Puerto Rico, Part 3

~Wednesday (October 2)

Wednesday morning found us up early again! We had another fun excursion planned. Originally, we were supposed to go to El Yunque rainforest. The little guys had been REALLY excited about that. But it also happens to be a national park. So due to the U.S. government shutdown, the park was closed. L But Puerto Rico is filled with so much to see, it didn’t take long for us to find a substitute.

We ate our breakfast early and met downstairs. The hotel had packed box lunches for us, which we picked up. Then we boarded our tour bus!

As it turned out, our group of 11 was the only group he had that day. So we kind of got our own personal driver/tour guide! F was *hilarious!* He was one of the funniest, friendliest drivers we’ve ever had!

As we drove, he spouted off all kinds of jokes and facts about Puerto Rico. We actually learned a lot just on the bus ride! We also got to see some beautiful parts of Puerto Rico as we drove to Camuy.

We arrived at our destination after about an hour and a half: the Camuy Caves!

We paid our admission and then waited in line for the little tram which would take us down to the caves. Riding that was almost an attraction in and of itself! It felt like a rollercoaster!

Photo Credit: Betsy.

We met our tour guide and started into the dark caverns. The temperature was about 70 with the humidity at 90%. Very cool and damp!

Photo Credit: Roma.

The caverns were really neat! There were some HUGE rooms we saw, a river, bats, and a scorpion spider.

Photo Credit: Roma.

One of my favorite parts was when we came to the huge sinkhole. We got to taste some fresh spring water coming out of the cliff side. It was good!

We finished our tour and rode the tram up to the entrance building. We watched a short movie and then headed back to the bus. We ate our lunch while we drove through more back fields. We were on our way to the Arecibo Observatory!

Just the week before we left, we four older kids had seen one of Mom’s favorite movies: “Contact.” The movie is about space and a woman who is searching for ET’s. Arecibo Observatory is home to one of the largest radio telescopes in the world, and it was featured in this movie!

We looked around the museum and then watched a movie about the observatory and the building of the telescope. Then we got to go outside and see it!

It was definitely huge!

Photo Credit: Betsy.

After seeing the telescope, we headed back to the bus for our ride home. We were all pretty tired from being out-and-about all day. When we got back to the hotel, we headed straight to dinner because it was pretty late.

As we were eating, one of Mom’s cousins came with her husband and their daughter, S. It was so good to see them all again, and we enjoyed visiting for quite awhile before we went upstairs. We quickly crashed in bed from our happy exhaustion.

~Thursday (October 3)

Thursday morning we all enjoyed sleeping in. We ate a leisurely breakfast, and planned to spend our last day relaxing, enjoying the resort, and spending time with Tita.

It rained early in the morning, and this beautiful sight greeted us!

Unfortunately while we were at breakfast, we received bad news from my Abuelo. In the wee hours of the morning, Tita had fallen on her way to the bathroom, and broke both of her wrists. My Uncle and grandparents quickly rushed over to her condo. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital to be evaluated. Thankfully, she hadn’t hit her head when she fell, nor broken her hip.

While we waited for more word on Tita’s situation, we donned bathing suits and headed down to swim at the pools and beach. Later in the afternoon, our cousin S joined us.

Photo Credit: Roma.

All day, we were on-call waiting to hear how Tita was doing. If necessary, we were going to go to the hospital to see her. She was the reason we came to Puerto Rico in the first place! We wanted to make sure we saw her again, and said goodbye.

But partway through the afternoon, we received word that she was being discharged. Because of her age, they were not going to put casts on her arms. She needed corrective surgery which would take place the following week after she had seen an orthopedic surgeon. Meanwhile, she had splints on her wrists and was being sent back to take it easy for a few days.

Since she was coming back, we got out and cleaned up early. We had dinner early so that we would have time to go over and see her.

It turned into a mini family reunion in her room! 

Another cousin and her son joined us. It was great to see them again as well!

Then *another* cousin and her son showed up! I love having such a big family. J

We all visited for a LONG time before we said our goodbyes so Tita could rest. She was doing great and waving her arms around like nothing happened! J She’s such a strong-spirited woman. Each of us spent a few minutes with her, saying our goodbyes. She blessed each one of us before we left. I love her so much!

We were so sorry that our time in Puerto Rico had come to an end. L We returned to our rooms and started to pack things up before going to bed for the night.

To be continued . . .