Good morning. It is 8:30 am on Monday 3/25. An almost balmy 26 degrees now! It is sunny and the weather app says it will pass 55 today. But, wary of black ice, I ran indoors today. I’ve exercised every day since returning from PR except for the one day I worked last week. I had some motivational issues about one day per week during the dead of winter. Despite using a “daylight” lamp and Lexapro the seasonal affective disorder is hard on me. But seeing all the people battling the blazing heat at IM PR 70.3 motivated me quite a lot. Especially 70-year-old Mark finishing at 8:32 on an 86-degree, humid, sunny day. This morning I did just a hard hour on the treadmill with intervals each mile. I did a Gatorade Sweat Test with a patch I got on sale during the winter from some online triathlon site.

Adequate salt intake was discussed a lot down in PR. I had nothing to eat or drink before this early morning run and drank just one bottle of water during the workout. I have one more of the tests and will try it again after having a pre-exercise gel and using some electrolyte/carb beverage instead of just the water. I don’t want to leave any stone unturned as planning on Florida Ironman at age 60. Maintaining my body through the long summer season of racing and training through November will require me to train SMART and not just hard. I get a massage every other week and on alternate weeks go to StretchLab for an assisted stretch session. Ideally, I would go to Yoga once per week but that is the thing that most easily falls off my schedule. I signed up for my first class in a month for today so I can write until 10 am and then will go. I do “easy” flow Yoga, not hot, not fast. I enjoy the hour of resting my mind as much as trying to correct all the stiffness in my overused running and biking muscles. My balance is not so great either but at least Yoga will keep it from getting worse as I age.

Day 4 was Monday, the post-race day for the racers and a relaxation day planned for me. I have been trying when I travel to schedule one day into the trip without any planned museums, hikes, etc. Of course, I’ll always do an early morning workout but then just a day relaxing by a pool, getting a massage, reading my Kindle in a park, a day to recover from my usually overscheduled days. I had planned to do a 13.1-mile run, the whole race course, but as I had noted it was already super hot and humid before dawn I decided 10 miles would be more reasonable. I had a tourist map of Olde Town and took it with me (I had a phone of course but easier to just peek at the map if needed).

I waited until it was almost sunrise and ran to the overlook by the transition area to get a photo.

I made a Relive 2-minute video of the run. Link below.

https://www.relive.cc/web/view/vRO7e45AGKq

I ended up only doing 8 miles. I had brought one water bottle with me (I had noted ZERO water fountains in the city, awful for the poorer citizens) but the heat and humidity were bad and my water was gone after 30 minutes. I also stopped to take over 50 photos so the run was longer time-wise than I had planned. I also wanted to get in a short swim and look for Manatees before breakfast. So… 8 miles was plenty. Here are some of the best photos if you couldn’t view the video.

It was a wonderful run. I always try to do an orientation run on my first morning in a new city and if I had just one more day in PR I would have loved to have returned and toured the insides of the fortresses and some of the art galleries and shops in the cute neighborhoods full of pastel buildings. I plan a return to PR in any case and will set aside a full day for Old Town (and bring cat treats!). There was a huge amount of security in the area I realized later was the Governor’s mansion. That night at dinner it was mentioned that the racers saw a huge motorcade during the race and it was …. Jill!

80 at 8 am! My new Garmin announced after I saved my run that after almost 4 days in PR I was only 26% adapted to the heat! If I plan to race next year I need to either spend almost a week there before the race or spend a few days at my mom’s in Boca Raton before or do a lot of training in my basement wearing sweats and without the fans. I didn’t even know it did that but the 965 is sometimes too smart! It is always suggesting rest days or that my workouts have been unproductive. When I was in high school we had to do jumping jacks in the sauna with sweats on to drop water weight for wrestling, I don’t think that would be considered “smart” at my age.

I had asked Mark if he wanted to do an easy open water swim to see fish but he wanted a full rest day, he did take a photo of me heading over towards Condado Beach from his balcony.

I walked across the bridge and although the Snorkel Tour tent wasn’t set up yet I saw Koa leashed next to a bowl (I took a selfie with him on the GoPro but none of those photos have been downloaded yet, look for them in the iMovie next week). I found Sal unloading supplies from his pickup truck and said hi and thanked him again for finding the Manatee.

