Chips at Random: Puerto Rico (in progress)

'Merica! sort of.

Julian Klein. We met while I was studying in Germany two years ago.

The Set Up

Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of America, so it's not technically a foreign country. It's right there in the Caribbean! Perfect for a summer vacation.

This wasn't my idea. It was Julian's. He's in Boston and the plan was for me to fly there and spend a few days exploring the city. Things took a left turn on day.

"Phil. How about going to Puerto Rico instead?"

"Puerto Rico? Um......... OK. Sounds Rad, but why Puerto Rico?"

"I looked it up, and it's part of America so I can go. You don't need your passport."

Hell ya! We're going to Puerto Rico!

He has an internship right now at a design firm in Boston, and he can't leave America with his current work visa. It's a stretch, but Puerto Rico's status as part of America works, so he just had to notify his advisor and get cleared.

We spoke on the phone a few times to work out a plan. It turned out he doesn't like plans, so everything would be decided on the spot. I can't go on a vacation with NO plans, so I did some research and put together some ideas of things to do. He bough the Lonely Planet book for Puerto Rico and made some notes as well. We had a general idea of what to do, and the only set plan before we left was to stay the first night in Old San Juan Sunday night and pick up the car Monday.

Maybe we'll do a big loop around the island. Maybe we'll find a cool spot and stay there for a couple days. What am I getting myself into? I don't speak Spanish. Julian doesn't either. We'll figure it out.

Day 1: Old San Juan - El Yunque - Fajardo

We took a taxi from the airport to Old San Juan which is out on the peninsula. We unloaded our stuff at our hostel, Posada San Francisco, and hit the street.

Julian found Pokemon. I just laughed at him. Games aren't my thing, but the's more than stoked about how well the technology uses augmented reality.

CATS! They're everywhere. It's a bit gross, but they don't get too close. Luckily for them because I wasn't afraid to give them a kick if it came to it.

We ended up walking to Castillo San Felipe del Morro. It's actually a US National Park which is rad.

It was super windy when we got there and with only a few minutes before closing, we

chose to walk around the perimeter and not bother going in.

Trench at El Morro

We shared a room at Posada San Francisco with and nice older gentleman and this rad girl from Switzerland. Martina was traveling solo and very happy to chat with us about plans. She was also kind enough to offer us breakfast; toast and jam. Julian, being the nice guy he is, bought us coffee from the vending machine upstairs. Tres café con leche served in 4 oz foam dixi cups. There will be no big mugs of coffee for us on this trip.

With a shared destination, I offered to give her a ride to Fajardo. She took us up on the offer and ended up staying with us the whole week. Booya! The tres amigos go to Puerto Rico!

First stop after getting the car: Super Max grocery store for supplies
_ Bananas, apples, mangos, carrots, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, peanut butter, crackers, lots of water, gatorade, bread, small knives, and EASY CHEEZE! We had some weird lunches.

We headed east toward El Yunque National Forest. It's a rainforest! There's sure to be a waterfall or two.

Slightly awkward. We clicked pretty fast, and we were already having fun goofing around.

Roadside lunch: Carrot and Easy Cheese on a Triscuit. Delicious. The Easy cheese was Julian's idea, but we all appreciated it.

The first waterfall on the map was closer to the road than we thought. It was 20' from the road, so there would be no swimming and no fun hike. Moving on.