Sleepwalking in Puerto Rico

All babies don’t sleep all night. F has done it twice in her 8 month old life. Which is fine – because she has always fallen asleep again quickly after a pat or two on the back or a little to drink – in give or take a few minutes. The past three weeks this has changed to give or take a couple of hours. Especially the hours between 04 and 06 seem to be the preferred awake hour. This is driving us somewhat crazy – so we are glad we are living the comfy life because we can live it practically sleep walking.

And I am proud to say that we’ve actually been able to stay quite active!

First – we both did a night kayak tour in the bioluminescent bay La Laguna Grande. This is a bay where small organisms glow when there is movement in the water. So when you put your hand in the water it looks like a 3D glowing sci fi-arm. Same with the paddles and the kayak. And you can see the fish hunting in the water because they make glowing trails when they move quickly. Getting to the bay is done by kayaking for about 30 minutes through a channel in the mangrove rainforest – in pitch black darkness. It was immensely cool!  

Didn’t bring the camera so this pic is stolen from someone else…

We’ve also visited the “famous” rainforest El Yunque. Well, we have now seen quite a few rainforests so we were not very impressed. But- this is the first one which is really touristy. This is good in the way that you find handrails and paths and shelter when rain falls, but also that you find a few other things like a million tourists and snack shops.

First the nice stuff:

Biggest differences from the other islands are traffic and road signs! In Puerto Rico they actually need to tell you that the road will turn…

E swimming the the rainforest river (almost – she thought it was too cold) and a tired dad…

And the not-so-rain forest – like stuff:

Would you like that snack fried or fried?

The reason the car dash board is showing in the picture is that B thought it was so embarrassing that he did not want to get out of the car…

And today B took a surfing lesson. He came home very surprised of all the upper body muscles he did not know he had. But the surf-boy gave him the best grade for a first-timer and he can proudly say he rode a few waves. Then we joined at the beach:

Energetic kids and tired parent

Puerto Rican parents would not dream of letting their child crawl in the sand (they would bring the play-pen to the beach so the kid would not touch sand) – so they watch us and laugh.

Happiest girl with very smooth new-peeled skin

We’ve also been eating – or not. This one was the worst thing I have ever tasted:

Burrito filled with “chicken” (read: dog food) and covered in “cheese”. It will haunt me at night.

So after this “meal” – we had to stop to buy me some more food

Yeah, and I am in the back seat entertaining screaming kids

Last but not least we’ve visited the beach just below the house which is a nature reserve where a river ends in the ocean. Just look at the beauty

Energetic kids and tired parent, take II.

So we drink coffee, do lots of sightseeing and love each other as much as possible to get through the sleep deprivation – luckily we know it will pass…