We had initially planned to breeze through Puerto Rico as quickly as possible, stopping only for Costco (obvs) and Amazon packages. However, my parents were planning to fly in to St Thomas to visit and once we had the date nailed down we realized that we had almost a month to kill between leaving the DR and needing to be in the USVI’s. Rather than rushing through just to sit in St. Thomas (which I already knew is not our favorite place in the world) we decided to slow down and take our time exploring Puerto Rico. Best decision ever!

We landed in Puerto Real on the western coast and while it didn’t have the magical scents and sights of the Dominican Republic, it is beautifully green and mountainous. Neal got very sick following this passage, so we spent several days waiting for that to pass before moving on.

Our next stop was an anchorage called Bahia Fosforesente, where we experienced our first bioluminescence. After fending off a somewhat annoyed tour boat Captain (to be fair, we had our anchor light on) we jumped into the water for some of the most epic swimming EVER. The boys spent the night pretending to be super heroes, with every movement accentuated by a burst of bluish light. I spent the night with my snorkel goggles on, feeling like I was swimming through stars. It was magical and nobody wanted to leave the next day.

The next day we motored a few hours to Gilligan’s Island, where we spent a very peaceful evening swimming in a bay we had almost to ourselves. A few hours after we anchored our friends on Water Song, who we hadn’t seen since St. Augustine, pulled into the anchorage. It was great to see them again and we ended up spending the next week buddy boating down to Salinas. Rowan and their daughter Pebble have very similar personalities and it was so fun watching them interact, especially when they started leaving each other little dinghy notes to be found when returning to the boat.

After Gilligan’s island we were nearly out of food, as we hadn’t provisioned for over a week BEFORE we left the DR. We made an emergency stop in Ponce where Neal and Ian dinghied ashore to buy us a few necessities.

Next we went to Caja De Los Muertos, or Coffin Island. This was a fascinating experience, as it used to be a popular tourist destination until an earthquake damaged it a couple years ago. Apparently it was abandoned, and the regular ferries that used to bring people over from Ponce stopped running. The kids’ imaginations went wild while walking through the parts of the property that were safe to explore, watching the structures being slowly reclaimed by nature. We then spent a lovely night with our friends on Water Song and the next day were off to Salinas!

Our stop in Salinas was mainly because it was a good spot for land access and to rent a car, and we spent over a week there. The kids named the resident manatee in the bay Hugh, and got very excited whenever he stopped by. The bay itself was fairly dirty and very busy, but had way more bioluminescence than we were expecting which was a treat.

Watching bioluminescence off the back of the boat every night was like watching a symphony unfold. Tiny fish darted around every which way at the surface in little star bursts of light. Bigger fish swam below in a variety of shapes; some long and thin and clearly made for speed, some lumbering by in a more leisurely way. Sometimes the bass notes in this symphony of light were played by a big something, almost always moving slowly deep in the water. The privilege of getting to see this every single night in a bay with so much light pollution continues to astound me!

From Salinas we rented a car for 3 days and had a blast exploring. Puerto Rico is beautifully mountainous and it was so much fun exploring by car and on foot. We spent one day hiking to a gorgeous, secluded lake (pond?) with a waterfall cascading into it. Ian and Rowan climbed the waterfall while Torren and I had our legs exfoliated by tiny minnows. (After 16 years of marriage I have still been unsuccessful in convincing Neal of the magic that comes with wading barefoot in a mountain stream, but he thankfully puts up with it for the sake of the rest of us!)

We also spent a day exploring Old San Juan. We had a ton of errands to run that day and unfortunately were a bit too late to actually go into the fort, but the town itself was so fun and colorful! We ate some gelato, played at a park, dodged cruise ship crowds, wandered, and spent time rolling down the big grassy hills in front of the fort. Old San Juan just oozes character and culture and I’d love to go back and spend more time there!

Lastly, shopping! We did our Costco run (possibly the last of its kind?) and spent the $400 in Costco cash we had saved up. We also hit Walmart, a fruit stand, the grocery store, and an Amazon pickup place. We left Salinas with a considerably heavier boat and lighter wallets.

Oh and how could I forget…the best of the best of what Puerto Rico has to offer…LECHON! There are entire roads devoted to restaurants serving these incredibly tasty roast pigs. This will probably be *the thing* we remember about Puerto Rico for years to come!