled from our whole milk lattes, we went searching for volleyball. From Ben's internet research and my conversation with the lady on the plane, we headed to Ocean Park beach. Turns out that the strip of sand called Ocean Park is quite long. We ended up walking a long time. We saw lots of beach tennis, some foot volleyball, but no true volleyball. Still, we enjoyed the walk. There was a lovely public park with lots of amenities and tons of iguanas running around. I was captivated with the iguana displays of dominance; very cool to watch their spikes rise up and fold back down, and lots of vigorous neck movement.
We settled down at a beach spot that had the most volleyball potential (some unused posts where a net could be installed) and got comfortable. The water was a perfect temperature for swimming, the sun felt lovely and warming without burning, and with good books, it was wonderful. I took a trip to get us some supplies at a nearby convenience store (a frozen strawberry dessert, an ICE for Ben, and a Puerto Rican coconut-flavored soda for me).
At one point a local girl approached us and ask if we wanted to pepper, seeing our volleyball. We learned she was 18, just starting college. She had assumed we were similarly aged to her and "brothers" (the Spanish word for brothers and siblings are interchangeable). After peppering for a while, she asked if we wanted to go ask the locals who had recently set up on the posts. We knew our chances were slim, as they were large guys playing only 2s, but we figured having a local with us would not hurt our chances. We walked over and she kindly asked if the 3 of us could join. She later translated for us and explained they had politely said no, as they were seriously training, but we were welcome to stick around.
We took them up on this, watching the volleyball while chatting with the locals. It was a group of about 5, some of which were also deemed not worthy of playing. We were the only tourists, but there were many English-speaking expats originating from colder climates, so we commiserated about seasonal depression. Ben politely refused to take a hit on the joint (notably they waited until I was gone to offer it to him, apparently the Ice Queen looks as though she would refuse).
Finally, as the sun started to set, we said goodbye and went home. We showered off the sand and sweat from a good beach day before heading out to dinner. I wanted to get away from the Condado tourist strip, so I directed us to Bebo's, in search of a local joint. I hit the jackpot. This place was packed with locals of all ages, groups of young people, old people, families, all ordering delicious Puerto Rican food from waiters weaving throughout the packed tables.
We ordered way too much food in my attempt to try everything. Appetizers of tostones stuffed with chicken and a medley of empanadillas, then rice and beans, an avocado stuffed with beef and a pork mofongo. The pork was truly the highlight, with a really crispy skin and flavorful meat. We enjoyed our food while Cumpleaños Feliz was sung multiple times around us.
Our kind waiter saw me taking pictures of our food and offered to take a photo of us. While he clearly did not wait for Ben to finish chewing, I love this photo. It captures the vibe of the place.
When we could eat no more, we boxed up the rest of our food and headed out to stretch our legs. While no longer in the tourist strip, we were still impressed with San Juan. Lots of wide sidewalks, generally clean streets, and a block-long outdoor free library made for a nice walk. We ended up at Anita's gelato, near our hotel. This place had an extremely long line, which I'm often dubious of, but Ben pointed out that we had literally nothing else to do, and said if I'm feeling antsy, I can walk in place. That shut me up, and honestly the 25-minute wait was not so bad. We took our cones to-go so we could eat on the beach.
Once back at the hotel we turned on the DIII women’s championship match (I love hotel cable), and then later the Timberwolves game.
Monday 08Dec25
We both slept in and then enjoyed the leftover Bebo's food for breakfast. I pitched Ben on a day in Old San Juan. Ben had already been thanks to a family cruise a few years ago, so he was not as jazzed. He preferred to read on the beach, so we decided to divide and conquer. We both went for runs in the morning. I ran to Old San Juan so I could check it out. It was hot, so I went slow and brought my running vest, but I was impressed with the sidewalk availability, and it was often shaded (sidewalks AND shade?! A luxury after my running experiences in Thailand).
Old San Juan is adorable! Lots of brightly colored buildings, murals, and Christmas decorations made for a vibrant feel.
I paused my run once I arrived at Saint Cristóbal castle. I did not know much about Puerto Rican history before this trip, and the castle was a nice way to learn more, while also enjoying some great views.
