In February of 2020, I was really looking forward to our Spring Break cruise. We were going with three other families. We were hitting a bunch of Caribbean islands we had never been to. And I wanted to be warm. Then March 11, 2020, everything shut down, and the cruise was canceled. In February 2021 we weren’t really comfortable yet going on a trip to an area that might be crowded, so we spent Spring Break at home. But this year, we made it to the Caribbean. Ellie is a senior, and the mom of one of her friends organized a trip to the San Juan, Puerto Rico, area. Specifically, at and around the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar just outside of San Juan.

We booked months and months ago, and when we booked the email list contained only about ten names. By the time the trip arrived there were three dozen seniors from Ellie’s school, and a lot of their families. I know this is a trip that Ellie will never forget. [When I was in high school I went to the inauguration of George H. W. Bush with seven other seniors — one room of girls, one of boys. Maybe I’ll write about that some other time, but suffice it to say it was unforgettable]. Because a whole lot of the trip was spent poolside, I’m not going to do day-by-day posts. I’ll just hit the highlights

The Trip Down

Our flight out didn’t leave until 3:30 in the afternoon, so Madeline attended dance classes in the morning, and we had plenty of time to get ready. Our dog trainers, Chandler and Emily, picked up Georgia mid-morning. She loves them so much and hadn’t seen them in a long time! When I put her food and pills in a plastic bag by the front door, she knew what was happening and didn’t leave the foyer until they arrived. When they were walking up the sidewalk she barked happily, telling them to hurry up! And, when they had her leash and we were talking, she kept her nose pressed against the front door and then started whining. She wanted to go! It’s so great to know they take such good care of her.

The flights down were, fortunately, uneventful. We arrived in San Juan around 11 pm, and then had a long wait for our bags. I’m always relieved when we arrive at a place and our bags have made it with us. A couple days before the trip we had reserved a rental car, and that pickup went smoothly. It was probably 1 am when we checked in at the hotel, and we all crashed.

The Resort

The Wyndham Rio Mar is really nice. Two towers of rooms, probably 2500 or so total rooms. There are three pools, which we dubbed the Fun Pool, the Chill Pool, and the Quiet Pool. We spent most of our time at the Fun Pool. The resort had some volleyballs and a net, basketballs and goals, and a football that all lived at the Fun Pool. Madeline and I threw every one of them, to the point where my arms hurt many times. There were ample chairs, although finding a chair in the shade was not always possible. The last day, we rented a cabana, which was nice for providing constant shade. One night we swam for a couple hours after dark, which was a whole different experience.

The Chill Pool was Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville themed, and it had a swim-up bar. Madeline had never seen one of those before, and she thought it was very cool.

There were three indoor restaurants, two outdoor restaurants, a coffee shop, a couple bars, and a carry out restaurant at the hotel. There were other restaurants at the golf course Clubhouse, but we didn’t try those. The food was usually good, occasionally great. We ate at the breakfast buffet twice and got room service once. We hit the coffee shop every morning. Eventually, we got tired of eating at a restaurant every meal, and also the menus at each restaurant were pretty limited. Since we had a car, Andy went to a grocery store early in the week, and we had turkey sandwiches for lunch the last day.

One night when Madeline just wanted to hang out in the room, Andy and I went to the Caicu bar, in the main lobby. I had steak and frites, which were really just fingerling potatoes in butter. Instead of dessert, we split a really nice rum flight.

Overall, I would say the resort was nice but has seen better days. The inside and pool areas were very clean and well-kept, but the sidewalks had many cracks, and there were other signs of wear.

Wildlife

The hotel is literally right on the edge of the rainforest. Our balcony looked out onto the rainforest, and at night there were so many sounds coming from it! It was magical. I was hoping to see more wildlife than we did, but the thing we did see were lots of reptiles. My favorite was a three-foot long iguana I started calling Skippy. Skippy hung out by the pool near our beach chairs the first day. Then another day, we saw him climb a tree, perch on a palm leaf, and sun himself. He seemed very friendly! We also saw some non-wild dogs who were hotel guests. And at one outdoor restaurant outside of the resort, there were a bunch of cute stray cats. But no monkeys or other exotic mammals.

We had not really researched the area at all before our trip, so we didn’t know that you needed reservations to go into El Yunque (pronounced jun-kay) rainforest national park. After we arrived Andy read that they released some reservations every day at 11, and on Sunday morning he asked our breakfast server if that was correct. She told us that there was a trail, Angelito, that went through El Yunque and didn’t require entering through the park entrance. She gave us general directions. We visited that Wednesday and had a nice little hike down to the river, where the girls swam and Andy and I waded. I finally got to use the water shoes I bought for Spring Break 2020!

