Day 2 in San Juan: The day of Fails and a successful mission in Vieques

Date: 07.03.2014

Welcome to the Failboat, this is your captain speaking.

Today, things didn't really go as they were planned. Or well, I started with the fail theme last night by deleting all my beautiful night photos I took at the beach without uploading them to my computer. Time well spent. But well, things happen, it's a first time for everything and failing usually is a one time thing and I really do learn form my mistakes. To be honest, I was most bummed about the fact I managed to delete images of gecko tracks on the sand. They were adorable, as those little lizards are. I really love them and I want to have those :).

First fail for the day was me retrieving my towel from outside and heading to the shower. I managed to drop my phone from 10cm above the ground and break the display in a way that the touch feature didn't work at all anymore. Awesome! I had to go and buy a new phone after we got back from flying..

No crying over spilled milk, and it was time to head to the Isla Grande Flying School; we had scheduled a flight to Vieques from 9am with a local pilot instructor Jay. For some kind of insurance reasons stnz couldn't be piloting the plane alone, and he needed one of the local instructors to come with us for the trip.

We took of in good weather and arrived to Vieques on time. I ordered a cab to pick us up from the airport to move our asses to Esperanza, where we'd eat some lunch and I'd collect some sand for my little project at home I called the taxi and they promised that there would be one in 20 minutes. "Surprisingly" the taxi wasn't there in 25, and we were in a tight schedule. Luckily for us, when I was calling to hurry up the taxi (it was somewhere in Esperanza and 'running late' again) a minibus drove by. I managed to get it for us and we could go to Esperanza.

The Mosquito Pier seen above from the sky

Yeah, it's dead, Jim

Sand and sea at Esperanza, Vieques

Our hired gun, Jay, taking my usual seat as the map techinician

This was the second time for Jay in Vieques and he seemed to be pretty happy to get paid visiting the island with us :D. In Esperanza we ended up to Belly Button's to eat and drinking something. While we waited for our food, I went to the beach and got my sand sample. The guys were all laughing that it was "the world's most expensive sand ever" because it took a small aircraft and hired second pilot to get it :D

When we had eaten our lunches, we headed back to the airport and left back to San Juan.

Isla de Culebra

It's raining in El Yungue

Another Cessna going right underneath us

Flamenco Beach, ranked one of the most beautiful beaches in the world

We needed to go to the airport Avis to get extension for our car, because for some reason they didn't want to give it to us by the phone. It was a pretty quick trip not counting the minutes we were lost again in San Juan - Oh Boy the streets there are overwhelming at sometimes, with multiple lanes and lack of street names.. After that it was time to go and get me a new cellphone from a Radioshack.

Yes, stnz was here, and yes, stnz draw  his trademark walrus there :D

After we got back to the apartment, stnz and I decided to go swimming. First we both were there without anything expensive, but stnz decided to go back to the apartment and get his mobile phone. I noticed one guy was looking at us all the time under a palm tree, and when we went back to the water to rinse off all the sand, we noticed that stnz's phone was gone. Phoning to his customer and taking pictures with it, was enough to get the thief's attention. Fortunately it was an old Lumia which had some issues, and stnz managed to lock the phone when we got back to the apartment.

If this wasn't fail enough for one day, while I was in the shower I noticed I started to see some lines in my sight.. yes, I had a migraine coming. I ate as much painkillers I could get my hands on to in the apartment and started sleeping while the guys were in the Radioshack. When they got back, it didn't really take them a long time to notice that I was really out of it.

For that reason, the whole evening went while I was sleeping through the pain. After our fails, I'm still amazed we survived the flight and I'm still able to write this blog post :D.

Day 1 in San Juan: El yunque

Date: 25.2.2014

On the first day in San Juan we went to El Yungue, a national forest in northeastern Puerto Rico.
Driving there without a breakfast was a little tense, last night we tried to find something to eat, but we only found a Burger King and a 24/7 gas station, with little to none real food. The gas station was cleaner and newer than any other we've visited during our trip, but the reminder where we were was obvious when we got to the cashier - they are behind a thick glass window, and scan the goods through it. You give the money with a slider, so there's no chance someone could grab the cashier and rob the place. Fun.

Well back to the park. You drive through it by car, and there are parking lots where you can leave your car - there can be a trail of some sort, or something to see near the road. First stop was a long waterfall right beside of the road after we got something to eat from the first place open inside the park. We also spotted one Geocache near it.

After the waterfall we skipped the tower next and went to a trail which leads to a waterfall where you can swim. The hike was only 1,4km long, but it had much descents and ascents. On the trail there were information boards about the nature in Puerto Rico, which told us that there aren't so many animal species around. We heard a lot of noise from different kind of birds, but didn't have the chance to see them. We only saw spiders and the guys saw a lizard I managed to miss.

The waterfall was very crowded and there was somewhere around 20 persons swimming in it for a time, but fortunately in a large area so the waterfall itself was pretty spacious place to go. The guys went there first, I just watched them from a more calmer pool and took photos of them and some random nice stuff I saw with my camera. Using fivefingers was a good idea, so I could really walk in the pool of water without falling and ruining my camera..

After that I also went try the waterfall, it was violent and cold, so I don't know if I won anything by trying it. The most gain I got by fotographing some of the people without them noticing, and getting some good shots of them (the internet in Vieques is bad, so sorry no DSLR-pictures this time :( ).

After that we hiked back, and went to eat some food which was made outside in the grill. Unfortunately I was feeling pretty cold, and using the thermometer back at our apartment told me that I had ~38C fever.

For that reason, the next day (26.2.) I staid inside, resting, while the guys were visiting Arecibo Observatory.

View from the balcony of our San Juan apartment, this came pretty familiar to me on Wednesday  while riding the mystery fever