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Can I begin by saying a huge THANK YOU to my lovely Carol for all the work she put into organising this wonderful surprise holiday. Words would fail to describe how fantastic these last two weeks have been. I’m sure that the photographs will speak for themselves.

I was unable to process on a day to day basis the images – so this post, and others to follow will have a surfeit of them. I’m not quite sure just how I’m going to tackle editing and choosing from thousands of images. Maybe they need to be done on an island to island basis. Here goes anyway.

Firstly, a small correction on the previous post. We actually were travelling for 56 hours due to delays, engine problems with US Airways, and lost a day in Puerto Rico Gran Melia Resort. Some say that getting to your destination is part of the holiday. It began to feel as if it was the whole of the holiday. However, once we got there it exceeded our wildest expectations. I suppose with the involvement of Donald Trump we should have guessed that it would have been pretty exceptional. It was. Even Mugabe would have been at home here.

The photographs speak for themselves.

The first shot is of Carol scrambling around the internet at Heathrow signing up for the new American ESTA number, which cost us £60, ans wasn’t asked for eventually. Argh!

From this point onward, with the exception of a cold Philadelphia, such layers of clothes were banished. We didn’t quite know what to expect, but the weather and the colours were way beyond anything we could have imagined (it was their Winter!). The sales pitch we had committed to was not high pressure, even though Juan, our salesman, was distinctly disappointed that we did not want to buy into his smooth sales pitch. If we win the lottery we might consider it.

http://www.gran-melia-puerto-rico.com/en/
OK some shots of the resort – a selection from many that I took. It was truly mind-blowing! Click on the photographs to enlarge them.

Part of the reception

Our room

A cool corridor

Entrance to a restaurant

This was our favourite “adult only” pool

One of the nice things about being in this area is the wildlife. The iguanas were all around the resort, much to the annoyance of the golfers on the two eighteen hole courses I imagine. (We were told that they taste like chicken. We didn’t particularly want to find out) Tropical birds, quite unafraid of humans, wandered into our room regularly. In particular, their blackbirds, smaller than ours, with piercing white ringed eyes, had the most beautiful range of calls.

One of the few shots of Carol & I (I cannot stand being photographed). There is a bit of a story behind this one. We were walking some distance from the main resort when we were approached by a beautiful young Polish woman called Evalinda. She wanted me to take her photograph at the waters edge. We got talking, and it transpired that she was at the resort with her father. Her husband, an American, had been run over and killed on December 27th by a motor cyclist, and her Dad had brought her to Gran Melia for some time away. We later met up with her and her father for a drink. Both lovely people. It rather put this ‘paradise’ into context.

Carol had upgraded our room, and this also entailed access to the ‘Royal Suite’, a lounge serving free drinks and internet access. I think that we had more than our fair share of champagne! I will admit to regular ‘slow’ mornings due to a dull head.

We ventured out of the resort on only two occasions, once to a restaurant, which turned out to be a disappointment as they were unhelpful when it came to accommodating Carol’s garlic allergy, and then into the rain forest, known as Yunque National Forest. What can I say about the rainforest? It was very green! I expected to see something Amazonian perhaps – lots of tropical flowers, monkeys, wet and misty, mosquitoes… It was having an off day. Few flowers evident, though we were assured that later in the year it was blooming; it was hot and sunny, no rain, and surprisingly quiet. The green monkeys were sleeping, even most of the mosquitoes had taken the day off. A few hardy little bastards left us with some nasty nibbles – to be expected. As I said, it was very green. The trees and the bamboos were impressive though. Leaves over six foot across, bamboos growing to over 70 feet. On the plus side, this is used by the United States as a research area for rain forest maintenance, and a great deal of important work goes on here. Tourism is carefully managed, with a very limited number of well defined routes through the forest, running of the road that crosses through it.

Anyway, a couple of shots of greenery.

I must add this one. Our bus driver must have had an arrangement with a local roadside bar – which I will admit sold excellent local food, cheaply (50% seems to be cooked which bananas in one way or another! Very tasty though). Needless to say, local drinks are quite inexpensive too. This is Carol sampling a Pina Colada – one of many. The Rum Punches very lethal also.

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Some say that ‘getting there’is part of the trip. Well, in our case, it seems to be most of the trip. We left Swansea in a freezing cold South-Westerly wind, so it was a relief to get away. Forty eight hours later we finally arrived at the airport in San Juan! The plan was to stay overnight in Heathrow at the Park Inn Hotel, which was functional, but not in any way inspiring. Our flight was due to take off on the following day at 12:05. The first hurdle came while trying to check in. America has decided to introduce a new system called ESTA, which involves completing personal details on-line before you fly. Fortunately we were early, very early, having got up at the crack of dawn, so we were one of the first to get to a computer in order to on complete the necesary work on-line. However, we were not informed until we hit the confirmation button that there was a cost of fifty pounds. Hey ho. Apparently if we had been advised about this new system (which only came into action on the morning we left) we could have found the site from home which allows you to do this for free.

OK, then came the good news that our plane, en route from Philadelphia, had been turned back to the States because of engine problems. Possibilities of missing our connection loomed large!

While waiting for the plane to arrive Carol decided to put on a nicotine patch. Normally a straight forward process, only a scissors or knife is not something that one has readily available at an airport…. OK, this is Britain, what do you do? Ask a Policeman of course! Approached two heavily armed coppers for a knife – reasonable prospect, yes? I didn’t get the response I expected. “We are not allowed to carry a knife!” Sub- machine guns yes, but no knife, Hmm? They sorted it eventually by walking about the Terminal until they found a member of staff with a scissors. Tops marks to the Met for being helpful.

The flight eventually takes off four and a half hours late, after a further worrying delay on the tarmac where the US Airways pilot was giving us too much information about the further engine problems they were encountering. Full marks to US Airways for frankness, even if it was rather alarming. Needless to say, our connection is missed at Philadelphia, and we were put up for the night at the Sheraton, hugely better than the hotel experience in London. With less than four hours sleep we were on the move again, with even further delays while the aircraft’s wings were de-iced!

Watch this space for more. I need a drink

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