I roughly followed a self-guided tour path to see the highlights of Old San Juan. Some nice shopping streets, the port, and some nice Christmas decorations on a tree-lined pedestrian strip called Paseo de la Princesa. I made sure to get myself some piragua, a treat I have wanted to try since seeing the Lin-Manuel Miranda song "Piragua" from the movie In the Heights. It was exciting to watch an old man shave some ice for me and top it with coconut and strawberry flavoring, even if $5 for ice is a bit excessive.
I worked my way around Old San Juan to El Morro, enjoying the view of the water.
El Morro was cool! Lots of different levels offering different vantage points, and nice placards explaining the history. The sheer size of it was impressive.
Finally, after having seen all of Old San Juan that I had hoped, I started my run home. It ended up being about 7 miles in total of running. I stopped just before our hotel to pick us up some sandwiches (Cubano 1 of the trip) and a smoothie.
We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the room. I showered and then finished my book, Project Hail Mary, while Ben made progress on his book: Brandon Sanderson's Rhythm of War. After being a slog for 900 pages, he said the last 200 pages is really heating up!
Looking to continue the relaxing vibes, we ordered takeout pizza from the chain Marco's. We went and picked it up together a few blocks away, before hunkering down to enjoy the rest of the night in the hotel room relaxing and watching TV.
Tuesday 09Dec25
We started the day early to pick up the rental car at 8AM at a nearby Marriott. We wanted to start the hour drive to El Yunque National Forest relatively early, as they limit the number of cars per day. Leftover pizza was a nice breakfast on the road.
The drive was uneventful, except for once in the park, we were forced to wait as they briefly closed the road for construction. El Yunque was devastated by Hurricane Maria back in 2017, and they're still recovering. When you don't know how long you'll have to wait, 15 minutes feels like forever.
We finally made it, slightly adjusted our hike path due to certain trials being closed (potentially from Hurricane Maria?) and started on our hike. We managed to see most of the park in a big loop that was ~5.5 miles of hiking.
The hike was wet and muddy (the horror, rain in a rainforest?), but we came prepared and enjoyed the greenery. With the dense forest, we did not have any impressive views along the way, but we were hopeful on our climb up that we'd be rewarded with a picturesque panorama once we made it to the top. Talking with some of our friends, and doing research online, the viewpoint is supposed to be spectacular, sometimes seeing as far as the ocean!
False hope! Turns out the rain we had been hiking through also signaled we were inside a cloud. We couldn't see anything. Total white out.
We headed to the second view point with less hope and less energy, more with a sense of resignment, having come all this way. Alas, climbing the historic tower only gave us more time in the cloud. While hiking in a cloud sounds like a fairytale, it's actually more of a wet disappointment.
After waking up on the wrong side of the bed, and with the disappointing views, Ben informed me he was ready to be done and go back to the hotel to read his book. I couldn’t blame him. As we were driving out, we got out of the car to see Juan Diego Falls on a short 0.5 mile hike. It was nice to see the cascading waterfalls, but enjoying the scenery was hampered by a group of boys loudly drinking beers and milling about in the water. Just wasn't our day at El Yunque.
We drove back to the hotel and packed up for more beach time. Ben picked an area he felt had the most volleyball potential. I was napping on the beach before Ben prodded me awake to let me know there was volleyball activity. An older man was setting up a net and guiding a young woman through a warmup, while clearly gearing up for a larger group, due to a huge bag of volleyballs. We walked over, trying to look as tall and athletic as we could, to ask the "Godfather" if we could join. Ben and I have spent years as tourists on beaches trying to play with locals, and we've come to recognize there's often a patriarchal figure watching over the net(s). Only with his permission would we be allowed to play. He acts as a gatekeeper to prevent well-meaning but annoying, often drunk, tourists who would crash the party and significantly lower the quality of play. In Oahu, we had to pepper in front of the Hawaiian Godfather while he watched; we proved our skills and then he assigned us to a specific net. In San Sebastián we had to warm up with two young boys before the Spanish Godfather admitted us to the group. In Ericeira, the Portuguese Godfather went a bit easier on us, thanks to the presence of my very tall Dad.