I only snorkeled for an easy 30 minutes. I got some good videos of the fish along the north side of the bridge and the ones in the artificial reefs on the south side. It was much calmer and sunnier than on my previous snorkel here. I didn’t see any Manatees and didn’t have the energy to do any prolonged swimming into the lagoon to look for them. If I had seen any SUPs or Snorkelers grouped somewhere I would have joined them but no one was out.

I am back! It is 2 pm and although I usually avoid pre-season baseball I saw that Yankees-Mets is on so will multi-task for a few hours. It was an excellent Yoga class today, especially after a hard run.

After rinsing the salt water off myself and my gear I was starving and rushed down for breakfast. Of course that meant there was a very long line for the breakfast restaurant, I guess all the triathletes didn’t leave yet. I settled for Starbucks instead. The relay racer I had met the day before had asked if I would go with them today to the turtle sanctuary as they weren’t comfortable doing an open water swim alone. She preferred to use just her swim goggles (although the Hilton had a nice dive shop at their beach) but I wore my snorkel and fins (my legs needed a break). In just 3 or 4 feet of water right off the Hilton beach were plenty of beautiful fish.

I wish I had a better photo of the fish on the left. At first, I thought it was a plant but when I swam closer I saw it was a ? lionfish variety but BLUE. If lucky I might have some video of it but it was right along a breakwater wall in the dark shade. These are the only videos I downloaded already, of the area between the Hilton cove and Turtle area.

After climbing of Hilton cove and into the Turtle area we saw a few groups of snorkelers in the deeper water. The first group was clustered in one area but there was no turtle. I asked and was told by the guide that we should try a different group and when we got there…

She was very graceful and peaceful and unbothered by the dozen people looking down at her. After a little more fish viewing it was back to the Hilton beach and my well deserved lounge chair rest time. The Caribe Hilton’s beach was super family friendly, the water clear and calm, colorful fish in knee deep water, and a variety of play options for the kids. We had lunch at the outdoor restaurant next to the swim up bar area. I had left my phone in my room safe so no photos of the 2 cute cats hanging out and hoping for scraps. And no “food selfie” of my very nice Grilled Chicken Sandwich and (finally) my Caribe Hilton Pina Colada.

Jaime’s 50th birthday was last week so his parents had us over for a nice meal and party. His parent’s live in a nice gated area about a 20 minute drive from the Hilton. It reminded me of any typical Californian neighborhood.

I was so excited to spend time with Macca (he belonged to Jaime’s sister and her husband Danny). Macca is 13 and going deaf but very nice. He was like Fifa in that he spent all his time near the kitchen counter hoping for something to fall.

I asked Jaime what the Spanish word for “bat” was. Murcielago! They had a pool and we ate outdoors but the bats did a good job on insect control.

Jaime’s parents both turn 80 this year, his dad in December, based on all the effort for this small party I imagine it will be quite the event.

I’ve fallen a little behind but am hoping to get all 5 days done by Tuesday (a week after the trip ended). It is 11 am now on Sunday 3/24.

Yesterday I had a 3-hour USMS stroke seminar (only 50 minutes of actual swimming/kicking, at 90 minutes in we were all getting hypothermic so they let us do some drills in the 82 degree diving well) and then the swim team had a small happy hour afterwards. Masters swimming joke is “hey, I didn’t recognize you with your clothes on!”

The bad/sad news is that it is only 26 degrees right now (it was 15 when I walked Fifa earlier) so my friend had to cancel his bike shop’s planned ride for today. It was supposed to be 70 miles out and back with a half-way break for pancakes and syrup! Instead I did 2 hours of the Ironman Florida course on my bike trainer in the basement while watching the “Roadhouse” reboot movie on Amazon Prime. It was better than I expected and I agree with the director that it did not need to go straight to streaming. Conor McGregor was a decent actor as the villain (certainly no worse that Vin Diesel or Jason Stratham) The good news is that I have plenty of time to write.

Day 3 in San Juan was Sunday, March 17th. It was race day for Ironman PR 70.3 (a full IM is 140.6) AND St. Patrick’s Day (which did not seem to be heavily celebrated in PR). The race was scheduled to start at 6:55 am so I went downstairs at 6 am hoping to grab some food. But the restaurant wouldn’t open until 7 am (often they open the hotel restaurants extra early for marathon or Ironman racers/families, i guess not for a half-ironman) and there were over a dozen people lined up outside the Starbucks awaiting its 6am opening. I went back to my room and brewed a cup of coffee into which I put 4 sugars and 4 creamers … breakfast of champions! I threw my swim gear and a bottle of water into a bag and headed across the bridge to the swim start.

