Trip Down in the Caribbean (Part 1)

... Puerto Rico to be specific.

Now for all of you who don't know, I was born in Puerto Rico and lived there 'til I was six years old. Though I've lived here (Ashburn) for over ten years, me and my family like to visit back "home" every so often. So this is a short recounting, a summary even, of the shenanigans that went down in the beautiful paradise of PR.

For the most part I'll be using this (my sister's telling of the trip) to help me in remembering things that happened, so feel free to skim it beforehand or whatever.

Saturday: So, this is the first day of the trip, the one that involves a lot of traveling, and thus we had to get up... early. How early? Well somewhere around 5AM. Thing is that I had arrived back home around midnight, after one of me and my friends' "night drives," and then had to begin the arduous task of packing. If you knew me, you'd know that my awesome procrastination usually tells me to do one thing over work always: sleep. Basically, I tried to pack, but gave up after gathering the required items (it was only a week, so not too bad). In the end I slept round 1:30 and set my alarm for 5... but not. At 5:30 my dad was yelling at me to wake up.

Fun, fun. Rushed packing and then heading over to the airport for an 8AM flight is a great way to start any morning. Mmm, boring details ensued and four hours later we found ourselves in Puerto Rico. However, after sitting by the least entertainig rotating object (otherwise known as the baggage claim) for about an hour, I realized that we had lost something. Namely my suitcase. Now, I don't mean to criticize US Airways, but how do you lose a suitcase in a non-stop, direct flight? I have no clue and, apparently, neither did their representative... great way to start things.

Mmm, so we left and drove through the ridiculous PR traffic over to my grandma's (who, as my sister tells, is an awesome cook) house. I love my grandma to death, but visiting her house is boring to no ends. It's mostly due to the fact that all my friends who used to live around there have already moved away, and that there is literally nothing to do ('cept eat of course). Eventually, we set out to where we were staying: Casa Picaflores. Now this was one hell of a trip. First we drove down the eastern side of PR and began to head into the rainforest. These are, of course, the best streets on the whole island. They're poorly, if even, paved, at times covered in inches of water, about the width of two small European cars, and filled with the worst drivers in the world. Sweet!

Yes, we lived. Unlike my sister I don't get dizzy--I rather enjoy crazy roads--so when we finally got there I was slightly disappointed... Oh, so besides the tarantula, the rest of the day was quite uneventful.

I'll talk about the actual house and such on the next update, so just stick around.. or something!