Puerto Rico has better radio stations

As Drake notes we recently returned from our trip to Puerto Rico! It was a wonderful time as we explored San Juan, visited the Camuy Caves, trekked up the El Yunque rain forest, and made our way over to the island of Vieques where we drank fruity drinks and soaked up some rays for the remainder of the trip.
Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the U.S. but it is very much an entirely different culture. This was most apparent our first morning on Vieques. See, cockfighting is a popular sport in P.R. and every house in Vieques had a coop for their prize rooster. Most of us have experienced waking up to a rooster crowing but imagine waking up to hundreds of them competing for the alpha crow. It's absolutely frightening and after closing the window and putting earplugs in we determined the only way to sleep was to drown them out with the hum of the AC unit.
Another popular island animal is the horse. Horses run free on Vieques. The ones that end up domesticated serve as transportation for the locals. Imgaine the common teenage boy with baggy pants, gold chains, a wife beater on, and his cap tilted. Now imagine that same boy jumping bareback onto a horse, riding it with a group of friends to the local tavern, and tying it up as he goes inside for beer. Talk about low carbon emissions!
Oh, and did I mention that roadkill comes in the form of iguanas?
It was a wonderful trip and most importantly we had some quality time with our dear, northwestern friends Paul and Marilyn.

Puerto Rico Pics

Julia and I posted pictures from our adventure to Puerto Rico. As usual Julia's photo album is lushly high resolution and beautiful, while my pictures are a slushy distorted mess, taken with a children's camera.

The image on the left is one we hope to submit to the Denver Post - their travel section prints selected readers' vacation pictures if they are shown holding the Post's travel section. The native savage in the background is actually our friend Paul, who was apparently spear fishing for sand crabs.

The Emkos in Puerto Rico - Caliente!

This is a great week for our little family. Our old friends, the Huckanses, visited us in Denver and shared in a weekend of exhilarating snowboarding in Vail and Breckenridge. Then we all flew out to Puerto Rico for our long awaited vacation in the tropical sun (we went from ice and snow to blazing hot beach in a couple days - how often do you get to do that?).

Julia and I spent yesterday exploring Old San Juan, a beautiful peninsula that exudes Spanish-styled antiquity. Today we climbed through enormous natural caves in Camuy. Puerto Rico has some of the most lush, tropical vegetation, as well as some of the friendliest people I've encountered in a long time. We're trying to brush up on our Spanish, but luckily most of the people here seem to be bilingual. Tomorrow we plan to hike through the rain forest, and afterwards meet up with the Huckanses on the idylic resort island Vieques. So far, Puerto Rico is everything we could have hoped for. Hasta Luego!