It was a half-mile run on pavement from the Swim Exit to the transition area so many people left shoes at the Swim Exit to wear for 5 minutes, but about half just ran barefoot.

It was a self-seeded rolling start for the 1.2-mile swim (no more mass starts in Triathlons like “back in the day”) and after about 15 minutes all 600 were in the lagoon. The water was pretty flat and the buoys were large and close together so everyone seemed to swim a very straight course.

While watching the swimmers I noticed that the artificial reefs were right below me and the water was so clear and calm that we could pick out individual fish (“look at the black and yellow one”, “mommy, I see a fish!”).

I crossed to the other side of the bridge after the lead swimmers passed under us and then watched them cross the channel for a short time before walking to the swim exit ramp.

I HAD to get a shot of the runners going past the Cannabis dispensary (The Green Cross!) Sadly in PR marijuana is only allowed with a prescription.

This Hall of Fame, Library, and Museum of PR sports was at the entrance of the park where the transition area was set up.

Most of the bikes were still there when I arrived. I didn’t know where Mark, Jaime, or Danny’s bikes were racked and I knew their families would be cheering them so after clapping for a few random racers I headed to the cove in the park where I had been told I could see Turtles.

I swam close to 2000 yards in 40 minutes. Even with just my swim goggles, I could see many colorful fish and there were some underwater cement columns and vases and even a bench. There was a dive shop on the shore and they did both scuba lessons and snorkel tours of the area. I swam two loops of the cove but saw no turtles. I asked some local teens swimming off the beach if they had seen any “tortugas” but they said they hadn’t. On my first loop of swimming there were still athletes running on the path towards transition that I could see while swimming near them. I got out of the water and climbed over the breakwall into the Hilton’s swim cove. It had a lot of great fish along the reef-like breakwall along the ocean. I didn’t have my GoPro so no photos. After I returned to the turtle lagoon I swam a half lap and then headed for shore; close to where I had initially started I spotted one smallish (less than 3 feet long) Green Turtle on the bottom. Two younger guys were swimming a hundred yards away so I waved and called to them “tortuga”. When they came over they were excited to see the turtle but didn’t speak Spanish as they were college kids from UK on spring break.

After all the walking and swimming I was fairly exhausted (despite my 4×4 coffee) and I looked around a palm tree shaded grassy area near the finish line for any of Jaime’s family. I assumed they would be chilling in the park all day to cheer but that wasn’t the case so no water or nutrition for me. I did climb up a small antique fortification that had a great view of the Hilton across the two coves. I guess I wore my goggles on my head a few minutes too long!

I saw an athlete with a race number in the shade and asked if they were part of a relay (there are no relay teams in full IM races and I wasn’t sure about IM 70.3s) as it seemed very early to have DNF’d. She was doing the swim and run while their friend did the bike segment. That seems like a great plan for me next year if anyone from here goes to the race again and wants to not kill themselves doing the whole thing in the BRUTAL head and humidity. Or I could even do the bike segment but would want to rent one and not fly mine all that distance.

I wanted to see Mark and Jaime transition from the bike to running but knew it would be at least 3 hours for them to do the somewhat hilly and very windy 56-mile course, so I headed back to the hotel to shower off the salt and put on some sunscreen and drink a lot of water.

I also ate a snack and then headed out to look for iguanas by the pool as I had been told they could be found there when it was sunny. They were on display as promised.

The Ironman Tracker app has improved a lot in the past few years and it does a good job of estimating when people will reach the next checkpoint or transition. It makes it much nicer for friends and family.

While I was waiting with Mark’s wife for the bikers to return I saw a runner zip by with a bicycle escort (the leading 3 men and women have cyclists escorting them) and I ran up the hill to the finish line JUST in time to get a photo of the winner crossing the finish line at exactly 11 am. Being so fast means you are relaxing in an air conditioned room while the mere mortals toil in the increasing heat for several more hours.

I positioned myself well to get good videos of Jaime and Mark heading out on the 13.1-mile run.

While they headed out onto the unforgiving heat of the run course I went back to the hotel and did a hard hour on the bike in the air-conditioned gym.