The Room

Our room had two double beds. I don’t think two kings or two queens was an option, or I would have booked them! Early in the week Andy and I kept kicking each other. I often woke up with tight shoulders because I was trying to make myself small all night. We slept many hours each night, but the quality of sleep was not great.

We had a nice big bathroom and a decent sized balcony. Pretty much ever day I would throw a few wet things over the balcony table or chairs to dry. One day I hand-washed socks in the sink, and I accidentally left them on the balcony overnight. When I went out in the morning, one sock was missing, as well as a headband I’d put out. I looked over the balcony, and sure enough they’d blown off, onto the pavement below at the entrance to the valet parking garage. Madeline and I went down and got them, and both were fine.

We had some problems with the lock to our room door when we first arrived. The hotel sent a maintenance/security guy who worked on it, but our keys still didn’t work. Andy replaced the keys, but we still had some troubles for another day or so. Eventually, though, things started working for no apparent reason.

Exercising

Exercising was not easy at the resort. On Sundays I usually do some hand weights and mat work, so Madeline and I went to the workout room. It was gross and humid. But mostly gross. The walls could have really used a fresh coat of paint, and the lighting needed to be totally updated. Madeline left after about ten minutes. I finished my workout but knew I would never go back.

When we first arrived I got a ”running trails” map, but it was extremely hard to follow. We finally figured it out on our last day. We tried to run along the beach Monday, but Madeline’s stomach was upset and we had to cut it short. Tuesday Andy and I ran without her, and we unfortunately ended up on the main road, which was a little too busy and sunny to be good. Wednesday we ran along the beach with Madeline. Friday we finally found the 2.5-mile trail. We walked the last half, though, because Madeline’s stomach was hurting again. It hurt on and off all week, which was a little concerning but didn’t keep her down.

Old San Juan

Andy went to Old San Juan twice, once with Ellie, and once with Madeline and me. It’s a neat area, with narrow streets that actually reminded us of some of the old towns we saw in Europe. Andy and Ellie walked around and visited San Felipe del Morro castle/fort. Andy, Madeline, and I visited the other fort, Castillo de San Cristóbal, plus an old church. We did some shopping, and Madeline got a really cute white dress she used as a swim cover-up the rest of the trip. There is a cruise ship terminal in the old town, and there was a giant Carnival ship in port when we got there, so the whole area was filled with cruise ship tourists. There were a lot of vendors just set up on the sidewalk, and M got a henna tattoo from one. It was a really cool elephant, and the guy doing the tattoos was quite good. We also got real piraguas, from a man who had a big block of ice that he shaved to make ours. I don’t love the syrup, but I’m glad we got to try piraguas the right way.

My biggest complaint about Old San Juan is that it was really hard to find a bathroom! We all had to go when we parked there, because the drive from the resort took over an hour. We tried to get into the post office but couldn’t. The post office security guard sent us to a building across the street, but that security guard wouldn’t let us in. Another lady sent us to the next pier, but once we got there we were told to go back to the pier where we started. Eventually, we just went to Starbucks. We didn’t buy anything, but I figure all the times I bought Starbucks and didn’t use the bathroom meant we could use that one without worrying about it.

I really enjoyed touring the old fort. There are actually two on the island, within walking distance of one another. I learned that Puerto Rico was a very important island when the main way to get from Europe to the Americas was by ship. Because of its location and the winds, most ships stopped at San Juan on their way from Europe to the new world. They would be ready to take on fresh water and food, and so they usually stopped here. Because of its strategic location, other countries were always trying to take the island away from the Spanish. The fort reminded me of some of the Spanish forts we saw years ago when we watched the Horatio Hornblower series on TV. I also learned that, during WWII, America had lookouts on those forts, watching for German U-boats. What I didn’t learn was whether they ever saw any.

Weather

The weather the whole week was as close to perfect as you can get. The lows were in the 70s overnight, and the highs were in the 80s. It was humid, which made running difficult, but it was great for lounging by the pool. There was always a breeze coming off the ocean, so even when the sun was beating down, it was not too terrible. If I could have chosen one thing to change, it would have been to lower the UV index. We all were very diligent about sunscreen, but we all got at least a little sunburn along the way.

