It Is Trish

Michal and I woke up extremely refreshed after 10.5 hours of sleep.  We talked with our hotel manager about renting a car tomorrow on our way out, and he quipped, “Won’t you be tired from partying?”  …Not a problem for us.

Today was our rainforest/kayaking tour, and their list of things we ought to take included a poncho.  Naively, I had rolled my eyes at this suggestion, because rain?  Of course not.  It’s vacation.  This dumb decision meant we spent the morning speed walking down streets to the Walgreens we found last night.  “Where are the ponchos?” we gasped as we crashed through the entrance.  “…Right there,” the woman behind the counter answered.  We were standing next to them. 

Now fully prepared, we went to a waffle restaurant for breakfast.  It was DELICIOUS and a wonderful beginning to our day.  We got a bit lost trying to find our way to the meetup spot where our tour guides would pick us up.  We arrived a few minutes late, and no one was there.  I pulled out my phone and saw two missed calls from someone in Puerto Rico.  When I called back, the woman who answered sadly informed me that, due to the rain, El Yunque National Rainforest was closed.  No tour.  Don’t worry, she said, the kayaking part of the trip is still on.  But no rainforest.

We trekked back to the hotel, climbed five flights of stairs, and stared sullenly at the pool of water that had blown in through the window and crept across the floor.

Determined to make a day of it, we packed up our computers and looked for a coffee shop.  The manager of Da House had suggested a really great place, so we barged in from the rain.  “We’re closed,” the men cleaning the floors said.

“Is there somewhere else we could get coffee?” I asked.

“The kiosk in the plaza has coffee,” he said.

“Well, we want to write in our blogs.”

“They have free wifi in the plaza.”

“Yes, but….it’s raining.”

“Ah, yes.  The rain.”

We wandered the streets of Old San Juan until we found a bar that served coffee and had wifi.  My computer worked fine, and I joyfully scoured the Internet after a two day separation.  Michal’s computer, however, would not connect to the Internet, and she has slowly gone mad while I’ve written this post.  To save her from self-destruction, I’m getting off now, and hopefully we’ll find something amazing to fill the next three hours.

My one hope is that a rainy kayak trip through the bio-luminescent bay is supposed to be stunningly beautiful, as the rain hitting the water “sparkles like diamonds.”  HERE’S HOPING.