puerto rico - part 1
Apr. 20th, 2008 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swingchickiecaveat to anyone who's interested in my vacation recap: you're not going to see photos of us being all wacky and on-the-go. no shots of us kayaking, hiking, parasailing... this vacation was all about hanging out at a gorgeous resort, enjoying the sun and eating good food and napping as much as we darn well wanted. and it was glorious.
day one
our flight out on sunday was an early one... we wanted to maximize our time away, so we opted to get up at crack-thirty and sleep on the flight over. (of course, for me it's never "sleep on the flight"... even with my handy-dandy new anti-afraid-of-flying meds, i still had some moments where i was gripping my armrests. sigh.)
shot of puerto rico as we neared the airport
we touched down at noon, and because our hotel was near the airport, we were sitting at one of the poolside bars by 1pm. heaven. the pool area was teeming with people, everyone trying to get in their last rays before they headed home to start the workweek... but we still managed to get a couple of lounge chairs and an umbrella by tipping a pool steward. the resort had 3 pools -- one right at the back entrance to the hotel (the biggest one), and two others out by the beach. the whole area was beautifully landscaped with palm trees and tropical plants, and there were all sorts of seating choices: lounge chairs, pods, canopy beds.
view of the main pool from the bar (note the cool little tables right in the pool, so you can eat lunch or have a drink while you cool off)
we nicknamed these the "skillets"... besides their round shape, they were right out in the sun for anyone who wanted to fry themselves. they should have come with a stick of butter to spread on yourself before you laid down.
one of the "pods"
another area for people to fry themselves... a deck with beds laid out on the ground
the "panini press", one of the skillets with a shade over it that didn't do much to protect you
canopy beds around one of the outer pools
after a few hours by the pool, we napped and had a really nice dinner at the hotel's italian restaurant (all the restaurant staff were actually from italy, which was very cool). by 11pm we were passed out for the night.
day two
before our trip, jack and i had looked up reviews of our resort online, and one recurring theme had been "it's impossible to get a lounge chair by the pool, everyone gets up at 7am and puts their towels down". so when we woke up at 7:30 monday morning, we bolted out of bed, threw on our suits, and ran down to the pool area. we were the only people there, and every chair was wide open. huh. we walked back inside, hit one of the starbucks (there were two!) for coffee and breakfast (jack got a mallorca -- a panini sandwich that was basically grilled ham and cheese, sprinkled with powdered sugar... yum), and then parked ourselves on two loungers to have breakfast and read. as the morning rolled on, maybe 4 or 5 others came out to the pool... but it was not the scene of mayhem we'd expected. we found out later it was a pretty slow week at the resort in general (note to self: always schedule a vacay during tax week!), but on that day in particular there was another factor: rain. around 9:30am, a very fine mist started falling from the sky... we stayed put, figuring it would blow over in a few minutes. it did. but then a slightly bigger rainfall started... and stopped. and then a harder one... which stopped. we kept abandoning our chairs and taking cover, then going back out when the sun broke through... only to run back under cover again. there was a pair of women across the pool from us who were hardier than us, they just covered themselves with their towels and got drenched:
barely drizzling
full-on rain
i can brave it! really i can! the sun will be out at any moment!
we finally gave up around 11am, as the heavens opened and it just poured. luckily, the bar opens at 11, so we and the other rain-soaked suckers sat under the bar's canopy and drank pina coladas.
happy second day in PR!
the rain
after lunch at the pool bar, we went up to the rooftop spa. we'd pre-booked 80-minute massages for ourselves, and i was especially looking forward to mine: a 4-hand swedish one. i quickly learned, however, that a 4-hand massage is not for the modest -- normally during a massage, the only exposed skin is what's being worked on... so if the person is rubbing your right leg, your left leg and everything else is covered. with a 4-hand one, since there are 2 people working on you at once, that means that both your left and right leg are exposed. which means that, lying on your stomach, you basically just have a teeny hand towel going up your butt, and everything else is out there getting prodded and jiggled. urk. i have to say though, that getting your ears and scalp massaged for 20 minutes while a second person rubs your feet, is probably as close to heaven as i've ever come. wowza yowza.
we vegged for a while after, and went downstairs at 6:30 for dinner in the hotel's "modern caribbean" restaurant. just like the night before at the italian place, we were the first ones in there, and the rest of the diners didn't start showing up for about another hour. we felt like complete losers -- "woo-hoo! let's have dinner ealry, and fall asleep by 10!" but heck, we were well-fed and well-rested, right? anyway, the caribbean place was INSANELY good, we were actually pissed that we were full because we wanted to keep trying small plates on the menu. instead we rolled out of the restaurant and walked over to the little casino, where jack won $50 at the penny slots... considering it a successful night, we went back to the room and were snoring by 10 again. :)
the gorgeous caribbean restaurant... i totally want to do this fabric and lamp thing with the pergula on my deck!
