PR2: Day 6: We do stuff!

2 hours ago, we got kicked out of the rainforest.

1 hour ago, I took the best picture of my life.

Now, I'm in the starbucks right next to my favorite hotel.

Tomorrow I'll fill in the details.

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We're pretty slow at everything. The plan today was to go to El Yunque, go to a restaurant or something in Old San Juan.

After a few cryptic emails to my folks at home I had new credit card info, and when I handed this to the woman behind the counter she handed me the keys to my Grand Prix! Woo! But when I got on the road I found it less powerful than expected... When we went to pick Amy's friend I popped the hood and found it had the 4 cylinder from the Grand Am in it. In America (Amy hates it when I say "In America,...") the Grand Prix has a v6 in it. I still have a third a liter on the Yaris though, so I think it is an upgrade...

We picked up another friend, finally got on the road, and hustled our way across the island. Once we got near the park we were overcome by hunger and finally got breakfast at Wendy's. At 4:30. We can be slow at anything. We finally got to the jungle at 6:02. The visitor center closes at 6. The ranger station closes at 6. We followed the signs to the falls to find out they close at 6. But the gate was open, so...

The falls were pretty cool! Maybe 75 feet down a cliff face, surrounded by massive trees taller than they should be. I scrambled up the rocks to the falls because, you know, I could. That was half my Yunque goal! The second half was to find some giant snails. As we walked up the road, past some giant 8" bamboo, we found three of 'em just chilling on the guardrail. They were easily 2" across, and the one pair of them couldn't be bothered. I took a few pictures adjusting settings and you can see them briefly look towards the camera and resume chilling.


Then the rangers showed up and told us we had to leave. They locked up the gate behind us and we headed back to San Juan after checking an overview or two. The girls didn't know what they wanted to do, so I decided it was time to visit my favorite hotel! We got out to the decaying boardwalk that overlooks the rock the and the girls (in sandals) decided it was probably not their night to climb. I (in sandals) borrowed a cell phone and set off scrambling across the rocks.

There was one advantage to not having the girls with me: Instead of stumbling over the rubble filling the first floor I scaled a window-grate, walked across a sketchy roof, and navigated the simpler cleaner second floor to the stairwell. From there it was 12 flights of stairs to fantastic views on the roof, made even more stunning by the darkness that also made me nigh-invisible, allowing pictures from closer to the edge.

I borrowed a trick from an old exploring partner and shrunk the aperture to a pinhole. This forces a longer exposure while bringing more things into focus, which combined with the lens I borrowed from Jeremy gave me the aforementioned awesome picture (at the bottom of this post).

I found a chair 10 floors up overlooking the sea, walked out on a balcony, and headed down before my ground-crew could start to worry. I checked in with them (in Starbucks), got some quarters to recharge the parking meter (which was expiring as I did so) and set off, leaving them in Starbucks. Out on the street, i felt like running, so I ran the first mile. Then I grabbed a beer at a convenience store and walked to the car and back to Starbucks, pretending not to drink in public.

We talked until Starbucks closed, then Amy called up her ex-roommate who was getting out of work and we made plans to meet and go to a restaurant. On our way back, I slid my car key into the cell-phone pocket on my back pack's strap while stepping into a puddle. The filthy water made me forget everything else I was doing, and 5 minutes later I realized my keys weren't in any of my pockets. We retraced the last half-mile looking for the key. After I checked every pocket on my clothes and on the back of the pack I gave it to Amy to check. As she looked through it a feeling of horrified relief washed over me as everything clicked when I saw the lone pocket on the other side of the pack.

In the end it worked out, we got to the car the same time Amy's friend arrived in Condado, so we just followed him and his girlfriend into Old San Juan and to a bar with amazing chicken quesadillas.

After the bar, a live band, and phone-calculator bill-splitting we headed home, so I'll end with a conversation we overheard heading back to the cars:

Girl: I can't make out with you, you don't even know my name.
Boy: Of course I do, It's Jessica.
Girl turns to her girl-friend: Is that the one I told him?
Boy: WHAT?