By the time I had showered and walked back to the race, Danny and Jaime had already finished. Mark was still on course though. He had suffered a flat on the bike course but as the only other 70-74 age grouper had NOT made the time cutoff for the bike, Mark was guaranteed first place in his age group if he finished.

I found a spot (in the shade) about 0.25 miles before the finish line and cheered on the last few runners going by. Even standing in the shade I could see sweat beading on my arms. The “real feel” temperature was 91. A few people were so dazed they asked me if the orange arch was the finish line even though it was VERY obviously not. It was just me standing there, no clock, no cheering fans. I was confused when I saw Jaime coming down the ramp but realized he must have gone back on course after his finish to accompany Mark.

Mark looked a little pasty after 8:30 in the heat and humidity! I told Danny to put some ice on the back of Mark’s neck. After 10 minutes he looked better and walked over for some photos with the locals.

It was 4 pm by then and although the family had planned a picnic for after the race it was a long walk (away from our hotels) to where that was scheduled so instead I just walked Mark’s bike back to his condo with Mo and then waited in the Hilton driveway for them to drop off some dinner for us. We wanted to get to the awards ceremony in the Hilton by 6 pm. I treated myself to a frosty treat while waiting

Tragically when I opened the Ironman Tracker app to send Mark’s results to some other friends it now said “no official time”. A careful reading of the rules revealed that 8:30 was the maximum allowed time and anything after that, or after 3:45 pm, was not considered a qualified time. So, not a DNF, but not a time that would qualify for winning the age group. If not for the damn flat tire Mark would have won his age group and qualified for the World Championships! Argh! He took it with much more grace than I would have. We ate our picnic dinner in Mark’s room and then I got to sleep early. I had plans for a long run in the morning and I had done a lot of walking (in addition to my swim and bike workouts).

Please subscribe (by providing your email when asked in the pop-up window or going to http://www.sailwestmac.com (my home page). Then you will get an email alert whenever I publish something. It is the same Dave2.0 password to read stuff (I noticed too many ad-Bots “subscribing” and don’t want rando Chinese or North Korean hackers reading my posts.

As this was a “tag along” vacation I had been very lazy in learning anything about PR before the trip. Usually, I do a lot of reading and planning in preparation for my travels. I often try to not just read a travel guide but load some novels featuring the location onto my Kindle. Last week I had only checked online for someplace I could go snorkeling. On TripAdvisor, I found a highly rated “Snorkel with Turtles” tour that was less than one mile from the Hilton and booked a tour for 10 am Saturday.

Although I had not gotten asleep until well after midnight I was still up at 5 am as I wanted to get a run in before breakfast and then meet Mark at the race registration site at 9 am. Later in the morning he and Jaime would drop their bikes off at the transition area and go to a race briefing.

As I was planning to run through Old Towne on my “long” Monday run I went west for my one-hour run.

As soon as I left the hotel and headed across the bridge to Condado Beach I was amazed at the huge numbers of people out running in the dark. A few were probably triathletes sneaking in a VERY short run but most were locals getting in their Saturday morning exercise. I saw several groups of runners in various clubs of different ages and fitness levels. The area I ran through (Condado) was very nice with many hotels, expensive-looking condos, restaurants, clubs, and bars.

All the hotels and condos along the North shore of Condado had no protection from the open ocean so they had just a few small beaches and very rough surf.

I heard this guy well before I saw him in front of a nice older small house tucked in amongst the bigger buildings. He had a few hens on the ground below his perch.

It had rained overnight but was just barely drizzling when I headed out and then it cleared and was sunny for a while before it started to POUR for the last 10 minutes of my run. It was refreshing at that point as the humidity was brutal and it was already 75 at 6 am. I understand why these guys don’t bother with shirts that will just sweat through after a mile.

There were a lot of nice murals and statues.

This sign on Condado Beach was a reminder that Puerto Rico suffers from earthquakes as well as hurricanes, but…. no volcanos!

The above note describes the importance of the Pineapple (Pina) to the Caribe Hilton since a bartender invented the Pina Colada there in 1954. This was the first hotel I ever stayed at where you got a wristband instead of a keycard. It opened my door or elevators and could be used to pay at restaurants and the bar by the pool. I was nervous about how it would handle all of my ocean swimming but it was fine.