happy after a couple of pineapple mojitos
part 2 in a separate post...
day one
our flight out on sunday was an early one... we wanted to maximize our time away, so we opted to get up at crack-thirty and sleep on the flight over. (of course, for me it's never "sleep on the flight"... even with my handy-dandy new anti-afraid-of-flying meds, i still had some moments where i was gripping my armrests. sigh.)
shot of puerto rico as we neared the airport
we touched down at noon, and because our hotel was near the airport, we were sitting at one of the poolside bars by 1pm. heaven. the pool area was teeming with people, everyone trying to get in their last rays before they headed home to start the workweek... but we still managed to get a couple of lounge chairs and an umbrella by tipping a pool steward. the resort had 3 pools -- one right at the back entrance to the hotel (the biggest one), and two others out by the beach. the whole area was beautifully landscaped with palm trees and tropical plants, and there were all sorts of seating choices: lounge chairs, pods, canopy beds.
view of the main pool from the bar (note the cool little tables right in the pool, so you can eat lunch or have a drink while you cool off)
we nicknamed these the "skillets"... besides their round shape, they were right out in the sun for anyone who wanted to fry themselves. they should have come with a stick of butter to spread on yourself before you laid down.
one of the "pods"
another area for people to fry themselves... a deck with beds laid out on the ground
the "panini press", one of the skillets with a shade over it that didn't do much to protect you
canopy beds around one of the outer pools
after a few hours by the pool, we napped and had a really nice dinner at the hotel's italian restaurant (all the restaurant staff were actually from italy, which was very cool). by 11pm we were passed out for the night.
day two
before our trip, jack and i had looked up reviews of our resort online, and one recurring theme had been "it's impossible to get a lounge chair by the pool, everyone gets up at 7am and puts their towels down". so when we woke up at 7:30 monday morning, we bolted out of bed, threw on our suits, and ran down to the pool area. we were the only people there, and every chair was wide open. huh. we walked back inside, hit one of the starbucks (there were two!) for coffee and breakfast (jack got a mallorca -- a panini sandwich that was basically grilled ham and cheese, sprinkled with powdered sugar... yum), and then parked ourselves on two loungers to have breakfast and read. as the morning rolled on, maybe 4 or 5 others came out to the pool... but it was not the scene of mayhem we'd expected. we found out later it was a pretty slow week at the resort in general (note to self: always schedule a vacay during tax week!), but on that day in particular there was another factor: rain. around 9:30am, a very fine mist started falling from the sky... we stayed put, figuring it would blow over in a few minutes. it did. but then a slightly bigger rainfall started... and stopped. and then a harder one... which stopped. we kept abandoning our chairs and taking cover, then going back out when the sun broke through... only to run back under cover again. there was a pair of women across the pool from us who were hardier than us, they just covered themselves with their towels and got drenched:
barely drizzling
full-on rain
i can brave it! really i can! the sun will be out at any moment!
we finally gave up around 11am, as the heavens opened and it just poured. luckily, the bar opens at 11, so we and the other rain-soaked suckers sat under the bar's canopy and drank pina coladas.
happy second day in PR!
the rain
after lunch at the pool bar, we went up to the rooftop spa. we'd pre-booked 80-minute massages for ourselves, and i was especially looking forward to mine: a 4-hand swedish one. i quickly learned, however, that a 4-hand massage is not for the modest -- normally during a massage, the only exposed skin is what's being worked on... so if the person is rubbing your right leg, your left leg and everything else is covered. with a 4-hand one, since there are 2 people working on you at once, that means that both your left and right leg are exposed. which means that, lying on your stomach, you basically just have a teeny hand towel going up your butt, and everything else is out there getting prodded and jiggled. urk. i have to say though, that getting your ears and scalp massaged for 20 minutes while a second person rubs your feet, is probably as close to heaven as i've ever come. wowza yowza.
we vegged for a while after, and went downstairs at 6:30 for dinner in the hotel's "modern caribbean" restaurant. just like the night before at the italian place, we were the first ones in there, and the rest of the diners didn't start showing up for about another hour. we felt like complete losers -- "woo-hoo! let's have dinner ealry, and fall asleep by 10!" but heck, we were well-fed and well-rested, right? anyway, the caribbean place was INSANELY good, we were actually pissed that we were full because we wanted to keep trying small plates on the menu. instead we rolled out of the restaurant and walked over to the little casino, where jack won $50 at the penny slots... considering it a successful night, we went back to the room and were snoring by 10 again. :)
the gorgeous caribbean restaurant... i totally want to do this fabric and lamp thing with the pergula on my deck!
happy after a couple of pineapple mojitos
part 2 in a separate post...