The Ocean

Even though we were right on the ocean, we didn’t spend a ton of time on the beach or in the ocean. For one, I don’t love swimming in the ocean. I would be very happy to leave that to the ocean creatures and just wade on the edge of the water. For another, there were red flags the entire week because of high rip tide currents. For a third, the pools were just so nice! We did, however walk along the beach one morning after our run, and play in the ocean for a while on our last day at the resort. I love being near the ocean, but not in it.

Family Photos

I arranged for a photographer to meet us at the hotel, and we did family photos. Of course, the first time it rained the whole trip was while we were taking them!

Overall Impressions

It was a good week. I would not come back here every year, because by the end of the week we’d pretty much done everything the resort had to offer that interested us. But I would definitely come back to Puerto Rico, and also San Juan. I’m sure there are all kinds of things in the city we didn’t get to experience. When you stay at a resort, you don’t get a feel for a place. I’d like to get that. It was a really nice stay, and I needed a good relaxing Spring Break.

The Trip Home

Unfortunately, the trip home was not wrinkle-free. Our return flight was scheduled to leave San Juan at 5 am, which meant a 2 am alarm, a 3 am departure from the resort, and arrival at the airport by 4 am. That all went ok. We arrived at our gate around 4:10, which is about perfect timing in my opinion. The girls were both crazy tired and tried to sleep both in the car and at the gate. When, by 4:30, the gate agents hadn’t come on the PA to tell us we’d begin boarding soon, I started to worry.

When we did get news, it was not good: their computers were down, and we couldn’t leave until they came back up. At some point they came back on to tell us the computer problem was affecting all of Southwest, and so not to worry about our connecting flights. That did not make me less worried. We eventually left San Juan over two and a half hours late. Since our layover in Baltimore was supposed to be less than an hour, I was not hopeful that we’d make our connection.

On the flight, I kept trying to check the status of our flight from Baltimore to Indy. At first, it kept showing that it was leaving on time, which seemed like it couldn’t possibly be true. Then it showed it leaving an hour late, which was still before we were going to even arrive in Baltimore. Then, right as we were about to touch down, the departure time changed to about that exact time, which made me think it had just left. We decided we would hurry to the departure gate to check on things, since the online stuff was clearly still unreliable.

Of course, the gate where we landed was in a different set of gates than the one we needed to get to. We arrived through C14, and the Indy flight was showing as B6. We fast-walked the whole way there. On the way, we passed a flight board, and Andy said our flight wasn’t even showing on it anymore. When we got to B6, the board showed that the gate was empty, but there was a Southwest employee standing at the gate. She saw us and asked where we were going. When we told her Indianapolis, she asked for our boarding passes. Yay! We were going home!

Of course, with the flight fully boarded, there were no seats together. We each sat separately and tried to get settled quickly so the flight could take off. But it didn’t. And then another family of four, with younger children than ours, got on. Fortunately, someone switched seats so the the mom and young-ish daughter could sit together. And we still waited. I think they were waiting for luggage from another flight, because the man next to me at the window (of course I had a middle seat) said he saw his luggage get on. Then we felt the cargo door close, and soon we heard from the pilot that we would be taking off soon. People were relieved, because for some reason the flight had boarded over an hour earlier, and everyone was tired of just sitting there.

The gate agent in Baltimore had told us not to expect our luggage to make it to Indy with us. When we got to Indy, though, we were more interested in food. The girls hadn’t eaten anything since the night before. I had a muffin and coffee in the San Juan airport, and Andy had at least eaten the snack they provide on the plane. But it was after 2 pm, and we hadn’t had time for a decent meal since dinner the night before. When we got outside the secured area of the airport, Ellie and I went to Chick-fil-A to order food, and Andy and Madeline went to the luggage carousel. When our food was ready, they came to join us at a table and said it didn’t look good for our luggage.

When I finished eating I went back to baggage claim to talk to the Southwest representative. Sure enough, our bags were not there. The rep told us they’d probably arrive at 2 am, and we chose to have them delivered to us the next day. On a positive side, we had a lot less to lug to the van.

When we arrived home, we all went to our bedrooms to nap. I slept for three hours. So did the girls. Arriving home exhausted is a sign of a good trip, right?

Ellie started hearing from her friends who were also flying home, and many of them were stuck in their connecting cities. That made me very grateful that we’d chosen a ridiculously early flight home. It’s always good to be in your own space, even when you just came from paradise!

Lots More Pictures