The expo here was fairly small compared to a full Ironman race but had enough bike supply and run/swim pop-up stores for racers to satisfy any last minute needs.

I took a 10 minute walk across the bridge to Condado Beach and found the snorkeling tent. I was the first one of the 8 people signed up for the tour. The business’ owner was actually an anglo guy from Colorado named Sal. He told me had been in a few boring corporate jobs after college and then decided to choose happiness. He had been to San Juan once on a college spring break and decided to move back and live in paradise. He had a cute, friendly dog I got to bond with. When we came back from snorkeling she was sitting on a chair under the tent. I posted her photo on my 5 star review on Trip Advisor.

Sal gave a brief intro to our group of 8 people and then we were outfitted with flippers, snorkels (well sanitized), masks, and life-vests. I used my own mask and snorkel but used their full-size snorkeling flippers rather than the small travel flippers I take on trips. The life vest I didn’t need (and we were allowed to take them off if we wanted to dive deep) but it was nice for maintaining a relaxed body position on a long (1.5-hour) snorkel. Our guide/lifeguard was a nice local woman named Dee. The water off Condado Beach was crystal clear, 83 degrees, and very calm. The rocks on the bridge side of the beach were populated by a large variety of colorful tropical fish between 1 and 10 inches. While standing there waiting for everyone to get used to gear we saw some SQUID. I had never seen these live before. They swim with their eyes behind the direction they move.

I have NOT yet downloaded all of my GoPro photos and videos. I downloaded some to my phone each night to show to my fellow travelers and will use those in these blog entries. Later I’ll download all the others and make a 10-minute on iMovie on my Mac.

After exploring that area, which also included several artificial reef structures (cone-shaped cement pieces about 4 feet by 3 feet), we swam across the bay to the area where Sea Turtles were common. It had started to rain and get a little windier and choppier so visibility was not great but I did spot on Sea Turtle. She was swimming fast but I got a quick photo. I say she because most Sea Turtles are females and even more so lately as eggs in hotter conditions are more likely to produce a female baby (some recent studies have shown almost all turtles hatched in Florida to be female).

I think all of the Sea Turtles I saw were Green Turtles (so named for the color of their fat, from when they used to be eaten).

Be sure to have sound on for the Turtle video to get full immersive experience 🙂

We then swam from the channel under the bridge where we took a break for a few minutes (the water was shallow enough to stand). I saw a big sea cucumber and the guide picked up a sea star for people to touch.

By the number 1, there were many of the artificial reef structures. On race day the water was super flat and clear and from the bridge, you could pick out individual fish. Some of the biggest (longer than a foot) and most interesting tropical fish seemed to like to hide inside the “reefs”.

We circled the lagoon a little but saw no manatees. It was pretty windy by then and our guide said when it is choppy the manatees often prefer slightly deeper areas, although they still must surface to breathe occasionally. They can stay under for a maximum of 20 minutes but usually breathe every 5 minutes, more often if they are very active.

It was a great snorkeling outing and I would have been satisfied as I now knew where to go on other days to safely explore. After we had gotten our gear off though, Dee told me “Sal spotted a manatee”. So a few of us headed back out. I just grabbed my snorkel and mask (wished I had worn my flippers as the swim out was not that far, but after a long snorkel tour I was fairly tired and dehydrated). My one or two-hundred-yard dash was worth it though! When I reached where Sal was treading water there were a few manatees. They were soooooo HUGE. They were chomping on seagrass in an area where it was less than 10 feet deep. They were oblivious to us swimming above them or diving down for a closer look. One of them surfaced unexpectedly and I tried to avoid it but it brushed into my foot, it felt soft and smooth.

The manatees were several feet longer than an adult man. I appreciated how big they were when I had to swim way back to get a whole one into the frame of the GoPro which has a wide-angle lens so usually I have to swim way close to fish if I want a full-frame photo.

While there are 10,000 Manatees in Florida there are only 600 in Puerto Rico. The ones in PR are the same sub-species as in the rest of Central and South America (West Indian variety) while the ones in Florida are more acclimatized to the colder waters. There is also an Amazonian and a West African variety. The West Indian variety can grow to 13 feet and 3000 lbs.

again, the GoPro gets great underwater sounds…when I was in Fiji it picked up the sounds of the Parrot Fish crunching on coral.