I'll admit, the Puerto Rican Godfather really made us work for it. He initially told us no, as they were having an organized practice, but said we could use the spare net that he had set up. We took this as a challenge and made sure to practice very visibly and impressively. We ran some drills, just the 2 of us, for about 45 minutes while their organized training went into full swing; mostly girls between 17-20. Finally, when they transitioned to Queens, he came over to us and said we were welcome to join. We played Queens with them for a good while, having fun playing with locals and getting schooled by young girls who clearly played beach all the time. It was awesome.
They were very kind and accepting of us tourists crashing their party. Practice finally wrapped up as it got dark and we realized it was someone's birthday as they started to sing Cumpleaños Feliz. They were generous enough to share a bit of flan with us; it was delicious!!
We finally left the beach, tired from a busy day and lots of volleyball, and grateful that the day had improved. We showered and headed out for dinner.
I picked a restaurant that had a review describing itself as an alternative to Bebo's; another local place outside of the tourist strip. We ordered tostones, chicarrones, beans and rice, and green salad. We haven’t seen many vegetables in Puerto Rican food, and I try and make a point to eat salad on vacation to keep things moving down there. When we ordered the “green salad” the waiter briefly balked and made a face indicating “your funeral”. When the salad arrived it was clear why; the "green salad" was iceberg lettuce and tomato that were eerily close in color. Fortunately, the chicarrones were outstanding. I love Puerto Rican pork!
We ended the night with another round of Anita's gelato. Still good.
Wednesday 10Dec25
We slept in before packing up and leaving the hotel. We got a proper breakfast at restaurant on our way out of town. We ordered red velvet pancakes and an omelet, both tasty. Ben shared his theory that omelets used to be a waste of money ("$12 for two eggs and 1/8 if an onion? c'mon man") but the brunch market has now corrected itself. Now omelets are larger, fuller, and more worth it. I can't speak to his theory on the whole, but this omelet was quite good.
The iced latte was also delicious. After remarking how good this iced latte was, Ben officially confirmed “I am just a slut for whole milk.”
We got on the road and headed to Rincon, a surfer town on the West side of the island that is known for its laid-back vibes and good beaches. The 2.5 hr drive went quickly as we spent most of it on the phone with friends. Thanks to Loughlin and Lucien for making the time pass!
I booked us an AirBNB that was truly 2 blocks from the ocean. We dropped off our stuff (after climbing the 4 flights with our bags as the elevator wasn't working), changed into running stuff and went out for a jog. Not an easy feat given the heat.
After working up a good sweat, we grabbed our books and beach chairs provided by the AirBNB and headed to the beach. The sand was soft, the water was relatively warm, it was lovely.
For dinner, we walked into town, only a few blocks from our AirBNB. The downtown has a cute square that was lit up nicely with Christmas lights. It was unfortunately hard to enjoy as there was some kind of car procession with cars blasting music and honking their horn deafeningly loud. We did not linger. We popped into a burrito place, and when we asked them what was going on, they were nonplussed. "What parade?" We were left wondering what kind of antics these folks are used to.
We took our burritos to-go and ate them in our AirBNB while we watched Jay Kelley. Dessert was an Oreo ice cream bar we snagged at a convenience store on our way back. It was a relaxing night.
Thursday 11Dec25
After a deep sleep, I hopped across the street from our AirBNB to two stands serving coffee and breakfast. I would end up doing this every morning, given the quality of food and convenience. Everyday I'd mix up my breakfast order; everyday Ben would order the breakfast burrito. Why mess with a good thing?
Beach day today! Our only plan was to relax by the beach and read. I started my next book, The Luminaries, based in New Zealand. Ben started reading Project Hail Mary, having finally finished the Sanderson novel. The beach was perfect. Public huts were available for shade, and because we just popped down to the beach near our AirBNB instead of seeking out the most popular beaches for surfing, we had plenty of space and hut options.
