Homeward Bound…

On way home! Yay! ✈️🇬🇧  Rex is happy too. 

@regenersaurus

IHOP…

So we had breakfast in the @IHOP Yay! Love an IHOP 🥳 

The “chef” laughed at my moustache good-naturedly as we arrived. 

Ordered. 

Then this arrived. 🥸😂

Puerto Rico: Day 10…

So the long journey home has started. Leave on Saturday. Home on Monday. 

Goodbye glitzy Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 Hello glitzy UK 🇬🇧 

First stop was the security queue at San Juan airport! 😀

The flight from Puerto Rico to Miami was smooth and quick. 👍

Domestic flight so no security or customs in Miami 👍

Quick free shuttle bus to hotel 👍

One night in Miami Springs with probably the worse meal of the trip (wrong food arrived, then cold, tough, horrible) 🤢😂

Up for brekkie at an IHOP. Our favourite 🥳

Then to Miami International for our BA flight back to Heathrow T5 🛫

Arsenal 3 - 0 Bournemouth…

It was odd watching an Arsenal home game from 4,200 miles away. But with a big telly, and the roar of the away fans it felt like I was there. 

The boys dominated possession. A Saka penalty, a beautiful assist by Rice for Trossard, then Rice himself sealed the day with the third in extra time. 

Two more games to go!

City might have games in hand but we have points on the board. 

Onward and upward my friends.   

@Arsenal   

#COYG 

#ARSBOU

Puerto Rico: Day 9…

Stuart and I had a lovely quiet day yesterday. Last day in PR. Relaxing by the pool in the sunshine… avoiding a torrential downpour… all usual weather for a tropical island! 

So we spent most of it eating, sipping cocktails, and finding a hidden restaurant behind a Coke Cola vending machine!

To airport heading back to Miami today. 

Ponce…

Ponce is a big town in Puerto Rico. 

However we had to explain what ponce meant in British slang:

- a pimp “that man is that’s woman’s ponce”; 

- insult/an effeminate man “that man acts like a ponce”; 

- to borrow with no intention of returning “can I ponce a fag off you?”;

- (poncy) posey or pretending to be posh “your shirt is a bit poncy”. 

Puerto Rico: Day 8…

Yesterday Stuart and I joined Andrew, Kevin, and Matty for a whistle stop tour of the whole of the island of Puerto Rico.   

12 hours. 300 miles. Countless stops. Great fun but exhausting!   

Old towns, beaches, churches, narrowest houses, plazas, mayors’s offices, piña coladas, cruise ships, lighthouses, pink salt flats, peninsulars, the Guajataca sugar train tunnel, castles, mountains, oil refineries, the highest statue in the western hemisphere, the Bacardi distillery, a magnetic beach, turtle eggs sites, black sand, a Puerto Rican lunch, some spectacular views of the coast line, surfers’ beaches, fountains, a mansion on a hill, and a bright red fire station. Phew!  

We started at Playita del Condado then took in San Juan, Dorado, Barceloneta, Arecibo, Cataño, Hatillo, Isabela, Rincon, Cabo Rojo, and of course Ponce.   We had to go to Ponce!

If you have time is limited in Puerto Rico this is the tour for you!

Puerto Rico: Day 7…

Yesterday was a fabulous day. A long day, mind you. An 11 hour trip. But great fun. It was a real adventure. 

We went deep down a sink hole. Walked a rainforest. Swam upstream to a waterfall. Fought off some creepy crawlies. And saw some ancient petroglyphs. All very Indiana Jones. 

Local hunk Jose Falcon was our guide for the day. He drove Stuart, I and small group of others around Puerto Rico in his van showing us the sights and sounds and taking us on a rather fabulous journey. 

We started at Parque Nacional de las Cavernas del Río Camuy. It was 400 metres down to a bat-filled cavern connecting two massive sink holes. We saw golden silk spiders, crickets (mating!), snails, bats, snakes, and lizards. It was pitch black in parts. Partly because my safety-helmet lamp packed in!

Back to the surface and after a rather marvellous Puerto Rican lunch we then trekked up the Rio Tanama. Well, I say trekked. It was mainly swimming. And stumbling. And scrambling. The recent rainfall had swollen the river. A river with a strong current strewn with rocks. 

The waterfall, when we got there, was impressive. Man-made back in 1923 when a hydroelectric power station was built. Long abandoned though. 

Stupidly, I cut my thumb rather badly on some underwater rocks. Nothing serious. But it will scar. 

After that we headed to Cueva del Indio to a pretty spectacular beach with crashing waves. The climb up the nearby cliffs offered amazing views of the famous seven sea arches. Further up still was the Indian’s Cave - a 8000 year old cave filled with petroglyphs. Pretty special. 

We drove back to San Juan utterly knackered but pleased we’d had had such an adventure. 

A good day.