The weather here is in the dictionary under "hilarious"

I have recently learned to appreciate something I have never thought about before--working car windows. In Seth's car, none of the windows will move. Luckily, one of them is permanently down so we get a little airflow, but holy bujesus. Never again will I take this for granted.

We started this weekend right by heading down to the beach in Old San Juan. Rachel, Mark, Tuber and I all crammed into Seth's car and headed on the long journey into the city. About a half hour into the trip we were all so sweaty that we absolutely had to pull over for BK milkshakes :) However, a word to the wise--a blackout shake from BK is not a shake at all. It is in fact a "coke float". If you knew this, understand that I do not eat at fast food places very often, and I am a n00b.

Back in the car! This time, however, we weren't too hot. We were still wet though--we got caught in a torrential downpour. Remember that window that wouldn't go up? Yeah....lots of water. At one point, a car passed us and threw a wave of pavement water in through the window. At least we weren't roasting anymore!

Once at the beach, we set up shop in the shade of some beautiful palm trees and then took a dip in the ocean. The water was beautiful, as was the weather (finally). We swam in the clear blue water for a while, and then made our way to a rock outcrop a little ways away. Before we got there, Seth had warned us to be careful for sea urchins, which we hadn't really listened to. Luckily, we had listened to him enough to check these rocks. Holy crap. SO MANY URCHINS. There were some that were the size of a big basketball. And slippery rocks surrounding them? Double trouble! It took me 10 minutes to walk 15 feet. Upon reaching the end of the outcrop, I stepped onto the pointiest rocks I have ever set foot on. Even high tailing it couldn't get me out of there fast enough, as I couldn't move without stepping on slippery rocks, sea urchins or pointy sand rock. I finally made it out of there with only one bloody injury on my toe and no crunched sea urchins. Success...?

After braving the urchin rocks, I took a snooze on the sand and talked with Alejandro, Seth, Tuber and Mark (Rachel was off exploring the grassy area near there). While we were sitting, a group of locals grabbed Tuber's lunchbox to root through it. I didn't understand why, until Tuber got up to get it back and started asking where his iPhone was. Yeah. They took it. Tuber kept asking them to give it back, and they kept telling him that they didn't speak English. When Alejandro came over, they told him to get Tuber away as they were a group not to mess with. Then some cops came by, and the group threw the iPhone away so that the cops wouldn't find it when they were searched. Tuber went to check for it, but they threw it into the ocean. Good bye iPhone. Never to be found again. Luckily, Tuber is an unphasable guy. He took the whole thing really well, and we were able to continue with our day. He is such a trooper. I really admire people who are able to not let things like this get to them. Maybe he'll give me lessons :P

After that whole fiasco, we were off to Old San Juan for some touristy things. We started off by walking along the Paseo de La Princesa, which winds along the old wall of the city. It is such a pretty walk, especially around sunset. We also grabbed a couple of glasses of orange juice, because it was being sold along the way. I love this place; it sells juice on its walkways :) We then made our way to some other historical areas of the city, with Alejandro as our guide. There is a totem pole made from old pottery to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the founding of the island. Next we were off to the Fort San Felipe del Morro, one of two forts around the area. This one has a beautiful big lawn surrounding the enormous fort, which really looks like a historical piece of this area. We sat there for a while, watching people fly kites and chatting about previous groups that had done this tree survey. It was really nice to just be out in the city, enjoying ourselves away from the station for once.

We made our way to the other fort to just see it from the outside, as the sun had already gone down. I had seen this fort the last time I was in OSJ, and it was definitely a less grand fort than San Felipe. I have picked a favorite :) Then we went to a brewery for dinner, and ventured off to the police station to try and file a police report for Tuber. Didn't work. They offered to file some paperwork if they thought it would benefit him in getting a new phone, but he didn't think so. So, we ended up just heading home, getting home around midnight. All in all, a good day. Topped off by hilarious sun burns. All over our backs :P

And Sunday? Groceries. And sleeping. ...thats about it. Yup. Ohh, brownie nuggets for dessert! (South Africa road trip friends, you know what I'm talking about :P)

And I promise, pictures tomorrow! I have a couple more to take, and then I'll put some up.

I am also going to find a new emoticon....sometime...