I was confused by all the weird “appendages” on the Manatee until I realized they were remora fish that one usually sees attached to sharks. They eat scraps after a shark eats its prey and by attaching to the shark and getting a “free ride”, they don’t have to swim. I read up on the ones with Manatee and it turns out (skip rest of paragraph if weak stomach) that studies done on the remora show that the ones on the Manatees survive by eating Manatee poop. A lot of the seagrass they eat passes through only partially digested. In some of the freshwater hot springs in Florida where Manatees retreat in the cold winter months, they end up with catfish sticking to them and eating the algae off their skin.

Below is a link to an article about visiting a Manatee rehab center in PR.

https://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/manatee-center/#:~:text=Fewer%20than%20600%20manatees%20remain%20in%20the%20waters%20around%20Puerto%20Rico.

and link below if want to donate

https://manatee-conservation-center.square.site/about

Once back on land, again, I said goodbye to Koa (the dog) and gave a tip to the guide, and thanked Sal. The only thing I did not see on any of my swims was a Manta Ray. Someone else saw a small sting ray on our tour and several of the people who raced saw some Manta Rays. It was only a 10-minute walk back across the bridge to the Hilton. I took a quick shower and rinsed all my gear before heading to grab a meal. I was hungry after my running and snorkeling and had a nice piece of salmon (I guess fish can be friends AND food) and risotto along with a coconut cocktail.

After lunch, I explored the pool area. There were several pools and a sandy beach on the completely tranquil protected cove. Amazingly I did not swim in the pool at all during my whole visit as I swam once or twice a day in the open water.

There were always a few pelicans and gulls on that fence. They would always point into the strong ocean breeze. The photo on the right shows the ocean beyond the breakwater that protects the Hilton’s Cove and further, the protected Turtle Preserve area (they were separated by a breakwater but it only took a few steps over some boulders to get back and forth. Beyond the water is the park where the transition area and race finish were. It was always fairly rough in the ocean but I think if I had been there for a longer visit I would have gone for a real ocean swim one morning when the wind was not too bad. I had my tow-behind swim safety buoy so even alone it wouldn’t have been “too” risky.

After reading in the shade for a little while I tried to nap but I have never been able to fall asleep on chaise lounges so retreated to the airconditioned room for some rest before dinner. I had told Mark and Maureen that I would join them where and when they wanted as it was Mark’s pre-race meal. We found a nice Mexican restaurant just a block from their condo and overlooking the channel to Condado Beach where the swim would be. The swim buoys for the course were already in place.

On my 5 minute walk back to my hotel I saw a pair of cute cats. One scampered off but this one posed for a photo. The half-moon was oriented at 45 degrees. Up here in North America it is usually a left-right orientation (with right arriving(waxing), and left leaving(waning) as I learned from my child) but at the Equator, the moon is oriented sideways.

Good night readers, good night Fifa, good night Moon… 🙂

Hi faithful readers! I returned from PR at midnight Tuesday and ALMOST started writing my travel blog less than 24 hours later. But… the kid was home for spring break (a pleasant surprise as I thought I would completely miss their visit home) and yesterday was Fifa’s 9th birthday so … no blogging time. Alex is back in NYC now and Fifa is resting on my office couch after the extra long birthday walks and “cake” yesterday.

I had never been to Puerto Rico so I jumped at the chance to go there with a few friends who were competing in the Ironman 70.3 Puerto Rico half-Ironman race. Mark and Jaime had done the race 2 years ago (after scheduling delays for Covid pandemic cancellations). The idea of flying my bike that far for a half-Ironman race was not appealing but the idea of traveling to a new tropical destination was irresistible. I wanted to volunteer at the race but all the slots were filled when I tried to sign up; it was just as well because I was busy that day between spectating, helping out my friends, and exercising myself.

I would have spent longer in Puerto Rico but I had misunderstood and thought that BOTH Mark and his wife AND Jaime and his wife would be there for only Friday to Tuesday. Jaime and his wife (and 2 of their 4 kids) went down on Thursday and stayed a few days after we left. Four days was fine for just relaxing in the resort area of San Juan and a run around Old Towne. Next time I want to spend over a week so I get to see the inland rainforests and Vieques Island (which has a bioluminescent bay and wild horses).

It seems to me that PR has almost everything that Costa Rica offers but is closer and less complicated as it is part of the United States. I am so sad lately when I read more and more articles about how Ecuador and Costa Rica are increasingly suffering the same narco-traffic-associated violence as the rest of Central America.

