The last from San Juan

Can you believe the gas prices here?? I just had to get a photo of this....I just about flipped when I first saw all these gas prices that started with cents....not even dollar signs!! I couldn't pass that up..look how cheap diesel is! =) Actually, before you pack your bags and move to Puerto Rico, you'll have to know that they measure the gas in liters there instead of gallons. Multiply 4.5 by the price and you'll get your conversion rate. So I guess its no cheaper there than anyplace else in the US...it just appears cheaper at first glance!

I think there is an unwritten rule in San Juan that every other building needs to be a different color! It sure was a colorful city.

Driving down the streets..they were one-way all downtown...

This was the mall....cars parked on one side and you drove on the other side. There were many Americanized stores there but I sure wouldn't want to shop downtown...there is virtually nowhere to park!

El Morro--More from San Juan

Well after our Sunday church adventure Scott and I decided to walk down to the popular San Juan tourist area. We drove through some of Old San Juan and we visited El Morro. This was a fort built in 1539 by the Spanish when they owned the island of Puerto Rico. They built this fort around one side of the island to fend off pirates and other invaders. Here I am overlooking the grass leading to El Morro--and no they don't need sprinklers in San Juan, it rains so much that everything stays green!

Here is a view of the moat...or it was a moat at one point...can't you just imagine water in this? I thought it was so cool. There isn't a drawbridge there anymore, its a straight across bridge now but what a cool sight.

Here's Scott in the guard tower...since it was Sunday we didn't pay to go in and do the tour, so we just walked around the grounds and that was still really neat!

This is one of my favorite photos!! I wish I had it in 8 by 10 size for you all to see. I was standing on one of the fortress walls and taking this picture looking back at the coast of San Juan....don't you love the coloring of the buildings and all the green?
I'm so glad we got to spend some time here!

Early Halloween Party!

Here is Kyler helping me decorate cupcakes for the kids' classes at school. Since our kids are on year-round school, today is their last day until November! Hence the early celebration of Halloween! We made cupcakes for them to share with their friends at school.

I offered to teach stamping projects to Kaylie's 4th grade class. We had a blast! There were three stations so the 26 kids could rotate around and do each project during the hour.

For the first card they got to use puffy paints with the embossing tool and watch their spiders GROW!! Then they got to use my diecutting machine to make their own candy corn goodie bag toppers...they did all the stamping & cutting themselves! Lastly they made York Peppermint Patty spiders using a bunch of my punches. The kids had a great time and it was fun to share some stamping time with them!

La Coca & La Iglesia

This was another beautiful waterfall we saw in the rainforest. It's called La Coca Falls and it was such a mild waterfall compared to La Mina, but yet its a steady stream of water all the time....amazing huh?

Let me tell you that we take MAPQUEST for granted in the United States!! Puerto Rico doesn't have this luxury and so we had to use a vague map to try to find the church building in San Juan---there are hardly any street signs there!!! There were supposedly three Latter-Day Saint churches in San Juan. After much searching---and yes Scott stopped at a gas station to ASK FOR DIRECTIONS..shh..don't tell!! We finally found the church!!! Only one problem..it had been turned into a mission office....there was no one there!

So, then we drove around for another 45 minutes looking for the other close church in San Juan...we stopped and asked a man who was in his front yard...he didn't know, but his mom knew the Mormon church and she gave us good directions...we found it just in time for the last meeting. It was interesting sitting in church and only understanding about 1/3 of what was being said!

Scott greeted everyone in Spanish when we showed up. I said "Hola" to people and they asked me in Spanish what my name was and where I was from. Since I answered them I think they THOUGHT I spoke fluent Spanish!! Needless to say my head hurt after that meeting, trying to concentrate on what was being said...and then I did a lot of smiling and nodding as people spoke to me!! After church I was waiting for Scott in the hallway and I finally found an English speaking lady serving a mission in San Juan. What a relief it was to speak English and to understand what someone was saying to me!! Then Scott came out of Priesthood Meeting speaking fluent Spanish.

As we left the parking lot some people came up and talked to Scott in Spanish. I just smiled and nodded. Then as we drove away Scott confessed that he had NO IDEA what they had just said to them. Their accents, slurring of words, and fast speech had confused him. So then I felt a little better. Needless to say Sunday was an adventure I will always remember.

My Mormon friends will relate when I say that I'm grateful the songs in Relief Society were "Families Can Be Together Forever" and a song by Jenny Phillips that I have on CD. So even though the songs were in Spanish I knew the tune..so I sounded legitimate when I was singing anyhow.. =)

La Mina Falls

One of our hikes in the rainforest was to La Mina Falls. It sure was worth all the walking! When we finally reached the falls I was pretty wet from the rain, so I enjoyed La Mina from a distance.....the falls were rushing SO fast!

Here's Scott's way of enjoying the falls.....

And behind the falls....

The entire view of the falls with Scot swimming in the falls..this waterfall never runs dry....its no wonder since it's in a Rain Forest..it was really fun to enjoy the falls!

More from El Yunque....

The rainforest was so GREEN! And yes it rained on us A LOT! It was very humid and even when we weren't wet we felt damp. I just loved this forest!! There was a little paved road we could walk on...just wide enough for one person...you can see me standing on it.....

I took this photo because I though the ORANGE Carrot Roots of the tree were so cool!! Scott is a bit wet in this photo...isn't it neat how the ground is washed away leaving all the roots exposed?

Where's Heidi?? Can you see me?? I'm wearing green so I blend in...click on the photos to see them in full-size.

One more foggy view of El Yunque...

El Yunque Rain Forest

Scott and I had a WONDERFUL time on our 7 day Caribbean Cruise!! I have so much to share from our trip so I'll try to take time to write a little every few days until I've posted photos from all our adventures.

Starting with the day before the cruise left...we arrived early in San Juan so we could enjoy Puerto Rico a bit and do some sightseeing...Saturday we went hiking in El Yunque Rain Forest!

This is the view of San Juan from the top of the first tower we hiked to. What a lookout!


Here's Scott up top of the tower...it was a decent hike up there..needless to say Scott was a good sport about taking 'rests' so I could catch my breath!

Here is the second, smaller tower we looked out from, called Briton Tower....I'm up at the top waving but its hard to see with the light reflecting!

When we got to the top we were bummed out because it was SOO foggy and all we could see was white--not much of a lookout!! Then within a few minutes the fog just lifted and we could see all the greenery! It was beautiful. Here is a photo as the fog was lifting!