From our beach chairs we enjoyed the beach wildlife. Iguanas strutted in front of us. Crabs scurried on the beach, somehow ducking into their sand hidey-holes at the last minute, narrowly avoiding being swept away by waves. The most memorable was a dead rat that washed up near us. We slowly watched it move closer and closer to us with each wave. Ben manned up and found a thick stick. He agilely navigated the stick under the meaty part of the rat and flicked his wrist so the rat was flung into the brush. I know this is graphic for the blog, but this memory is seared into my brain. The rat's limbs flew out, as if it was flying, and it soared, catching some serious air. May it rest in peace.
After the wildlife excitement, we did a circuit workout together from Ben’s Garmin, competing to have the best pushup form (we'll never know who won!) Ben noted we had become “that couple.” Oh well.
Having worked up an appetite, I walked to a nearby bakery to grab us lunch. A cubano, a tripleta sandwich, two sodas, and two baked goods, all for $25. I asked the cashier for her pastry recommendation, and she instantly suggested the quesito, a Puerto Rican pastry with a cream cheese filling. It was excellent. We saved the vanilla flan for after dinner. Ben remarked that this set-up was pretty sweet for him: reading on the beach and being brought meaty sandwiches and delicious pastries? Not bad.
Keeping an eye on the time, we packed up our beach stuff in the late afternoon to prepare for an hour drive to Southern coast of the island (we each rinsed off first at Ben's advice to avoid "itchy butt"). I had booked us a kayak tour to see La Parguera, one of the few bioluminescent bays in the world. Ben and I shared a double kayak on what ended up being a private tour, as nobody else signed up.
The tour started at 7PM, so we could catch the sunset on our way to the bay. Our tour guide was great. He was very knowledgeable about the Puerto Rican biosphere. We learned from him that the plentiful iguanas we've seen on the island are not native to Puerto Rico. Instead, they represent human accident: letting pet iguanas escape and mate in the wild. Now, they are a huge problem in Puerto Rico, eating natural vegetation, including the mangrove trees we were kayaking through. As he was explaining this, we passed multiple iguanas falling asleep on the branches that were notably absent of any leaves. They looked proud. Once we showed interest in this story, he shared there was an even worse problem of monkeys being on Puerto Rico, also not a native animal. He explained there is a small island about half a mile from Puerto Rico, Cayo Santiago, where rhesus macaque monkeys have been brought and studied, for research. According to him, a few managed to swim to the mainland and started breeding, causing all sorts of chaos and disease. He explained this was shut down when they brought in "snipers" to take out the monkeys. Yikes!
The sunset was beautiful, and we made good time getting to the bay (after Ben's specific instructions on my paddle technique, thanks babe!).
The bay itself was cool! We had to wait for a while for the light to fade enough that we could see anything, but slowly we noticed our paddle had a faint light trail in the water. After waiting even a few more minutes, the intensity notably increased, and we could see sparks in the water as we gently splashed with our hands and paddles in the water. The bioluminescence was not markedly strong, but it was still neat to see the water glow upon contact. I did not get any good photos, as it was difficult to capture, especially while kayaking in the dark, but I found it more white than blue, compared to the photos online.
We kayaked back to our starting position, thanked and tipped our tour guide, and changed into dry clothes behind our car. On the drive home we stopped at a shack to take some food to-go. I've noticed this area has more casual food options than San Juan (food trucks, shacks, etc.) We ordered fish tacos, a quesadilla, virgin pina colada and pinchos. These are not the San Sebastian pinxtos but instead skewered meat served with BBQ sauce that we've seen on lots of billboards in this area. Ben said this was some of the best food of the trip yet.
We stopped into the convenience store to grab some THC seltzers that really completed our meal. Ben had previously looked for THC seltzers at this convenience store and not found them. Luckily, he has me, a refrigerator expert.
We watched The Martian back at our AirBNB while we chowed down. Now that Ben is enjoying Project Hail Mary, we wanted to revisit the movie adaptation made of Andy Weir's previous novel. Ben was underwhelmed.
Friday 12Dec25
I woke up with some energy and decided to go for a very hot and sweaty run. Instead of sticking by the beach, I went inland and climbed a very large hill, affording me a nice view of the city. This area is quite pretty.
