Day 2- Da Beeech

We spent the second day at the beach, well pretty much most of the day. I had never really been to the 'beach beach' little less such a beautiful one. We walked down to the beach. I'm not sure really what its name was, I'm guessing isla Verde beach? any how. The sand was very light colored, fine and hot. The sun was beaming and there was a awesome breeze. We found a few lounge chairs and set up 'camp'. We bought a couple of magazines at the airport on our way here so we brought them along for some light reading. We slathered on sunscreen and laid out to bake.

We hadn't been laying out for too long when you could start to see tan lines. Turn. A few more minutes and i was literally roasting. We decided to head into the water. I'm not sure if it was the best idea to lay out in the hot sun and then jump into the ocean, as it is, you know when you first get in the water (whether it be a lake, pool or in this case the ocean) its always colder then you thought it would be. So i did what my Momma told me and put saliva on my earlobes and started making my way to the water.

I tried acting like it wasn't as cold as it really was, since i knew if i showed weakness juju would definitely splash. I dove in, initially the water felt extremely cold- i mean cold.Once i was fully submerged my body adjusted and the water was perfect. The waves weren't very strong- but i was still fearful of going in too deep. I actually had a very scary dream before the wedding. I dreamed that either Juju or I had drowned in the ocean on our honeymoon. I'm not sure which one of us it was because the dream was a bit blurry. This dream either came to me due to stress or due to the many 20/20 investigations where the husband kills the wife on their honeymoon in Aruba. Just saying.

We enjoyed the salty ocean for some time before getting back out on the sun. And boy was the water salty. I know its salt water and we all know how you cannot drink salt water, but man, Juju and i were hoping on each others backs (we are only about 20 pounds in the water) and when juju tried hopping on my back, i wasn't ready and i went under. It was an accident- i think. I came up and i was literally gagging because of all the salt in the back of my throat. It burned, it was awful. I was in my nose, my eyes, my ears. Yuk!

We went back to the room and relaxed for a bit before deciding what to do for dinner. Since the resort wasn't all inclusive we got to try new places everyday. Initially i was concerned with the fact that we had to pay for all meals/drinks. I found a great deal on the trip so spending a couple of hundred dollars on meals and drinks would actually break even with a few of the all inclusive resorts we had looked at. We had the convenience of a mini fridge so we decided to stock it with a few items.

We drove to a local grocery store and bought sandwich making material, breakfast pastries,PB&J, juice, water, fruit, beer, chips, oatmeal and a few other things. These came in handy for our long trips, since we could pack a lunch. And we pretty much ate light breakfasts everyday in our room, coffee, oatmeal, OJ, PB&J sandwiches, coffee cake etc.
I know- We're Savvy.

Day 1- part deux

We walked out of the hotel and took a right. That's all i remember, i was so hungry that it caused me to have a mild case of Alzheimer's. We walked down Avenida Isla Verde, there was some construction going on both sides of the street and to top it off it was rather busy. Its the main street before the hotels that lay on the beach, basically lake drive here in Milwaukee.

There was familiar places like pizza hut and burger king, but we wanted to expand our horizons. We passed up a few small places and landed at Los Pinos. The was a casual semi open bar and grill. It was relatively empty, just a few people at the bar and about two other tables were full. It was hot in (out really) there. They had the fans going, but it produced no air whatsoever. The waitress came and took our order.

That was a whole ordeal in itself. Let me try and explain. I, am Mexican, full blood 100% Mexican. Juju, is 50/50. Mexirican. 99% of the people in Puerto Rico are full blooded home grown 100% Puerto Rican. The Spanish language can be very different among cultures, let alone urban vs rural communities. Spanish is spoken at warp speeds in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican (as Mexican do as well- Nik' anyone?) people sometimes, mispronounce and/or drop letters when speaking. i.e Torn=Roto; Roto=Joto (PR Spanish) and Joto= Gay (MX Spanish) see?

I tried ordering empanadas, which she explained really meant something breaded. I was looking for those folded meat stuffed deep fried yummy things. Empanadillas....Oh. Well then i guess i'll get that... she asked how many. I said how big are they? she holds her index finger and thumb out, about 3-4 inches away from each other. 3 i said. We also got some tostones and juj ordered a Cuban. Since it was hot, we decided to stay hydrated and refreshed with some drinks. Juj got a Corona and i got a Bacardi & coke.

Our food came out and to my surprise each one of my empanadillas was a good 6 inches big each. hm... measurement barriers?

The food was delicious. The empanadillas were warm and flaky, the tostones were sweet and crispy and Juju loved his Cuban. Juju's corona was cold and my Bacardi and coke was strong. I couldn't finish my empanadillas since i was wrongfully deceived by our waitress. We got a box for my empanadilla ( which later was to be eaten- heated up by our hairdryer since we were sans microwave) and our bill, which seemed low. I looked over it to find that my Bacardi and coke was only 2.81 (including tax) 2.81! can you believe that? So from there on out i made a promise to only drink Rum while in Puerto Rico, i mean they do say... When in Rome. Right?

Day 1

The night of our wedding we stayed in a honeymoon suite at the Hilton. It was huge, too huge actually. I mean who really needs a dining room? It was nicely appointed with a huge bedroom, dining room, living room, hot tub, a wet bar, 3 closets and 1.5 baths. We discovered the half bath on our way out, i was making sure nothing was left behind and i opened the door to what i thought was the closet to discover a half bath. So when we got to our room at the Intercontinental it seemed small, but really... it was just two of us. But, it made up its lacking in size- we were able to wake up to this every morning

Here are a few pictures of our room. The color palette was very soothing and the bed so comfortable with fluffy crisp linen. All the wood was a rich dark brown. It was so simple but so perfect.

Here is our view standing directly in front of the arm chair

and another

to the left....

and the right....

Our comfy bed-

The private pool area was just as stunning. Palm trees everywhere, birds, baby geckos, coqui's, beautiful colorful tropical flowers at every turn. Hell even the entrance to the hotel was pretty. I told juju it reminded me of that one time the Tanners went to Hawaii (i think) and were taken on stage by the Beach Boys. lol
After we simmered down from all the excitement we unpacked our clothes and set up the bathroom for use. We were both starving and ready to go out exploring around the hotel. And so we did.