From west to east

Time is flying and we like this country more and more every day. There is something about latinos... Incredibly friendly people, warm and generous. 

After a week with fantastic beaches, waterfall hikes and hanging in the pool (Alma referred to the swimming pool as the small pool and the sea as the big pool) in Rincon it was time to move on to Ponce, the pearl of the south. I will miss falling asleep to the sound of the waves for a very long time still though.

Ponce has some really cool colonial architecture - some buildings had a very good face lift, others just had a broken facade left and were clearly going to be almost impossible to restore. Fascinating none the less. In Ponce we managed to slow down on the tempo in a very non-Justus-and-Anna-on-vacation-way. Like hanging three hours on a small farmer's market and sitting on a chair by the side walk a whole afternoon. Having three small children and about 30 degrees with a blazing sun of course contributes to this behaviour...

We did not just hang by the side walk to discuss politics with the strangers sitting next to us, but also to watch the oldest carnaval in the southern hemisphere!!! I must say that the costumes were more breathtaking in the Canarias, but here the loudspeakers were bigger.

A few words about the food as well... It is good. Today Kiara had lobster for the first time in her almost 6 months old life. She liked it. Her older sisters didn't. As Alma's most common comment to food is "äckligt. Jag vill ha blodpudding med poratisbullar och lingonsylt (standardmåndagsmaten på dagis)" and she sits still for approx. 47 sec, Kiara's windmill arms already have made both plates and cutlery fly, Junia and Alma in average turns one glass/bottle over per meal we have mainly had dinner at home. But the lunches out have been great! It has either been super healthy, organic yoga-ishy - or (in 9 out of 10 times) rather greasy, egg and oil based. Fantastic fresh fruit juices anyhow and I have tried a few new fruits.

Today we took the ferry over to the little island Vieques where we will spend the next four nights. Wild horses roam around here, otherwise we've mainly seen massive iguanas and a pet baby boa when it comes to fauna.

Puerto Rico - finalmente

We are in Puerto Rico! One year later than first planned due to the not so suitable zika - pregnancy match, but when waiting for something good... 

The trip went fantastic, even if Justus couldn't really exhale until we had landed due to our previous Esta history. No 0/O confusion this time, so we could use the original tickets, the girls slept part of the flight and I even managed to see 3 - THREE - movies! Even liked Norwegian's food.

We have now settled in our beach apartment in Rincon, on the west side of this lovely island. This is a laid back surfers place, even if Alma and Junia find the waves a little too big so they prefer the pool (even if they've done some body boarding). 

View from our window

Today we spent the day on the boat and in the water with the family we are home exchanging with, and went to some beautiful cayos, mangrove islands with small channels and shallow turquoise waters. Fantastic! It was not only a beautiful experience nature wise, but also a quite unique cultural experience. These Sunday gathering at these cayos with boats, jetskis and cayaks had certain simularities with Swedish raggar gatherings. I have never in my life seen so massive loudspeakers, and the reggeton volume was on club level. Then people were floating around with coctails in one hand, and some kind on floating device in the other... Relaxed! 

So far we can only say that we have found our favourite place in the US...

Breakfast cereal - we use it as dessert.