On my way back I grabbed us breakfast and iced lattes from the shack outside of our apartment. I greeted Ben with our food, and we had a slow morning eating and watching the new Knives Out movie: Wake Up Dead Man.
Later, I headed out to go souvenir shopping while Ben went for a run. Downtown Rincon is cute but has abysmal postcard options.
I stopped at the same bakery on my way to the beach to grab us lunch (another Cubano and a different cream cheese-filled pastry recommendation from the same cashier). We met up at the beach, reading while we ate.
We left the beach not long after we finished eating. The Badger volleyball game was playing the No. 1 ranked Stanford in the NCAA tournament, and we just had to watch. We walked the two blocks back to our apartment and watched a thrilling match of Wisconsin taking down Stanford. It was awesome.
We then headed back out to beach and read until it got so dark that we couldn’t anymore.
The relaxing beach vibes were officially ruined when the drink stands behind us started terrible karaoke of Spanish songs we didn't know. Knowing it was time to wrap it up, we took a quick dip in the ocean, hoping to enjoy it one last time this vacation. This did not last long, as we quickly felt a light stinging sensation all over our bodies. It was a nice idea, though.
We showered off the stinging sensation and then walked a few blocks to downtown for dinner. Everything was delicious, appetizers of fried cheese in spicy guava sauce, mahi mahi mofongo, and delicious pork ribs on yellow rice. It was a nice dinner to say goodbye to our trip, even if it was slightly derailed with me getting a bit oversensitive to a debate on the challenge system in NCAA volleyball.
On our walk home we made our final stop at the bakery, where the same cashier has come to know me so well she started calling me "mami". We grabbed some tres leches that we took to go and ate at home while we watched the movie Train Dreams. It was a nice last night of vacation.
Saturday 13Dec25
Said goodbye to Rincon! We packed up our stuff and grabbed breakfast and coffee for the last time at the nearby shacks. We drove back to San Juan, listening to our favorite movie podcast about some of the films we had watched this trip, pausing every now and then to get each other's opinion.
We dropped the car off at the Marriott and took a short Uber ride to the airport. Our Uber driver was a hoot. She explained the concept of "parranda" to us, a Puerto Rican holiday tradition of having a group of friends show up at someone's house in the wee hours of the morning and surprising them with loud celebratory music. She pulled up a parranda song and jammed along with her maracas that she keeps in her car. It was a memorable uber ride.
Luckily, travel home was uneventful. We landed late in the evening and picked up Maisy from Uncle Noah's, where she stayed with him the whole week, even through his final exams! Thanks Noah!
Summary
Puerto Rico is great. We were both surprised at how much we enjoyed it. Even though we were traveling in the start of peak season, nothing felt over-touristed. Maybe this is because, given that it's a US territory, things are not insanely cheap, especially in the tourist strip of Condado in San Juan. It does not have the all-inclusive culture to draw masses of tourists. That worked great for us. It gave us the freedom to walk around and explore at our own pace. We were both impressed with how walkable it was. Not only were there great sidewalks (clearly mandated by ADA, another perk to it being a US territory), but we never felt unsafe.
The food was delicious; Puerto Ricans know how to respect pork and I loved it every time. Every mofongo was also awesome.
The nature was a nice mix. In just a one-week trip we hiked in a rainforest, kayaked in a mangrove forest, and swam in the ocean.
The culture was notably different and enjoyable, as well. As a US territory, the English level is quite high, but there is still an island feel, so folks are more outgoing and sociable. It was really lovely.
Thank you, Puerto Rico, for a nice trip to cap off our 2025!
For the Record
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Arrival | American Airlines, Saturday, 06Dec25, 7:30 MSN |
| Departure | American Airlines, Saturday 13Dec25, 16:30 SJU |
| San Juan Accommodation | AC Hotel, 1369 Ashford Ave, San Juan, 00907 |
| Rincon Accommodation | 49 C. Benjamin Gomez, Rincon, 00677 |
| Maisy | With Noah in his college house! |
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