Day 16

Today we said goodbye to the Santiagos. We had so much fun with them! The kids loved seeing friends and we loved having some adult interaction and going out to dinners with Mark & Paulette. We had a ton of fun family adventures together and they were so nice to show us around the island and be our navigators through Puerto Rico and on all of our adventures. THANKS guys!!!

El Yunque opened back up today so we headed back that direction. We drove to the Yokahu Observation tower. What a great view from the top! Then we headed up the road to hike to La Mina falls. It was a great hike through the shady jungle on a concrete and gravel path (no mud…yay!) for about a mile to a beautiful waterfall. It was a pretty small swimming area and there were quite a few people but it was still fun. We swam around and swam over to the waterfall. I climbed up on the small ledge at the base of the waterfall. It was fun to have the water pounding down as I sat there. None of the kids could quite make it with the current, bummer! Later Jeff took the older 4 kids to hike down below the waterfall and explore the river. There were several small waterfalls and huge boulders to climb on. The kids loved it. Mikey and I sat on a large rock at the base of the bridge and watched them below. By the time they got back the waterfall had gotten really crowded. There were tour groups and the trail got really crowded and slow. We finally found an opportunity and snuck past the group and cruised to the end of the trail still wet from our swim. The kids downed some cameos and some PB and Js in the car. On the way out we stopped at this little roadside shack in the El Yunque park called La Muralla for pinchos de pollo (chicken shish kabobs), rice and beans (Mikey LOVES Puerto Rican red beans and rice) and shared some pina coladas.

After El Yunque we went straight to the beach to go boogie boarding. The waves were WAY smaller than the other day when we got pounded. (I still have the scrapes on my head to show for it!) The tropical storm must have brought those bigger waves in. Today Kira kept track and caught 31 waves today. The kids LOVED it and are getting pretty good! Even Mikey tried today and with our help caught a few little mini waves. It’s pretty hard though with only one good arm/hand. I sat on the beach for a few minutes and just watched Mikey play in the ocean and the older kids boogie board with Jeff. Mikey was so adorable—jumping in the waves, trying to stand on the boogie board, pretending to surf, rolling in the sand, making drip sand castles, etc. I hope I keep that mental picture in my mind always.

Later the kids had leftovers for dinner while I took Jeff to El Churry in Carolina for dinner. From the minute I told him about going to Puerto Rico, this was #1 on his “to do in Puerto Rico” list. We had seen this food truck on Man vs. Food and the sandwiches looked so mouth-watering we couldn’t wait to taste them. We had the El Mixto sandwich – with chicken and churrasco steak, mayoketchup, cheese and crispy potato sticks. They really were delicious! I brought some of mine home to Calvin. He said it was the best sandwich he had ever tasted. Quite an endorsement!