Fifa is smart enough to start getting concerned when she sees luggage…

For a short trip, I was going to pack just a carry-on bag and overstuff a backpack. But as I knew that Mark would be checking his bike box, I used a larger suitcase and brought an excess amount of clothes and exercise gear, even some flippers for snorkeling, and of course one of my stylish travel hats (baseball hats just say Ugly American tourist in Europe or South America).

I woke up early to get in an hour on my bike trainer in the basement as the rest of the day would be sitting in planes and airports. While stretching afterwards I looked at my phone and saw I had gotten 3 emails from Jetblue. The first had come at 4:30 am and said our 1 pm flight to San Juan from JFK was delayed until 5 pm! Ack. But the next two emails said the delay had been shortened and our flight would be at 2:30 pm. I recently read that JetBlue has slipped to 9 out of 10 in the airline rankings for delayed and canceled flights so I guess having only 1 of my 4 flights for this trip delayed was “good” luck.

As soon as I stepped out of the Jetway at JFK a bird flew right in front of me. Although the sparrows are “cute” while hopping around looking for crumbs, I thought maybe they should make some effort to remove them when I saw one land in the water fountain and someone else noticed bird poop on a chair.

It was a 3.5-hour flight from NYC to San Juan. I had listened to an audiobook in the terminal and then read my Kindle for a short time on the plane before just resting/napping for most of the flight.

The Kindle and Audiobook were:

The audiobook was by the author of “The Alice Network” a book I had enjoyed (about British female spies in France in WW2). The Rose Code was historical fiction (based on some real characters). It is about some women (and men) who worked at Bletchley Park in England where Alan Turing and others led the efforts to decrypt Nazi messages. It was nicely read and enjoyable, I didn’t learn until the “afterword” that it was reality-based (and I had thought some of the plot was too far-fetched!!!).

The Kindle book was an enigma. It showed up from the public library waitlist and I didn’t remember at all where I had heard about it (likely from the NY Times book review or on NPR or a Goodreads.com recommendation). I see now that it was one of the nominees for “Best Sci-Fi Book of 2023”. It is about a slightly dystopic near-future world where criminals and opponents of the repressive government are “marked” and discriminated against rather than imprisoned. It was excellent. It did have a ton of graphic gay female sex scenes in it.

I assume I was like most Americans in that I had no idea exactly where PR was. I imagined it was closer to Florida. Someone this morning at swim practice asked me how big the island was and I said it was much bigger than a Virgin Island but smaller than Cuba. At about 100 by 35 miles it is the same size as Jamaica or Connecticut. It has a population of 3.5 Million; 350,000 live in San Juan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico

Below is a nice article on the political/economic situation of PR.

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/puerto-rico-us-territory-crisis#chapter-title-0-8

Longstanding anti-Hispanic racism by mainlanders is the only reason that it is not a state 130 years after being taken from Spain in 1898. Although US “citizens”, and required to be drafted if needed (as they were in great numbers for all our wars), they have no representation in Congress and don’t get to vote for President.

Traveling from the mainland USA is super easy as one just needs a driver’s license and there are no customs to deal with.

It was a little drizzly with low clouds but I got some good photos on our final approach.

The Caribe Hilton was perfectly located (and was actually the official race hotel; registration and expo were in its conference center). The Laguna was a manatee sanctuary and the cove below the “Run Out” label was a sea turtle reserve. Both areas were off-limits to motorized boats so they were dreamlike swimming and snorkeling locations and also used by SUPs and Kayaks. There were also a few other hotels adjacent to the Hilton and some Condos where people (like Mark and his wife) rented AirBnBs. The peninsula labeled “swim in” had dozens of nice hotels and shopping/dining areas.

Because our flight did not land until 5:30 instead of 4:00, when we were picked up by Jaime we went straight to dinner (at a big luxurious mall with an Apple store and random Porsches on display) instead of first checking into our hotels as had been planned. We ran into an old friend of Jaime’s in the mall and I got to pet her friendly and soft dog!

Dinner was busy with about a dozen of us at a long table, one half speaking Spanish and the other half English. It took FOREVER for our food to come (I had eaten an apple and a Clif bar before noon and it was after 7 pm already). I just wanted to be in my hotel room bed after being up since 4:30 am and all the travel.

