Our next pair of adventures were road trips to some different parts of the island, making a rental car necessary. An internet search found us a Hyundai Venue at Allied Car & Truck in Carolina, and after a quick Uber ride, we picked up the vehicle and were off. Our destination was the City of Ponce, about an hour and a half southwest, on the opposite coast. The route was scenic and took us through the mountains, which bisected the island. On the way you noticed the changes in the landscape, from tropical, to rugged mountains, to desert, and back to tropical again.

Once we arrived in the city, we navigated to a side street near the Plaza Las Delicias, the main plaza in the town, where we found a shady parking spot. A short walk brought us to the Parque de Bombas, a historic former fire station. They say it is one of Puerto Rico's most recognizable buildings, and it’s easy to see why. The building has a unique design and paint scheme, which jumps right out at you as a result. From here we walked over to the Plaza Muñoz Rivera and saw the statue of Luis Muñoz Rivera, a poet and journalist. In the center of the Plaza Las Delicias was the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, and past that was the Plaza Degetau, which contained the Fuente de los Leones, or Lions Fountain. We wandered around for a bit, taking pictures and looking in the shops, and resting in the shade when the sun became too much.

When the sun became too much, we walked back to the car, and drove up the Cerro del Vigía, a hill overlooking the city. Here there were a trio of places we wanted to check out. We started by visiting the Cruceta del Vigía (The Watchman Cross), which is a 100-foot observation tower in the shape of a cross that provides spectacular, panoramic views of the city and the sea. The original cross, which is no longer standing, was from the 19th century and used as a lookout for ships coming into the harbor. A hundred yards or so further up the hill was the Jardín Japonés (Japanese Garden) with is a beautiful garden decorated in a traditional Japanese style with manicured trees, bonsai trees, ponds with koi fish and those particular Japanese bridges you might see in movies and pictures. The final place we visited was the Castillo Serrallés, a mansion and former home of the founders of the “Don Q” brand of rum, now turned into a turned museum and wedding destination. The building and gardens were immaculate, and the view was amazing from the house, even the pool overlooked the gardens and the city. After touring about for a bit, we hopped in the car to head to the beach to watch the waves and birds with an ice-cold piña colada in hand, before heading back to San Juan.

The next day we were off in the car again, this time heading to El Yunque National Forest in the northeastern part of the island. El Yunque is the only tropical wilderness in the U.S. National Forest System, which we found surprising just based on the size of the national forest system. Because reservations were required, we had to plan ahead keeping an eye on the weather when we made our reservations a few days prior. The ride was uneventful and took us about an hour and a half. As we drove up the mountain to take our place in queue, we noticed the climate went from hot and sunny, to cloudy, humid, and damp. Even the vegetation seemed different, becoming lusher and denser in appearance. At one sport we stopped at a lookout to take some pictures, and at another, we hiked a short trail to see a waterfall. The place reminded me of the jungle in the movie “Predator.” We checked out a few other places in the rainforest and had planned on doing another hike, but true to it’s name, it rained, so we cut short our visit and went back down the mountain. By the time we reached the bottom of the mountain, the sun came out and the rain stopped so it was off to our next destination.

Our afternoon plan entailed relaxing at Luquillo Beach, which had been recommended to us by my cousins husband. He had been stationed at Roosevelt Roads, an old navy base not far from here, when he was in the service. Luquillo Beach was a long, flat, sandy beach with calm, clear water. To your left you could see the mountains, behind you were plenty of palm trees filled with parrots, and the ocean and sand spread out right in front of you. I found a semi-shaded spot and dozed off for a bit before cooling off in the water. It was exactly what we needed after getting up early to go to the rainforest. We relaxed here until we got hungry, then we grabbed a late lunch at La Parilla, a restaurant not far from the beach, before heading back to drop the rental car off, and go back to the hotel.

Our final big adventure didn’t require a car, but it did require good weather, clear skies, and a reservation. The plan was to take a night-time kayak tour of a bioluminescent bay. Our tour company, was “Las Tortugas Adventures,” and was pretty solid. The tour van picked us up at our hotel around 7 p.m., and once we got on, we met a few other people who were already on board. From our hotel, we had three stops to make before we would arrive at the tour’s starting point in Fajardo. Upon arrival, the tour company gave us a safety briefing, and then a brief lesson on how to operate a kayak. Kayaking wasn’t new to me but doing it in the pitch black with other folks who might not ever have kayaked before was, so I made sure I paid attention. Each kayak was a two-person kayak, and each one in our group had a green light on the bow. The idea was to keep together with the other green lights.

We lined up single file in our kayaks, making our way across the water, trying to keep an eye on the kayak in front of us and stay in line, until we reached the channel to the bay. The process was easier said than done, but we all managed with not too much difficulty (mostly). Once at the channel entrance, we waited for our group’s turn to start, and then we were off. The channel was fairly narrow, and when a group came from the opposite direction, both groups would have to hug the banks. The night was really an inky black that enveloped everything, but our green lights really stuck out. Occasionally the moon would pop out from behind the clouds revealing the mangroves and bushes that lined the channel. As we paddled through the channel, getting closer to the bay, we started to notice the water running off our paddles had a slight blueish-green glow to it. Initially we dismissed it and chalked it up to the moon and our green bow lights. But then the channel opened to the bay, and the glow made sense. It was the bioluminescence from the Dinoflagellates in the water!

Our group paddled to a designated spot in the bay where the guide gave a brief explanation of why the glowing occurred, then we had about 20 minutes to ourselves to float around. We dipped our hands in the water scooping it up letting glowing rivulets run down our fingers and forearms. You could swirl your hands around under the surface of the bay which left glowing trails and looked like some sort of magic spell being cast. I need to confess, my first thought about this adventure was that it could be fun, and it was something to do, but I wasn’t really that excited about it…however I was completely off base. It was impressive, and I’d do it again in a second! It reminded me of a lab experiment where I’d spliced a fluorescent gene into a plasmid, except this was nature, and these were living creatures who glowed without my help. I would definitely recommend that you jump on a tour like this if ever given the opportunity. It was completely worth it to be able to see one of nature’s wonders up close and personal.