What I didn't do was check what the weather was like in Puerto Rico in September. After a very hot summer in the desert Southwest, I was already feeling ready for the cool autumn nights which had not yet made their appearance. And then we landed in San Juan, and within 5 minutes of being outside in 87 degree weather (with about the same humidity), I suspected I should have done a little more research, especially when I realized that "cooling off" at night meant that the temp would drop to 80. We spent our first afternoon there driving through and taking short hikes in the El Yunque rainforest (located just 20 minutes from our condo). The driving part was fine, but then we decided to hike to see a waterfall. The sign said it was a moderate level hike of .7 miles that would take 40 minutes each way. We laughed at that--being from Colorado the idea of .7 miles taking 40 minutes sounded ridiculous. We each carried a water bottle and set off. After hiking a fairly steep up and down path for about 25 minutes, I was completely drenched in sweat, as if I had already reached the waterfall and gone swimming there, and we were both more than half way through our water. As the heat and humidity were making me think about going native (as in: to wear nothing but a loin cloth), we decided to turn around and head back to the air-conditioned car. This is what I looked like by the time we got back:
The other thing I didn't research well enough was the phone coverage. I was told by my cell phone carrier that we would have phone coverage in Puerto Rico as it is part of the United States. But alas, when we arrived we turned on our phones, all that we saw was a horrifying "No Service" notification where the happy "Verizon 3G" should have been (I felt sooooo 20th century without it!). We did have internet at our condo, so we weren't completely out of touch. And since the point of the trip was to get away from the everyday things, that ended up not being all that bad. The worst part for me was being forced to communicate with my sons through such primitive means as emails and Facebook messages (#firstworldproblems). But it was gratifying to know that upon our return to the States and the land of cell phone coverage, they both sounded like they missed us too.
The best news of the trip, however, is that after spending 24 hours a day together for 5 days, my husband and I found out that we still love each other and like being together. Ok so we already knew that and didn't need to travel thousands of miles to a beautiful, tropical island be reminded, but it never hurts to have scientific proof.