After a (not) “quick” stop at a foodstore for the AirBnB people I was dropped at the Hilton at 11pm. My room was very nice and had an amazing view!

I could hear the crashing waves with my patio door open and also the peeps and chirps of the Coqui tree frogs that called from dusk to dawn. I saw one or two quickly hop off of paths into the bushes on early morning runs but never saw any on leaves for a photo. Jaime told us that they are only found in PR (and in Hawaii where some were inadvertently imported and became invasive)

After my week in Honduras 🇭🇳 I had scheduled a few days in Boca with my Mom. If I had known in advance about Roatan I think I would have gone there for a few days of snorkeling and beach relaxation.

It is one of Honduras’ bay islands and an actual Caribbean resort, safe to visit unlike the mainland.

As I knew that on the mission I would be restricted to the NPH ranch property I wanted a few days of beach and pool and recovery time before heading all the way North to home.

I was not coughing as much by Sunday morning but still had a sore throat and sinus congestion. I slept past 7am which was very late for me (even with the one hour time shift).

I went on an hour run (definitely slowed by my cold) and then a refreshing cooldown swim in the nice 80 degree water. I had forgotten my goggles but the pool is “salt water” so very low chemical levels. I stretched afterwards for 20 minutes and listened to the Chelsea soccer match.

I took a lot of wildlife photos on the run.

I saw a Florida Xmas display and then a block away a Hanukah one. Didn’t see any Hamas flags… 😉

On the run I was listening to the end of the book about Honduras.

Just as I was glad I had not gotten to the part of the book about the snakes until after my Boa encounter, I was glad not to have heard earlier about Leishmaniasis, that most of the expedition members came down with weeks to months after the trip.

Don’t bother to read the Wiki link if u are squeamish but it is a disease caused by sandfly bites that occurs worldwide in tropical climates (and is advancing into USA with global warming). It is treated with the very toxic Amphotericin B.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leishmaniasis

Luckily the bites I had gotten on both ankles one day despite DEET and socks…. While still present in Boca would go away before I got back home.

I did some blogging about Honduras but then was so tired that I ended up napping for a hours before dinner.

My late father’s first Cousin Harvey and his wife Sandy joined my mom and me at the Boca Pointe clubhouse.

I was very happy to get the Matzo Ball Chicken soup… better than any antibiotics for my cold! Even though we got great desserts at “Deli night” my mom put out a full dessert table back at her home. I showed my “best of” Honduras photos. It was hard on my sore throat to narrate though.

Another beautiful sunrise in Boca. I slept a little late again but still got over to my Uncles’ apartment on the beach by 8:30am for a planned long ocean swim.

It was much calmer than my pre-Honduras swim when there were surfers enjoying the big waves and heavy wind made it choppy even out past the breaks.

Despite still being a little sickly (occasionally coughing up stuff) I swam so much faster in the flat water.

After the swim I hung out with my Uncles for a while and enjoyed paradise.

On the way back to Boca Pointe I mailed some Honduras postcards to some younger relatives and the neighbors kids (I learned my lesson after the Fiji ones took 3 weeks to arrive). I also filled my mom’s car with gas and got it washed, have to maintain my favorite son status 😉

Dinner was at a very nice Asian place.

I took it easy Tuesday and just did 4 miles and then a half hour of Yoga and core while enjoying my audiobook and the nice view.

I spent the day relaxing, blogging, and reading my Kindle while my mom played in a golf tournament. At 82 She golfs 4 days a week, she retired from Tennis 6 or 7 years ago when her shoulder and elbow couldn’t handle it anymore. She still travels a lot. She went to Egypt and Malta this year and off to Alaska next summer.

I finally finished Demon Copperhead and started a book by a Finnish writer I had heard good things about.

I liked Demon Copperhead and can see why it won the Pulitzer Prize.

Dinner (it is all about Dinner in Boca) was at a nice waterfront (lake) Greek restaurant. I got the grilled eggplant. After being almost vegetarian in Honduras I think that I will have no problem moving from just “no mammals” to full Pescatarian after IronMan Florida in November.

Here are my mom and her brother Stephen and his husband Richard.

Wednesday I had to leave for the airport at 11:30am but I had time for a short morning swim and then a nice brunch with mom.

It started raining so time to leave Florida …. 🙂

At the airport I got this awesome selfie!

And did some blogging before the flight.