Puerto Rico, la isla encanto

For the week of July 24-31st, Francisco and I spent our time visiting Puerto Rico.  I was able to meet his family and see the place he calls home.  It was an amazing time.  I am not going to lie though, it was very hot and I sweated more than I think I have ever in my life :-P  But his family was so nice and even with the slight language barrier they were so accommodating, especially his mom.
We didn't have a car during the visit because of a slight issue with the rental company so we relied on his family for rides but like any other family they were busy so we relaxed a lot and enjoyed our time off from work.  We did get to visit 2 other towns on our visit and enjoyed some time on the beach.  I had fun, and it was good for Francisco to see his family.

Here are some random pictures from my first few days.

First view of Puerto Rico from the sky!

WOW and I thought milk was expensive in Florida! $5.58 for a gallon! 

My hair naturally dried like this in Puerto Rico.  I love it! But it was too hot to ever leave my hair down for any time of day.

Anyone that knows me knows about my addiction to Starbucks.  

It is in Spanish. But it was hard to capture everything. 

On our 3rd day his niece, nephew, Francisco, I, drove 1.5hr to Ponce.  This is the city that Francisco grew up in.  I saw his old home and his schools that he attended.  We spent the majority of the time in the heart of the city.

To drive from Baymon (where his mom lives) to Ponce we had to drive through the mountains. Beautiful.

Puerto Rican icecream.  (it has a name but I forgot) It had a different texture.  But the ice cream starts out flavorless until you order and then they mix the real ingredient.  Mine was chocolate.  

In front of Ponce City Hall

A famous house..I thought it was really pretty.  Ponce has a strong Spanish influence especially in their architecture. 

A historic firehouse building.  Parque de Bombas is translated to mean park of the pumps.

A church.  I just thought it looked very pretty

These lion statues where everywhere downtown.  They were also painted all different colors.  If you look closely in the background to the right you can see another lion painted blue and green.

Cruceta del Vigia.  This cross is on top of the hill in Ponce so you can see the whole city if you ride the elevator up.  But we didn't pay to go in it instead we took pictures :)

The view from the ground next to the cross.  Awesome huh?

Para: That means stop :)

We walked on the boardwalk and saw these HUGE fish.  I don't know what kind they were but they were at least 4ft long some may have even been longer!

The beach by the board walk in Ponce

This was different.  So in Puerto Rico, companies own the buses and they decorate them like this and put subwoofers in the back and turn the music up!  These are the buses they use for picking kids up for school or field trips! It even had flashing lights but thats hard to capture in a picture :P

 Canapes. These look like grapes but they have a pit in the inside and you have to bite the skin and suck the meat off the seed.  It was really different and I didn't like them that much but it was something new to try!